OK, not really and ed tech subject but it affects everyone in UK education regardless of your specialism. Ed Balls (Sec of State for Education etc) has announced that SATs testing at 14years is to be stopped. Hurrah! But it’s to stay at 11years. Boo!

The argumemt is that no one really looks at the KS3 SATs results when evaluating secondaries. It’s all down to the GCSE and A’ Level results. Now schools will be measured using an American-style report card system that looks at teacher assessments as well as other aspects like well-being.

Hopefully that will allow teachers to inject more creativity into the curriculum and, who knows, maybe we’ll be free to have a little more fun!.

Having heard Jim Knight, the schools minister, on the radio last night I got a little confused. The justifications he was making for the removal of KS3 SATs (that effectively the new system will give a broader, more valuable picture of a school’s performance) could equally have been applied at Primary level. So why isn’t happening at that level?

We’re about to start choosing a school for our eldest daughter and we want a school were she’s going to learn and grow but also enjoy the experience. SATs scores only give the crudest idea of what a school is going to be like. There’s also plenty of evidence that teaching to the test (as some schools will naturally do) harms a child’s education.

It would be great if the government just grasped the nettle and ditched SATs altogether and provide something which brings a bit of the life back into primary education.