It is broken. And you can help fix it

Something needs to change – for the good of the children.

John Bryant

We don’t define our children by their SATs results, we define them by the little person we have seen grow, day in and day out, over the last four years. I’m voting for the boycott, and my message to others is: use your vote and protect your children.

Yvonne Craig

Russell Stevens is head teacher of John Hanson Community School in Hampshire.

“The problem is that because the stakes are so high, many children are hothoused to within an inch of their lives. They arrive at secondary school with an inflated SATs score, which then sits with them. We have students saying, ‘There’s no way I was ever going to get grade 7, 8, 9. I did really well in primary school because that’s all we did in year 6’. Year 6 is just about preparing for SATs.

lead. The magazine for NEU Leadership members