Essex expert calls for changes to SATs: "There are better, more intelligent, more efficient ways"
Results for the KS2 exams were released yesterday
An educational expert and former teacher who's based in Brentwood has called for SATs to be rethought to put less pressure on pupils and teachers.
This comes after key stage two SATs results, released yesterday, showed a drop in scores in maths, writing, grammar, punctuation and spelling compared to 2019 - only reading scores didn't fall.
Gráinne Hallahan is a Senior analyst for the Times Educational Supplement: "There's no need to make children sit down in an exam hall for hours and hours by a pen and paper, filling out reams and reams of exam papers.
"There are better, more intelligent, more efficient ways of judging how able a child is and what they're capable of, as well as how effective the teaching has been, which is the whole point of these assessments.
"I think that's what we'll be looking at next in the future."
Gráinne says she doesn't have an issue with testing children, but believes SATs aren't the best way to do so: "I don't think tests in and of themselves are a bad thing.
"It's all to do with test design, how you execute them with your children and what the attitudes of the adults around the children are - if you're negative about tests, a child will pick up on your negativity.
"Lots of people say that tests are actually a really fun thing to do, and that they provide a chance to show the examiner everything you know, so they shouldn't be these stressful things.
"There needs to be less pressure on schools and we should scrap the league tables attached to these tests. Performance related pay should also be removed so the SATs are just a measurement of what a child's ability is, rather than a high stakes exam that people get stressed about."
On Tuesday, the 2022 Key Stage 2 SATs results, which assess Year 6 pupils' attainment in literacy and maths, showed that 59% achieved expected standards, down from 65% in 2019.
Scores were lower in all areas apart from reading.
In total, 71% of pupils met the expected standard in maths, down from 79% in 2019, while 69% met the expected standard in writing, down from 78%.
And 72% met the expected standard in grammar, down from 78% in 2019, while 79% met the expected standard in science, down from 83%.
The score for reading rose by one percentage point to 74%.
Gráinne says these results aren't a surprise: "We're attributing these different results to the fact that these children haven't had a normal time at school since year three, at the start of junior school.
"That's had a huge impact, as they've not been in the classroom and haven't been with their classroom teacher, which will naturally have had an effect on their results."
She's not concerned though, and says the results will help teachers plug gaps of missing knowledge: "These results don't mean that these children can't read, write or add up.
"These are children that have got gaps in their learning which will be addressed by their teachers, and eventually we can expect that they will catch up... the more time they're back in the classroom, with their teachers, the smaller that gap becomes."
The Government has previously announced an aim for 90% of pupils to meet expected standards in reading, writing and maths on leaving primary school by 2030, as part of its levelling-up agenda.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the 2022 results show how difficult this will be to achieve without further Government investment.
Congratulating schools on their achievements, he said: "It is hardly surprising the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths is lower than it was before the pandemic.
"It illustrates the very difficult circumstances affecting schools and pupils over the past two years, and it is to their immense credit that, within this overall statistic, reading attainment has actually increased despite the disruption of Covid."
He said the lower performance in maths and writing is likely to reflect how important direct classroom teaching was in these subjects, which was disrupted by the pandemic:
"These statistics also show how far we will need to go to achieve the Government's target of 90% of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030," Mr Barton said.
"It is clear that this will require substantial investment in schools and the teaching workforce to enable them to deliver specialised support to the children who need extra help. However, the Government's plans contain no additional resources so it is hard to see how this can possibly be achieved."