Heads want to stop Sats at age seven
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Headteachers demanded the scrapping of tests for seven-year-olds yesterday and voted for an investigation into the legality of following the National Union of Teachers in boycotting all national curriculum tests.
Delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers' conference in York warned that the tests – particularly for seven-year-olds – were putting too much stress on children and turning many off schooling at an early age.
Jenny Simpson, the head of Lymington Church of England Infants School in Hampshire, told the conference: "A system that is prepared to examine six and seven-year-old children in order to further its own political agenda is sick.''
The decision to call for the scrapping of the tests for seven-year-olds, due to be sat by 600,000 children later this month, means teachers and headteachers unions are united against them.
They will launch a joint campaign to convince ministers, who are planning a strategy on the future of primary education later this summer, that they should move towards a system of internal assessment by teachers of their pupils' ability at age seven.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments