Monday, June 01, 2009

SATS

Those of you with children about to go into year 9 this September would be well advised to ask your school exactly what they are planning on teach in English, Maths and Science now that the SATS tests for their age group have been abolished.

If the recent emails I've been receiving are anything to go by; they are about to be replaced with a year of utter nonsense focusing on such gems as 'model making' 'creative thinking' and 'pupil driven unstructured work' That will certainly help us compete on a global stage, then.

There are two problems here:

1) The kids waste a year before the GCSE syllabus starts in Year 10.

2) The Government will conclude that teachers and schools can't be trusted to educate children unless they are told exactly what to teach and when to do it.

6 comments:

Fran Hill said...

'Pupil-driven unstructured work'? Now, THAT sounds like a GREAT idea. I look forward to seeing the behaviour in schools SOAR in quality.

Lilyofthefield said...

Our "results" bombed this year since we didn't spend January through May revisiting the previous two and a half years' work and actually taught the kids something new. They started revising KS3 after Easter, and very little effort was wasted on kids who couldn't be arsed, whereas last year, they were cossetted, kowtowed to, bribed and cajoled to achieve as close to a 5 as they could manage.

We did a module on Forensics instead of SATs revision (Science) that was well-received by the kids, largely practical, and informally assessed.

North Northwester said...

'model making' 'creative thinking' and 'pupil driven unstructured work' I had that at infant school in the early 1960's. Starting to read thanks to my teachers when I went in at four, and functionally illiterate by the time I left for the summer holidays before junior school.

Treating infants as being capable of setting their own study plans and carrying them through as if they were undergraduates was loopy as hell, and this was only 1965. LSD wouldn't be readily available for nearly ten years yet.

Mind you, it seems that modern undergraduates have now been made in my (infant) image.

http://thylacosmilus.blogspot.com/2009/06/put-these-people-in-charge-of-treasury.html

North Northwester said...

Sorry - that should have read "Starting to read thanks to my teacher parents when I went in at four, " - makes a bit more sense, I think.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA!!! sk the school what they're planning...I did just that when I enroled my daughter (she's extremely talented nd gifted in one subject , to the degre that she's doing her A level aged 14 , predicted A* result) and the school promised me faithfully that they'd do everything to support her.
They did NOTHING. Nothing at all. Two hours with a teacher was what she got, not one second more. Two hours during a whole school year, that was their full support.
Schools will say anything and promise anything to get a "desirable" child into their classrooms. Then ignore this child and continue supporting those with "issues".
I shall never believe another word they say, I have heard too many lies from them. Not only in this situation but in other scenarios, too.

Mr M said...

Any head of faculty that isn't moving to a two year key stage three is a twat.