Are you thinking of taking your children out of SATs?
We are working with our partner More Than a Score to support you along the way with resources, ideas and opportunities to meet others in the same boat.
Let us know what you think by filling in this short form.
We support the only school in the UK saying no to SATS
Watch this brilliant film from one of our partners, More than a Score, about how headteacher, governors and parents of Little London School in Leeds decided not to put their year 6 children through SATS.
Sir Ken Robinson talks about testing of children in the early years
Listen to this short clip of Ken Robinson talking about testing in school today. He as a book out called You, Your Child, and School – well worth a look.
Challenging the accountability system: Schools of Tomorrow
Rescue Our Schools’ co-founder Madeleine Holt was invited to attend the conference of a pioneering group – Schools of Tomorrow. The collection of schools in the West Midlands, Peterborough, Bedford and Bristol are working at coming up with an alternative assessment framework. Their key aims are to attain the highest levels of achievement and well-being alongside preparing children for the future and engaging with families and the community.
Schools of Tomorrow believe in involving children and young people in decision-making within their schools. They value peer review, student-led research and allowing students, staff and parents to review their schools’ development.
Key note speakers at the conference at Birmingham University were Steve Munby, formerly Chief Executive of the National College for School Leadership, and Leora Cruddas, CEO of Freedom and Autonomy for Schools.
Munby talked about how no other country in the world has such a high stakes accountability system as England, putting headteachers under unique pressure to deliver results or face the sack. Cruddas pondered why England had no ethical framework for heads and teachers – in contrast to the rigorous requirements of doctors and lawyers.
Schools of Tomorrow is part of the nascent Big Education Conversation, which has sprung up since the publication of Education Forward. Madeleine Holt contributed a chapter in Education Forward on the need to find alternatives to standardised tests in primary education, currently damaging children’s education and well-being.
Did you know the government are trying to reintroduce testing for 4 year olds?
Rescue Our Schools was proud to speak at the launch of More than a Score’s Baseline dossier – an indictment of the government’s plans to test all four-year-olds in maths and literacy. Tracy Brabin, shadow early years minister, hosted the event at Westminster.
Joining Tracy on the panel were Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, Nancy Stewart, Vice Chair of TACTYC early years organisation, Elaine Bennett, Co-Founder of Keep Early Years Unique, and our own Madeleine Holt, co-founder of Rescue Our Schools.
Madeleine introduced her ten minute film on baseline testing – a failed policy from both 1997 and 2015. If the government gets its way, four-year-olds will face a 20 minute test within their first six weeks of school. The unreliable results will be used to predict how children will do in SATS in Year 6. England will become the first country in the world to put such young children through a high stakes test. Trials could start later this year.
Please support More than a Score’s campaign to stop baseline testing.
Please share the film and sign up to More than a Score.
Government is writing policy on this right now. Mental health affects a growing number of young people in education from reception to university. If you want your opinion to count then we will present your comments, anonymously, in our response to the government paper: Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision.
You can read our short statement about the paper here and, if you want to hear from experts who have voiced their opinions about the paper then read this summary of the Mental Health Question Time event from last week.
There is a deadline to reply to the paper so please contact us, via email or comment on social media and we will collate your comments.
RoS at Headteachers’ Roundtable
Rescue our Schools was at the Headteachers’ Roundtable conference yesterday, to learn from headteacher Caroline Barlow about how the Worthless campaign got school funding up there as a political issue.
Listen to this ! Excellent podcast clip of Madeleine Holt talking about education
Just in case you missed it, here is a clip of Madeleine Holt speaking to Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd last monday.
Join RoS’ Madeleine Holt at a day celebrating creativity in education
IT'S NOT THE #BRITs2018
ITS CREATIVE KING'S CROSS#ARTCONNECTS : Festival for Creative Schools, Work, Lives #CREATIVITYFIRST
In the HEART OF CAMDEN'S COMMUNITY
Sat 24 Feb
FREE TICKETS: https://t.co/rHks21c0FY @LoveCamden @tes @ssat @KQ_London @Havas_UK @Keir_Starmer pic.twitter.com/L8egUsOcgu
— We are STEAM Co. (@ST3AMCo) February 22, 2018
