Seven Year Old SAT's set to be scrapped ...

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Quote:

Controversial national tests taken by seven-year-olds in England could be scrapped under new government plans.The move follows years of pressure from teachers, parents and educationalists opposed to putting young pupils through high stakes national Sats tests. The statutory tests in English, maths and spelling and grammar, are used to monitor schools' progress. The Department for Education is proposing a new assessment for pupils when they first start school instead. This should be done in such a way that pupils do not realise they are being assessed, the DfE said.

I'm torn on this one. My six year old is doing these next year. He doesn't seem to have been put under undue pressure so far, even though the curriculum is apparently tougher. Seems to mainly enjoy school, as much as any kid does. We just had parents evening, where we were told not to worry too much about the test, as they were mainly to check the school was doing its job.

We were also told recent changes had made highly unlikely that most children would be told they are exceeding national average, which was annoying as my son is doing very well, and is apparently well above average at the school. Other than that though, I don't personally have any real objection to the tests.

I understand that seven year olds should be learning to enjoy learning and not put under stress - I'm just not convinced that if the tests are done in the right way and reacted to in the right way by parents, that they should cause any undue stress on the kid.