THE Head Teacher of a local primary school has written a letter of complaint regarding this year’s SATs test that children in Key Stage One and Two are required to take.

Lesley Hodgson, head teacher at Bow Primary School, says the effects of these tests go a long way to undermining everything that teachers, parents and the whole school community do, to build up self-esteem, creativity and independence in young people.

She has sent the letter to MPs Mel Stride and Ben Bradshaw and to all parents as well as heads of other local schools.

She has circulated the letter publicly to enable people to see the nature and strength of the school’s discontent.

The letter reads: I am a Headteacher in a small school in Mid-Devon, we have 118 pupils on role. Over the last few weeks our wonderful pupils have been badly affected as a result of sitting the Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs).

The nature of these examinations is stressful and beyond what a large number of pupils can be reasonably expected to achieve, given their ages and the current curriculum content exposure.

Parents of year six pupils have told me of how the SATs were affecting their children. For example, one child had been unable to sleep on the week prior to the tests and was up and down each night for a week, another was worrying so much that a medical condition was radically exacerbated, leaving the pupil with a great deal of discomfort.

My year two teacher and a number of the year two pupils have been greatly distressed by the process. The statutory guidance demands that we sit six and seven year-olds apart so that they cannot see each others work, in silence, with walls covered up and without equipment. During a maths test, one seven year old asked for some multi-link to help her work out the sum (she is still at the developmental phase of using concrete equipment, as she has not yet made the transition to abstract concepts) and had to be told by the class teacher that she could not have any. Another child wanted some help with the reading of the question in full, and was told that we couldn’t help him.

This has been repeated during the week and has resulted in a number of our young pupils becoming quite upset.

The pressure that all our children have been under for these difficult tests is one that is not conducive to developing children who are self-confident, independent and able to turn their creativity to some use.

Neither does it help teachers or pupils attain high standards when their emotional well-being is compromised. Instead we increasingly see children who are tearful, uninspired, and lack self confidence.

This goes against everything that we try to embody in our school ethos; one of support, collaboration and developing self confidence which leads to independence, innovation and creativity in our children.

These issues have been discussed with the school’s Board of Governors, and they are fully supportive of this letter. We appeal to you to use your influence as a Member of Parliament to:

1 Review SATs testing and the whole primary assessment system.

Teachers should be trusted to assess children using teacher assessment systems. It would be more appropriate to invest time in teaching, including teacher assessment, not testing.

Teacher assessment can be quality assured through external moderation and Ofsted. You can use this for accountability purposes.

2 Resist the introduction of any more tests.

The times tables test at the end of Key Stage two will add yet more stress to 10 and 11 year-olds, who are already assessed on their arithmetic skills.

3 Review the curriculum content, especially for literacy and maths, to determine age appropriate content and above all - relevance.

Mrs Lesley Hodgson

Headteacher

Bow Primary School