St Helens Council calls for government to scrap SATs

This week St Helens Council passed a motion calling for the government to abolish SATs and other high-stakes testing in primary schools.

The motion was tabled by deputy council leader Sue Murphy, who said current testing was having an adverse impact on pupils and teachers.

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Cllr Murphy said: “I believe Key Stage 2 tests in their current form place too great a burden and pressure on our young children and the primary schools that serve them.

“Rather than to contribute in raising educational standards and tests, it adversely impacts on pupils’ learning and development.”

Labour’s John Wiseman said SATs “don’t work” and are turning the nation’s schools into “exam factories”.

Cllr Wiseman, who is a serving teacher, said SATs stop pupils from developing and “discourages” children, particularly those with SEND.

“How are we going to set those children of the next generation up, to actually aspire them to be something, when all we do is test them,” he said.

“How can we let them grow? How can we let them be creative? How can we let them express themselves?

“We don’t. Because what we do, we discourage them. We destroy them. We drive them into the ground with test after test after test.”

Cllr John Wiseman, elected member for Bold

Cllr Murphy said the current testing regime has “adverse mental health and wellbeing effects” on young children.

She added that head teachers were under “enormous pressure” to assure their school performs well against in the league tables.

Cllr Allan Jones, leader of the St Helens Conservative group, said children were “suffering” due to the frequency of high-stakes tests.

“There are teachers who are tearing their hair out,” Cllr Jones said.

“Not too bothered about the teachers – they are grown up people.

“We are bothered about the children who are tearing their hair out.

“The children are suffering. There’s no doubt about it.”

Labour councillor Robyn Hattersley said SATs are “lowering the quality of the education system” as they condense the curriculum to focus heavily on the test.

Cllr Hattersley, who is a trainee teacher, said teachers are able to assess pupils through summative assessments.

Through class discussions, directed questioning and written work, she said, teachers can effectively gauge pupils’ development.

Cllr Hattersley said: “Summative assessment is simple and it doesn’t have a negative effect on teachers’ and pupils’ mental health.

“Statutory testing is expensive and difficult for schools to organise as it requires assistance from many different members of staff.

“According to the Cambridge Primary review, abolishing the current testing system would save the government £20 million a year.

“It’s about time this government started to trust teachers’ professional abilities and allowed them to test children based off observative and other forms of summative assessment.”

Cllr Sue Murphy, deputy leader of St Helens Council and cabinet member for developing young people

St Helens Council leader, David Baines, was a primary school teacher for eight years prior to becoming a councillor.

Cllr Baines said high-stakes testing piles pressure on pupils, parents, staff and governors for “no good reason”.

“A snapshot test carrying so much weight makes no sense, and it’s certainly no way to judge a school, let alone to judge a child,” Cllr Baines said.

“And to define a child by a test is so absurd that I can’t believe we still do it.

“I’m not suggesting and I don’t think Cllr Murphy or anybody else was suggesting of getting rid of testing, but it needs to form part of a broader assessment arrangement, which makes sense, which  benefits the whole child, benefits parents, benefits schools and doesn’t put so much weight on what is a snapshot.

“Pupils deserve better, parents deserve better. It’s time to scrap the SATs.”

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After unanimously passing the motion, the council will call a meeting of trade unions, parents and school governors to discuss its position and to coordinate a response.

The local authority will also offer support to schools that adopt an alternative approach to assessment.

Nationally, the council will lobby the Secretary of State for Education to listen to the growing number of voices who are calling for the abolition of high-stakes testing in primary schools.