SATs go into Room 101 - Hurray!

The big story this week is the end of KS3 SATs. For once the teachers are even happier than the students. This was always an unnatural and mis-timed set of tests- a false addition to the range of assessments used in schools. In recent years the SATs have increasingly been used to judge the performance of the school rather than support the learning of the children. We’ve had unreliable marking, disputed results and the recent fiasco with the company carry out the work. So now we can release the Sports Hall for a week for its proper purpose and let teachers do what they are best at as well. Relief all round. Mark Gale, Head of Science, summed it up for his department, brilliantly:

‘The news of the demise of the SATs came as an utter shock. We had no inkling that such a radical reform was about to be announced, and the fact that this is to come into immediate effect makes it truly surprising. I cannot recall anything as momentous in fifteen years of teaching – not that I’m complaining, however.

It’s only now that I am realising how focused we had become on teaching to the test. Yes, we set aside a few weeks during year nine for SATs preparation – perhaps less than colleagues in other schools – but we always tried to make sure that we provided a curriculum that was real and meaningful, not solely looking towards a single week in May.

Yet much of our thinking was SATs-centred. Booster classes, level 5 intervention, the level 6+ project: all of these things were to be measured through SATs results. Now how will we prove we are successful?

The answer is, of course, obvious: we will be able to see properly whether students have developed the skills, attributes and abilities that we hope they will during key stage 3. Because we don’t now have to rush through years 7, 8 and 9 at breakneck speed, we will have more breathing space to try out things that we have always wanted to, and which the revised curriculum is promoting. Things such as extended investigations, cross-curricular work, debates, open-ended tasks and getting out and about to see scientists in action will be possible without any nagging worries that students might be missing out being drilled for the tests.

We will also be able to use that strange post-SATs time rather more productively. No longer will it seem as if we are just treading water, waiting for GCSEs and trying to motivate students in the meantime. It will become a properly integrated part of the curriculum now that the artificial SATs divide has been removed.

Some schools and departments are considering starting GCSEs early, but whether or not this is a good idea, the removal of the SATs will help us to make sure that students are properly prepared for the start of their new courses in year 10.

Throughout key stage three we aim to lay the foundations to help students become scientists. We hope to inspire them and excite them about our subject. After all, it is during key stage three that many students make up their minds about what they would like to pursue during their working lives. This is the most important aspect of the curriculum and the removal of the tests means that we will be able to cherish key stage three for providing all these opportunities.’