Calls to scrap SATs tests across Yorkshire Coast next year
There are concerns SATs tests are causing stress for pupils and families across the Yorkshire Coast.
There are calls to scrap SATs across the Yorkshire Coast next year.
GCSE and A-Level students will be given more generous grades because of disruption caused by coronavirus.
But the 'More Than A Score' campaign group argues no such support has been offered to 10 and 11-year-olds.
Over a thousand people, the majority of whom are headteachers, will hear from students and union leaders at an online rally tonight.
Anne Swift, a former primary headteacher in Scarborough, said:
"We don't believe that the SATs are necessary. Teachers have to assess their pupils all the time to know what to teach them next; so they're doing that continuous assessment based on what they know about the children and where they are in their learning. So they don't need a test to tell them what the children know and what they can do.
"All that creativity in Maths and English is lost to a large extent, as children are in 'exam factories' as we'd call them, where all the teaching is geared up to passing a test.
"The children should have a rich and varied curriculum so they can find out what interests them, what motivates them, what they're good at and there's lots of different ways of assessing children's skills, knowledge and understanding; and a pencil and paper test is not the way to do that.
Anne says even the CBI and other business organisations claim there are other ways to build upon skills and knowledge.
She added:
"They don't want youngsters who can just pass tests; they want people who show creativity, initiative, can work together in teams, not afraid to take a risk and to look for answers to problems in creative ways. The SATs don't do any of that."