Heads threaten exams boycott

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

 

Schools could refuse to administer an exam in spelling, punctuation and grammar for 11-year-olds in England because it risks narrowing the curriculum and promoting a culture of “teaching to the test”.

 

The National Association of Head Teachers said the assessment – to be introduced for 600,000 pupils in 2013 – would represent a significant waste of money.

 

Activists are also proposing to block a controversial new reading test for all six-year-olds, which is being staged for the first time this summer, if ministers attempt to use the data to rank schools.

 

The disclosure is the latest twist in an on-going row between the Government and teaching unions over the assessment of primary school pupils.

 

Just days after the last General Election, the NAHT and the National Union of Teachers boycotted SATs tests in reading, writing and maths after warning that the tests damage children’s education.

 

 

In response, the Government launched a major review of the examinations system in England. It recommended a series of changes, including three-year “rolling average” results for schools to stop small primaries being penalised by sudden dips in grades and giving children at least a week to sit tests if they are ill on exam day.

 

Ministers also proposed scraping the current writing test and replacing it with a tough new literacy exam – testing pupils’ competence in spelling, punctuation and grammar.

 

But the NAHT claim that the test will undermine the Key Stage 2 curriculum for seven- to 11-year-olds.

 

At its annual conference in Harrogate, the union passed a motion instructing its ruling executive to “explore available means to ensure this flawed test does not take place”.

 

Tony Draper, a head from Milton Keynes and executive member, said the exam would “cost millions of pounds to produce”.

 

“If we accept this, we have exchanged one set of externally marked tests for another,” he said. “It will lead to further narrowing of the Key Stage 2 curriculum, teaching to the test and increased misery for our Year 6 students and their families, already sick of a diet of practice SATs and drills.”

 

He told delegates that the results would lead to “another tier of data contributing to league tables” and Ofsted judgments, resulting in “vulnerable colleagues being mercilessly hounded out of their jobs”.

 

“This is not acceptable,” he said. “We did not boycott SATs to exchange one set of tests for another. The Government has repeatedly displayed its contempt for our profession; it is time to draw a line in the sand and say ‘enough’.”

 

Separately, the Government is introducing a new reading check for all six-year-olds after just 12 months of compulsory education. Pupils will be expected to decode 40 words – including made-up terms – to gauge their ability to use phonics, the back-to-basics method of reading.

 

Under plans, the results will be used internally by schools and reported to parents, but not contribute towards league tables.

 

The NAHT said it would keep a watching brief on the test this year and would block it if ministers attempt to use the data to punish schools.

 

Russell Hobby, the union’s general secretary, said: "We fear that the pass rate for the new phonics screening check will be set at an arbitrary high level in order to fuel headlines about children failing to learn to read.

 

"We don't see the need for this screening check - it is inferior to what most schools do already - but if it is to happen it should be used as a genuine diagnostic test, not a stick to beat schools with. And if it is used to attack rather than assess, that will be the end of the screening check as far as the NAHT is concerned.”

 

The National Union of Teachers has already threatened to boycott the test. 

Mr Hobby said the NAHT would “happily work with our colleagues in other unions…to frustrate its further application".

 

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said: "Too little attention has been given to spelling and handwriting in exams over the past decade."

 

She added: "The phonics check will help teachers identify thousands of pupils who need extra help to become good readers." Telegraph