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This is education related, not related to any of the other chaos going on in British political life...
Dear Mr Smith,
[ref to previous correspondence]
I am writing to you again to try to draw attention once more to the scandalously mismanaged process of primary assessment this year. We didn't receive the teacher assessment framework until the year had already started and when concerns were loudly voiced about the jump in standards they represented, we were told that it would all be OK and the exemplification would make it clear how they were really equivalent to the old standards. So we waited. The exemplification wasn't published until February 2016 and it only served to make clear that the reassurances of the department weren't worth the pixels used to deliver them. We were left with four months to gather a mountain of evidence and try to force children to achieve writing standards which, frankly, most pieces written by adults wouldn't achieve (this letter doesn't make the cut, for example, because I've used no colons or semi colons).
Most of us didn't even have time to look at the teacher assessment standards for science until after SATS week and, frankly, we haven't had the opportunity to do anything remotely like actual assessment of the standards which weren't learning objectives for Year 6. I have no confidence in even the judgements I am posting myself and it seems clear from conversation with other teachers that the results will have little to no validity.
The idea that schools might be held to account or forced to academize based on this data is ridiculous and I really hope that you will urge the department that it would be inappropriate to publish school level data this year. However, more importantly than that, they MUST let us know what is happening next year. Some of this could have been avoided if we'd realised what we needed to do from the beginning and the Department don't seem to realise that we are already planning out the shape of the year and the modules we will teach next year now. We need to know what the expectations are and we need to know before the end of term.
I could go on at greater length and I'd be more than happy to discuss any of this further if you'd like to take it up with the department. I would also recommend this excellent summary of the problems by a teacher-blogger - https://michaelt1979.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/my-concerns-about-primary-assessment-a-letter-to-my-mp/. I would also like you to be aware that I have published the bulk of this email on my own blog.
I realise that there is a good deal going on in the political world now, but the children of this year group have been let down by the Department and the assessment process this year and I hope that you will find an opportunity to speak up for them.
Dear Mr Smith,
[ref to previous correspondence]
I am writing to you again to try to draw attention once more to the scandalously mismanaged process of primary assessment this year. We didn't receive the teacher assessment framework until the year had already started and when concerns were loudly voiced about the jump in standards they represented, we were told that it would all be OK and the exemplification would make it clear how they were really equivalent to the old standards. So we waited. The exemplification wasn't published until February 2016 and it only served to make clear that the reassurances of the department weren't worth the pixels used to deliver them. We were left with four months to gather a mountain of evidence and try to force children to achieve writing standards which, frankly, most pieces written by adults wouldn't achieve (this letter doesn't make the cut, for example, because I've used no colons or semi colons).
Most of us didn't even have time to look at the teacher assessment standards for science until after SATS week and, frankly, we haven't had the opportunity to do anything remotely like actual assessment of the standards which weren't learning objectives for Year 6. I have no confidence in even the judgements I am posting myself and it seems clear from conversation with other teachers that the results will have little to no validity.
The idea that schools might be held to account or forced to academize based on this data is ridiculous and I really hope that you will urge the department that it would be inappropriate to publish school level data this year. However, more importantly than that, they MUST let us know what is happening next year. Some of this could have been avoided if we'd realised what we needed to do from the beginning and the Department don't seem to realise that we are already planning out the shape of the year and the modules we will teach next year now. We need to know what the expectations are and we need to know before the end of term.
I could go on at greater length and I'd be more than happy to discuss any of this further if you'd like to take it up with the department. I would also recommend this excellent summary of the problems by a teacher-blogger - https://michaelt1979.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/my-concerns-about-primary-assessment-a-letter-to-my-mp/. I would also like you to be aware that I have published the bulk of this email on my own blog.
I realise that there is a good deal going on in the political world now, but the children of this year group have been let down by the Department and the assessment process this year and I hope that you will find an opportunity to speak up for them.
