Vocal Voices

... if Labour gets in.

It is a popular policy with teachers and Head teachers, and I also suspect with parents and pupils.

With secondary education now largely in the Comprehensive system there is no real need for any 11 plus type exams. However, monitoring and assessment at primary level are going to have to be to the very highest of standards and also at the same level in all schools and with all teachers. That could prove tricky for Ofsted to police.

It could also prove problematic for secondary education with regards to setting or streaming of their new intakes. We could be going forward to the past, as with secondary moderns. The range of abilities of those who did not pas the 11 plus meant we sat weeks of "informal" testing in every subject so that we were placed at the right level - set / stream.

It might be worth a look so long as it does not lead to more wholesale changes in education. There have been far too many of those down the years.

It would be a popular idea and a good one, I think.
The trouble with the 11 year olds SATS is that some primary schools have been less than honest with them in the past, and the secondary school has been left expecting a certain level of ability in the new pupils coming to their school, only to find out that it isn't the case. At least they would be able to put their own systems in place to start from a clean slate.

SATS were always a terrible idea, and I know my sister-in-law thought as much when she was a Primary teacher.

I did my PGCE / QTS (secondary ed) a few years after KS3 SATs were introduced and the teacher assesment statements were so bland as to be almost meaningless.

Jessica is "Working towards ...", Johnny "Has achieved ...".

Also the expected attainment levels of 'five' or 'six' were way below those of the old 11 plus, and these were for pupils in the "third year" - Yr 9 as it now is.

Many of us suspected that they were a waste of time and would not last. We were proved right.

When I was at primary school in the 1940's we had exams at the end of every term. Have still got some of the forms showing the result in each subject. In addition to the three R's, there was history. RE and other subjects.
I passed the eleven plus and went to the local grammar school. I took the old School Cerificate. You had to pass in English Language and five other subjects to get one.
It was a good system and should never have been changed as it has lowered standards.