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2 rather discouraging Guardian links to look at…

Tougher School Inspections form OFSTED  – Great! Just brilliant news for schools in disadvantaged areas. I have to admit to being confused. Some messages coming out of government are about freeing up the curriculum and taking a broader approach to assessing schools. Does this now mean that no matter how good you are on other measures you can’t possibly be a good school if your GCSE’s don’t achieve the government’s politically selected target? It’s like Chris Woodhead never left.

And CCTV, too. Yay!  I acknowledge that in schools monitoring the public areas is necessary but there’s something not quite right about sticking cameras in the teaching and learning spaces. The bit that got me was the idea that some schools might use CCTV as a way of monitoring teacher performance. This suggests a further decline in the lack of trust in teachers’ professionalism. Not only that, it sends a message to students that they are not trusted either which doesn’t seem healthy to me.

Does anyone teach in a classroom with CCTV? What’s it like for you?

Anyway, have a good weekend. I’m off for further grumping…

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.