The way that the government assesses pupils continues to be in the spotlight as the NAHT raises UK assessment mistakes.

The NAHT are relatively recent members of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and used the organisation as a platform to express their views on UK school assessment.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) favouring a motion for the government to address what it called a “chaotic and confusing system of assessing school’s academic performance.”

The union identified a number of issues around school assessments that need to be addressed in the planning and preparation of this year’s SATs. On the back of these alleged issues there have been calls for SATs data not to be published in December.

The issues raised included;

  • The erroneous publication of SATs papers ahead of the test
  • Delayed and difficult to interpret guidance for teachers
  • Mistakes within the test papers
  • A mark scheme that does not cater for those with dyslexia

The issue of leaked papers was raised in parliament after nearly 100 people accessed the national primary school spelling and grammar test after it appeared online. Schools minister Nick Gibb was forced to inform parliament of this school’s assessment error.

He went on record to describe the leaking of the papers as “clearly a mistake, which should not have been possible,”

Assessment Challenges

This issue highlights the challenge of effectively assessing, tracking and reporting the progress of pupils in a standardised way nationally.

It will be interesting to see how these assessments are developed to address perceived issues.

At SRS we have designed a reporting suite that allows schools on a range of different curriculums to assess, track and report on pupil progress.

If you would like to find out more about how we make assessment tracking simple for teachers give us a call on 020 8893 6666