SATs results put too much pressure on primary schools says ASCL

The House of Commons Education Committee has today (Monday 1 May 2017) published a report on primary assessment.

Julie McCulloch, Primary Specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “This report reinforces what school leaders have been saying for some time. It is clear that too much pressure is being placed on primary schools by the over-reliance on SATs results of 11-year-olds as the be-all and end-all of judging school performance.

“The current system forces schools to put a huge focus on these tests and does not reflect the much wider curriculum they teach throughout the primary years. We share the select committee’s concerns about the impact on teacher and pupil wellbeing of such a high-stakes system.

“We need to find ways to lower the stakes. We, therefore, strongly support the select committee’s call to scrap the publication of results from a single year group, and instead base them on a rolling three-year average. It recognises that small cohort sizes in many primary schools mean a single year’s results may not be representative of its overall performance.

“We also need to find ways in which we can recognise and reward schools for the achievement of their pupils throughout their primary education – without resorting to yet more tests. Along with parents and teachers, we have long expressed concern about the pressure that too much testing places on young children.

“We agree with the select committee that Ofsted should ensure it looks at the whole curriculum in primary schools and guards against putting too great a focus on SATs results for 11-year-olds. ASCL is also initiating a project to look at other ways in which the broad and rich curriculum taught in primaries might be better recognised, and we will report later this year.”

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