Primary Assessment Consultation Continues

Much of this month's Education and Equalities Committee was spent discussing the NUT's strategy on primary assessment. With the recent House of Common's Select Committee Report and the Testing the Water report conducted on behalf of Pearson, not to mention our own Exam Factories report and The Mismeasurement of Learning by Reclaiming Schools, it is clear that the government cannot ignore the serious issues with primary assessment any longer.

They have opened a consultation on primary assessment and yet, far from improving the situation, the main recommendation of this consultation is the replacement of KS1 SATs with a compulsory baseline test at age 4. You can access and respond to the consultation here.

The Executive agreed:

• To continue to make this a priority campaign;
• To encourage members to respond to the consultation by the deadline of 22nd June and provide a bank of points to aid members in responding (I will circulate these when they become available);
• To produce an online campaign pack to support associations in raising this issue locally;
• To encourage associations to set up local networks of primary members to take the campaign forward;
• To form a similar working group nationally;
• To prepare for a boycott strategy, as agreed by conference, starting with an indicative ballot in the autumn term; and
• To continue to co-ordinate activities through the broad alliance brought together by More Than A Score.

In addition, the committee discussed the NUT Round Table on Poverty and Inequality to take place on 24th May (I will circulate a report and papers from this as they become available) and a new approach to consulting secondary members on issues, including changes to A-level and GCSE curricula, EBacc/Progress8, de-coupling of A-levels, and changes to 9-1 grades. This will use a new online system that allows members to engage quickly and easily and is intended to increase involvement and activity of secondary members in the union. Please look out for an invitation email to participate and feed back to me on your experience afterwards.