Editorial

It was in the August of 1975 that Christian Schiller ended a Plowden conference with the words which have resonated so strongly for all of the teachers who work with young children in their primary schools. He said “It is very difficult to see ahead. It will be difficult without any doubt. We’ve got a long way to go - a very long way to go. All sorts of new problems will come. Five years later we founded the National Association for Primary Education and began the work which continues to this day. Farsighted as Schiller’s words were in cautioning us about the problems to be confronted in the future even he could not have anticipated the magnitude of the challenges which our association has faced over the years. Children’s lives and learning have become the subject of business appraisal, units in an industry in which productive success is to be measured time and time again. This has led inevitably to the current position in which the measurable has become overwhelmingly important because the measured outcomes are reinforced by punitive sanctions if relative failure is the result. Yet the human condition is infinitely complex - children’s skills are only part of their growth and all of their nature and upbringing shapes how accurately they answer the test paper. For some time now we have thought that the nadir of the move away from child centred knowledge and practice must have been reached but have been disappointed even angered to find that the commercial ethic has prevailed and yet more testing has been inflicted on our schools. Ofsted’s recent move away from reliance upon test data towards a greater attention to the reality of the curriculum as it is planned and ‘delivered’ has already been shown by recent reports to be little enough of an improvement. Performance in tests still underpins the judgements which are made. The damaging outcome of two decades of political intervention in the classroom has been the narrowing of children’s experience as they learn: curiosity, creativity, independence, expressiveness, understanding and happiness have been the casualties as children have found their days crammed with preparation for tests. No doubt we should forgive the teachers who, however unwilling, are driven to distort teaching and learning in such harmful ways. But can we forgive those who drill their four year old pupils with synthetic phonics or those who, within weeks of children reaching their secondary school, begin preparation for GCSE five years later? Time limited tests are merely snapshots of attainment and must never be confused with the learning which becomes part of a child’s being and which will remain with them as adults. Testing can never sum up a child’s learning and sitting a test is not an opportunity to learn. It is wholly wrong that successive governments have twisted education until our work is so far from the ideals and commitment which prompted us to become teachers. We must go on and never forget the ideals so soundly rooted in the history of successful primary practice. We must continue to work for the political changes needed if children are once again to be given true educational opportunity and teachers are once again free to put children, not ephemeral testing, first, last and always.

About us Editorial John Coe Editorial Board Peter Cansell, Stuart Swann, Robert Young, Robert Morgan Photo Credit Sam Carpenter

Primary First journal is published three times per year by the National Association for Primary Education. Primary First, 57 Britannia Way, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS14 9UY Tel. 01543 257257 Email: nape@onetel.com