At a photoshoot event held underneath the Eastern Arch at Pevensey Castle, made famous by Kipling as the ‘gateway to Albion’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill, on Wednesday afternoon (27 April) local parents put their case to see an end to the relentless testing with SATS in primary schools that have become the subject of a national protest on 3 May 2016.—Bay Life, 29 April 2016
Local primary school parents express concern and over growing stress of new SATS test for their children
The parents of local children explained their concern about SATS tests in a novel photoshoot that has drawn attention from across the region..
Local parent Elizabeth Nicholson talking about her son Hugh, who has special needs, said, “he has been made to sit example SATS tests repeatedly to desensitise him to these tests”.
“As a parent I have no power to remove him from the SATS.”
Elizabeth has been talking to parents at her local school handing out a leaflet titled ‘Parents Support Teachers, Boycott SATS” .
The leaflet which promotes the 3rd May National Kids Strike, with a local event planned to take place at Abbots Wood in Polegate, next week starting at 10:00am, forms part of the national campaign.
Headteachers across the country have now begun to show their concern, in addition to parents of pupils and staff.
In Lancashire, for example, headteachers across the district have made a stand over “poor and ill-conceived” new SATs tests which they say test children way beyond their reach and experience.
Lancaster and District Primary Headteachers Group have sent a letter out in school newsletters to parents, spelling out reasons why they are so concerned.
The letter states that current end of Key Stage 2 pupils have only had two years to study a four year curriculum, from which the new test content is drawn.
The letter said that teachers have an overriding feeling of worry about the requirements and expectations that have been implemented.
Headteachers say,“we want the best for our children but feel that the current direction of travel, if unaltered, will damage the educational and personal development of your children that we care so much about.
In the local leaflet in support of the anti-SATS protest, Elizabeth Nicholson says, “use your parent power to show your support for a SATS boycott. Keep your kids off school on 3 May for a day of fun and learning”
The leaflet ends with the key theme behind the campaign “Let Our Kids be Kids’.
Talking about the reception she received with the leaflet, handed out at the local school, Elizabeth said, “one parent was visibly upset, she felt for her son because he has been working so hard, parents were interested in the leaflet”.
At the photoshoot there was evidence that support is growing for the local campaign.
Something like 30 people, parents with their children, were in evidence.
Local parent Carrie-ann Mckie, talking about campaign said, “what has surprised us is that the local headteacher has chosen not to make any contact with us at all, he will not even respond to our calls”.
The local campaign taking place, with a number of events across Sussex on May 3, follows the news that much respected headteacher, Kit Messenger, after 23 years service in primary schools in Sussex, handed in her resignation letter to governors arguing that, “we are ‘factory farming’ our children and failing to prepare them adequately for a successful future in this changing world”.
The local Let Kids be KIds campaign has been contacted by the main broadcast channels with view to preparation for an interview with regard to the May 3 protest to take place in Polegate.
On the Day of the photoshoot, the national ‘Let Kids Be Kids’ campaign featured, in amongst other publications and media outlets, The Huffington Post, BBC, The Guardian and Daily Telegraph newspapers.
The resignation letter of head teacher Kit Messenger (19 April 2016) had wide coverage on national news channels across the country.
The ‘Let Kids Be Kids’ Petition: Parents Call For Year 2 SATs Tests To Be Scrapped has now been signed by 26,786 people across the country
An Open Letter from Let Our Kids Be Kids (27 April 2016) – the voice of tens of thousands of parents who want an end to SAT testing to Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan said,
“We are aware that you’ve been flooded with open letters recently but this one is a bit different. We’re writing from everybody. We represent the voice of parents across the country. Parents are everybody”.
The letter makes the following points
• Children as young as 6 are labelling themselves failures and crying about going to school. We know this because we are parents.
• Children’s mental health is at risk because of the increased pressure they face through primary school testing.
• Children who have been taught in a system obsessed with passing tests rather than learning for learning’s sake enter the world of work unprepared.
The letter adds; “We are parents who do feel that elections can be won or lost on educational matters. There are tens of thousands of us and we have reached the point when it is time for us to speak. We need you to listen.
“You have dismissed the concerns of pupil stress and anxiety caused by the SATS by blaming our wonderful teachers for not administering tests in an appropriate manner. We say to you that this is utter nonsense.
“Conspiracies abound that this is all part of the enforced academies plan. Making SATS so hard that schools inevitably fail means that your academy business leaders can come in and rescue ‘failing’ schools… leaving them completely unaccountable to parents”.
Kit Messenger (19 April 2016) in her resignation letter as a headteacher of Manor Field Primary School in Burgess Hill, Sussex said;
“Unfortunately, despite all of your support, in the current educational climate I no longer feel it will be possible to achieve my vision for children at Manor Field School. The narrowing of the curriculum, to the detriment of all other subject areas, has increased significantly over the past two years: judgements made of schools are now so restricted to a small set of measures that the pressure to focus only on reading, writing and mathematics has become untenable and I have increasingly felt that we are ‘factory farming’ our children and failing to prepare them adequately for a successful future in this changing world”.
IMAGE CREDIT: Pevensey based ‘Let Our Kids be Kids” campaign
