NO MORE SATS |
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The N.U.T. conference this year
voted unanimously to ballot on a boycott of SATs at all key stages. Sadly
children will be taking SATs this year, 2003 but we are determined these will
be the last SATs tests ever. School struggle to be at the top of the league
tables and so they reject children who will not achieve. This means children
with special needs and for whom English is a second language are seen as a
problem. Teachers have always assessed children and can easily tell parents and
heads what their pupils can achieve. Our reasons for the boycott are listed
below. This is a campaign that is supported by well-known authors, parent
groups, highly regarded academics, teacher unions and politicians. Please join
our campaign, get people to sign the petition write to your MP, your
councillors and the newspapers. Tell your head and your school governors and
let's make sure that these damaging tests will no longer harm the health and
education of our children.
Why we want to boycott the
tests
- Children suffer - tests
cause signs of mental illness
- Testing narrows the
curriculum - no time for creativity
- Causes poor behaviour due
to frustration and anxiety
- Labels children as
failures at age 7, 11 and 14
- No longer any joy in
learning - just teaching to the test
- Money for SATs materials
could be spent on real books
- Money for booster classes
could be spent on sport, art, drama etc
- Tests are only used to
label school and teachers in league tables
- Teachers can assess
children without SATs
- Causes teacher stress -
no wonder a third due to leave teaching · School becomes
boring
- If SATs were any good
private schools would use them - they don't
- Wales and Scotland do not
have SATs - education has not suffered
- SATs do not improve
standards they only measure limited ones
- Teachers hate them,
parents hate them, children hate them
- They do not help schools
to be inclusive
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Results of Survey
conducted by Liberal Democrats (PDF Format) |
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New pamphlet!
Available from us or from Anti-SATS alliance
- £1. |
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NUT Conference Resolution
Passed Unanimously |
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Testing and League Tables
MOTION 29
Conference welcomes the
Union's prominent role in arguing for the importance of creativity in
education. Conference recognises the dangers of the current, narrow test driven
model of education. Conference notes the following:
- 1. that there is rapidly
diminishing public confidence in the Government's standards agenda and in the
whole notion that schools should be made accountable largely through the
publication of test data;
- 2. that English school
children are among the most tested in the world, and that some children may
face up to 105 statutory test papers between the ages of 5 and
16;
- 3 the proliferation of
"mini SATs" throughout Key Stage 2 and of "optional" tests in Years 7 and
8;
- 4. that league tables have
been abolished in Wales and Northern Ireland;
- 5. that testing at Key
Stage 1 has been abolished in Wales;
- 6. that organisations
such as Childline report increased calls from children under 11 about exam
stress;
- 7. that the reported
incidence of malpractice in connection with tests and Key Stage 2 and 3 is on
the increase, as schools attempt to boost success rates, and maintain their
place in league tables;
- 8. the increasing body of
evidence which is calling into question the educational value of these tests,
and the proportion of time children spend preparing for them, rather than on
work of more educational value.
Conference therefore affirms
its opposition to national tests at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 as educationally
harmful to our children, and agrees to launch a campaign for an immediate end
to statutory national testing at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
Conference therefore
instructs the Executive to:
- a. continue to argue for a
more inclusive, creative and child centred notion of what education should be;
- b. launch a national
campaign of opposition to the tests and league tables, such a campaign to
include teachers, parents, students and other organisations who declare their
opposition to national tests;
- c. Conference notes the
overwhelming opposition to national tests demonstrated by the Union's survey of
members, and the strong support for a boycott at all Key
Stages.
It therefore instructs the
Executive to ballot members for a boycott of tests at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
The boycott should be as soon as is practicable, and no later than the 2004
tests.
Conference instructs the
Executive to approach the other teacher organisations to ask them to join with
the NUT in such a boycott. |
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