Reintroducing SATS for KS3 / removing cap on teaching hours

Can’t believe more SATS, utter waste of time. When will they trust teachers to keep an eye on students progress?

I know I should look it up but what experience of teaching or schools etc does this person have ?

Oh, and pushing forward with more academisation. I've come out of 2 academies. Both were lovely schools before and now have expelled large numbers of the most vulnerable children and squeezed out the older, experienced, expensive staff.

schoolsweek.co.uk/nadhim-zahawi-11-facts-about-the-new-education-secretary/

Here is what we know about him…

1. Born in 1967, Nadhim Zahawi is 54 years old, five years older than the average starting age of education secretaries, 49. But he’s far from the oldest person to take the job – Keith Joseph was 63.

2. Zahawi is the first non-white education secretary in history.

3. He was born in Iraq, but his family fled Saddam Hussein’s regime, and Zahawi came to the UK when he was nine. He grew up in Sussex. However, he is not the first education secretary to have been born outside the UK – that was Rab Butler.

4. Zahawi was educated initially at the comprehensive Holland Park school before moving to the private Ibstock Place and King’s College schools in London. The vast majority of past education secretaries were also privately educated.

5. An often touchy subject, but as the role involves children so directly it will be mentioned at times: Nadhim Zahawi has three children. The average for other education secretaries is 1.76. The most common number of children is zero.

6. Zahawi studied chemical engineering at University College London, the first education secretary to study that particular subject, though Margaret Thatcher’s degree was in chemistry.

7. He was an aide to Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer in the early 1990s. He co-founded the polling company YouGov in 2000.

8. According to the Guardian, Zahawi spent much of his parliamentary career working as chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone Petrolium, which paid him up to £30,000 a month for his work. The paper also reported in 2017 that Zahawi had spent more than £25 million on property.

9. Zahawi has some experience in the education sphere. He was an apprenticeships adviser to Downing Street during the Coalition years, and later served as children’s minister.

10. According to website theyworkforyou, Zahawi has “consistently” voted for greater autonomy for schools and in support of the academies programme.

11. His predecessor, Gavin Williamson, was in role for 785 days. The average is 840. If Zahawi stays in office for the average number of days he will leave on January 3 2024.

12. Zahawi revealed to our sister paper FE Week in 2016 that along with his wife Lana, he is keen horse rider. He owns a stables at his Warwickshire home.

Where were his children educated?

Sigh.

I am vice chair of governors at local primary school. It is successful and much loved by the local community. It is turning children away as it is so popular.

Great - so let's tinker with it.........

- ask it to become an academy - which would gain nothing

- force it into a MAT (multi-academy trust) - which would add to HT's burden having to liaise with even more people.

- ask the teachers to work even more hours - they are already working their tripe out.

It ain't broke - just bugger off and leave it be!

More SATs - this fills me with horror. Schools are already obligated to fill in reams of forms that monitor the children's progress - why place that burden on the pupils when the information is already there? They set targets, detail the means by which they can be achieved, monitor progress - this is for EVERY child.

Politicians should stay out of education - they should ensure proper funding, then hop off over the horizon to leave the professionals to get on with it.

What is it about Education ministers? I think they are all out to get their name on something like Kenneth Baker and Baker Days. Doesn't matter what it is.
More SATS! and more power to Ofsted! just what is needed after such a disruptive 18 months.
As for teachers working more hours is he able to introduce an 8 day week? Because that's the only way it will work.

The change to teachers hours has been said as a way to get children to 'catch up' by the government. By inflicting more hours on both staff and pupils, apparently that'll sort out the issues from the piecemeal education offered last year. It completely ignores the difficult job schools were in, online teaching, face to face teaching of some, the problems of access for children etc. The unions will not be happy with that part.

Oh dear. All new Education Secretaries seem to want to make their name somehow. More SATS will mean more damage to children and no gains for children, and in two more years they’ll be doing their GCSEs anyway, and they’re the exams that matter. Longer hours for teachers will mean fewer teachers. They’ll vote with their feet and leave the profession.

The current Year 9 children are now, finally, getting back to a settled school routine after more than 18 months of distance learning, and intermittent school closures. Now to foist on them the prospect of Y9 SATs, amounts to cruelty. My Y9 grandson will be horrified. Having chosen his GCSE options, he has become less afraid of school than he was earlier in the secondary phase, and is enjoying his chosen classes. If someone mentions SATs, his structure might begin to crumble.

I was working in school when KS3 SATs were abolished. What a relief. They had no purpose and were just another chore for teachers.

I am not anti testing/exams, but I am anti pointless exams.

A decent teacher is well aware of the abilities or struggles of the students in their class. Life is challenging enough for teachers without these pointless tests being re-introduced. A box ticking exercise for Boris and Co. Pointless tests from a pointless Government.

A decent teacher doesn't need SATS results to tell them about their students abilities or difficulties. Life in the classroom is challenging enough without these tests being re-introduced. A box ticking exercise from Boris & Co. Pointless tests from a pointless Government.

As I see it the combination of the National Curriculum and constant testing, including practice paper after practice paper, reduces the breadth of education that state school pupils receive. I would have thought KS3 was an ideal time to nurture young developing minds without teaching towards a pointless examination.
Do KS 3 SATS actually prepare the children for GCSEs?
Hopefully it won't happen.

The International Baccalaureate, widely regarded as the gold standard of education (which is debatable) has no formal assessment in the Middle Years Programme. Teachers do their own tests and use the overall grading rubrics.

Sarnia

A decent teacher doesn't need SATS results to tell them about their students abilities or difficulties. Life in the classroom is challenging enough without these tests being re-introduced. A box ticking exercise from Boris & Co. Pointless tests from a pointless Government.

Hear hear. Absolutely agree

Josianne

As I see it the combination of the National Curriculum and constant testing, including practice paper after practice paper, reduces the breadth of education that state school pupils receive. I would have thought KS3 was an ideal time to nurture young developing minds without teaching towards a pointless examination.
Do KS 3 SATS actually prepare the children for GCSEs?
Hopefully it won't happen.

Also agree with this. Thought we should be getting away from the sausage machine approach to education.
For goodness sake give teachers a bit more credit that they know what they’re doing plus a bit of space to expand and vary what they teach

As a colleague often said “we weigh the pig so often we’ve forgotten to feed it”

Lucca

As a colleague often said “we weigh the pig so often we’ve forgotten to feed it”

Or we teach monkeys to do tricks pass tests

Any one else remember B-days, called that because we knew what they were, but were not sure how they should be used. !

Westendgirl do you mean Baker days? I remember sitting in a school governor meeting and listening to what they should be used for. It seemed that it was better value to pay someone to come in and deliver INSET to a whole school or maybe two schools sharing, than for one person to go on training and then have to deliver that full day’s training to other staff in an after-school staff meeting. Things have moved on.