primary schools | Schools Week

‘Setting targets does nothing good for pupils – it can even make things worse’

It’s time to ditch a culture of misused statistics and instead come up with a fairer system for measuring pupil performance – and that of those that teach them too In many schools, targets appear on marksheets without any input from the teacher who knows pupils. Instead they are derived solely from those pupils’ key […]

Primary assessments a mess? Unions should propose a radical alternative

The schools sector is up in arms about primary assessments – both baseline and the standardised tests. I deliberately use the word “sector”. Teachers, school leaders, parents, unions, assessment providers: everyone is furious. One way to deal with late information and daft processes is a boycott. Get teachers to refuse to carry out the tests. […]

Morgan’s primary assessment video misses the point

Education secretary Nicky Morgan has released a video to explain the government’s plans for primary assessments. Brian Lightman has watched it, and has some thoughts. I watched Nicky Morgan’s video about the new primary assessments with great interest. It was helpful to receive a clear explanation of the government’s rationale in implementing these tests. The message of this video […]

Key Stage 1 changes take writing back to the 19th Century

I attended a briefing by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) on February 5 for local authority leaders of statutory moderation of writing (key stages 1 and 2). This briefing revealed to us for the first time some of the specific requirements of the writing that, in a few months’ time, we will be examining […]

‘Schools Week hasn’t done the maths on commas’

It isn’t unreasonable to expect an 11-year-old to use a comma as a thousands separator – this is a policy that has been made clear since the sample tests were published in July 2015 I am under no illusion that year 6 teachers have an extra challenge this year preparing for the new Key Stage […]

Primary assessment: the good, the bad and the ugly

The changes to primary assessment and accountability have been under review for the best part of five years, and even now there are many unanswered questions Many of the questions surrounding the new primary assessment are impossible to answer until the first round of statutory tests next May. Others will hopefully emerge in the coming […]

Ofsted’s Michael Wilshaw praised primaries – but missed some important points

Ofsted’s Chief Inspector had positive words for primary schools in his first monthly address – but was it as genuine as it seemed? It’s difficult to judge whether Sir Michael Wilshaw’s first written monthly commentary is in praise of primary schools, as he claims, or really an attack on secondary schools. Those of us in […]

Baseline assessments are an impossible idea

From next year, an approved reception baseline assessment will be the only accepted way of measuring how well a primary school’s pupils have progressed to Year 6. Thousands of heads, however, are declining to participate Over the years I have learned, on arrival at a wedding reception, to reconnoitre the best escape route (“My dear, […]

Why I moved from secondary to primary and love it

Six years in a challenging secondary school were fulfilling, but this Teach First ambassador wanted to make the greatest possible impact on children’s lives. And so she switched to the primary sector My road to Damascus was a graffiti-clad street in Berlin, which is where I escaped to after almost six years of slogging it […]