Justine Greening sets out new primary assessment plans
Education Secretary Justine Greening announced yesterday that plans to make pupils resit Sats will be axed.
This was part of new plans drawn up by the Secretary of State to “improve and simplify assessment arrangements”.
In her ministerial statement, Ms Greening said: “we will not introduce statutory mathematics and reading resits on children’s arrival in year 7. Rather, we will focus on the steps needed to ensure a child catches up lost ground.”
Resit papers will be made available for teachers to use if they wish, as part of ongoing assessments. The Government will also introduce a targeted package of support for struggling pupils.
Under the new plans, the KS1 grammar, punctuation and spelling test will remain non-statutory for schools this year.
The Education Secretary also mentioned that the pace and scale of assessment changes “has been stretching”.
Ms Greening added: “It is important that we now set out a clear path to a settled system where our collective focus can be on achieving strong educational outcomes for all children.
There has been significant change in recent years, but the timeline from this point will bring greater stability, with no new national tests or assessments introduced before the 2018 to 2019 academic year.”
The Education Secretary promised more information on primary assessment and accountability at the SCHOOLS NorthEast Summit on Thursday 13 October: “it will be soon. Hold that pen, keep it poised.”
Schools Week noted that Year 7 resits were a pledge in the Conservative manifesto.