Kids on strike

I would much prefer to see children being taught not to say "Was you" and "Would of" and "May have" instead of "Might have" and the correct use of the apostrophe. It would be nice if they could be "fazed" by things instead of "phased" Things like this would help them express themselves in writing far more than learning obscure grammatical terms.

I am amazed by the technical terms needed to be learned at such a young age. At 6/7 children need to enjoy reading and writing for their own sakes. Do they need to analyse language so finely?

I remember doing something called box analysis at 10/11 which I used to enjoy, backed up by First Aid in English.

But a 7 year old needs to buzz with the excitement of reading by themselves......if they are able to.They also need to have a lot of stories read to them to enjoy language.

Let's not forget that in countries such as Norway they don't go to school until 7.

I wouldn't have taken my children out of school as it sends a poor message. A little boy on Victoria Derbyshire was very disturbed this morning. I am sure he would have been happier at school.

Sorry too many 'that's!'

Yes I agree let children be children!
At a young age they all have different learning capabilities.
My GS will be starting school at just 4yrs old (a summer baby) whereas his younger brother will be 4yrs 9 months( winter baby) when he starts.
A vast difference in capabilities at that age.
The messsage is sends out that is that parents not the state know what's in their childrens interest and sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe to be right.
We had an afternoon strike when I was at school.
It resulted in girls being allowed to wear trousers as part of school uniform.
In Nordic Countries children don't attend school until they are 6 yrs old

I'm not against assessing and testing children...as a teacher I assessed constantly and adjusted my teaching accordingly. I am totally against SATS. They are nothing to do with education and everything to do with government statistics and get used as a stick to beat schools and teachers with. There is far more to education than the results of one test on a particular day. I also saw so much time wasted teaching exam techniques to little children. A ridiculous waste but necessary if the school is going to achieve it's targets.

I applaud those parents taking a stand. Six and seven year olds should be enjoying learning and, within reason, going off on tangents if something attracts their attention not working towards a series of tests that limits the curriculum at such an early age.

PS As for striking, I feel sorry for the working parents who cannot keep their kids off school to make a point as they have to be in work themselves.

Good post, Penstemmon. It is very sad that children of that age are put under such stress. If they must be tested - and I sort of see the point - can it not be done without all the stress-inducing hype? I remember taking the 11-plus without realising what it was. I suppose we must have been 'taught to the test' but we didn't realise it and felt no pressure. I sometimes wonder if it is the parents who induce the stress just as much as the schools but then who is to blame them?

I do not think the current campaign is about GCSEs but about the DfE thinking up things to try to demonstrate that this government have 'improved standards'

They do this by testing stuff that has not been taught at a particular age before (often for very good reason ) .

Mostly it is naming parts of speech/ grammatical structures that even university professors are still disagreeing about the terminology!

The subsequent test data is then presented by the government to the general public and they can claim that xx% children are better at Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar: hoorah for us says Nicky Morgan

The fact that kids may have known / been able to use the concepts and structures in their writing previously but not actually know the technical term the DfE has attributed to it for test purposes is brushed under the carpet!

It is all a stupid political game and kids are the pawns.

p.s. i am NOT against assessing/testing children..I just want it to be about diagnosing their learning/needs not for political point scoring!

I'm not sure that I would agree with skipping school due to the tests, although they are ridiculous at that age.
What message does that give the children when they are 16 and sitting GCSEs? ..... "I'm not turning up to school today, my parents thought it fine to take me out of school for SATs, so obviously I can do my own thing."