Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, comments on the results of surveys commissioned by campaign group More Than A Score about views of SATs.
“This research provides yet more evidence that we need a broader measure of school performance than SATs. The current system puts too much weight on a set of tests in English and maths taken at the end of primary school. Literacy and numeracy attainment are obviously of huge importance, but there is so much more to schools than a narrow set of data – such as encouraging a love of learning and independent thinking, as school leaders say in this research. We are not calling for SATs to be scrapped but merely for reform which places them in the context of a broader set of information that gives parents a fuller picture of what a school offers and more importance to other parts of the rich curriculum of primary schools. Teachers and leaders are working very hard to provide children with a broad curriculum and prepare them for secondary education, but this is not reflected in the way that schools are currently measured.”