We are writing to you as school leaders, working together as Southampton Primary Headteachers’ Conference.

We wanted to provide some context around the release of the results of the government assessments which your children have taken this year.

You will be aware, especially if you have older children who have taken government assessments before, that they have changed significantly this year – they are more difficult and we are obliged to report on them in a different way, because the old “levels” system has been removed.

We have set this letter out according to the range of statutory assessments, which all schools in England have to do, and provided a short commentary on each one about this year’s changes.

We hope it helps you understand why we believe that some of the assessments this year are experimental and unfair.

Year R Baseline

This was an assessment carried out in the first few weeks of term back in September when children had just joined primary school.

Three different versions were used in different schools around the country, and the government has now announced that this made the results incomparable and useless for national accountability measures.

The government has gone back to the drawing board on this assessment and will make an announcement in due course.

In the meantime, schools are free to use it again this September as an option.

Year R teachers are already very good in making the assessments needed without such a baseline “test”.

Year R Foundation Stage Outcomes

This assessment hasn’t changed this year and Year R teachers will be reporting on a vast range of skills and characteristics.

These are combined to assess whether your child has a “Good Level of Development” (GLD), which is reported to you.

We believe this is a fair assessment, which takes into account observation and work done by your child.

Year 1/Year 2 Phonics

This assessment hasn’t changed this year.

There are lots of conflicting views about whether this is a valid assessment.

It’s not a test as such, it’s a screening process, which allows gaps in phonic knowledge to be addressed, which is why children who don’t reach the standard in Year 1 take it again in Year 2.

There is controversy over the inclusion of “monster words” (phonically regular words which don’t really exist, eg. “brid” – especially where these are easily confused with actual words – eg. “bird”, which children with good sight vocabulary may fail to read phonically.)

However, this is now a well-established assessment with reliable results.

Year 2 / Year 6 – End of Key Stage 1 / 2 Assessments

These assessments have changed completely this year.

There are separate tests and teacher assessment results both in Year 2 and in Year 6.

In Year 2, the tests are carried out in class and the results are advisory only. The results feed into what the teacher knows more widely about your child.

In Year 6, the tests are taken more like exams, under exam conditions and results are reported separately to teacher assessment – they will use a new system of “scaled scores”.

We believe that the tests are much harder at both Key Stages this year, unfairly so in some cases.

(Some sources say that the reading age of the Year 6 reading test was set at the reading age of an average 15-year-old.) We also fundamentally object to the style of teacher assessment at both Key Stages this year.

Teacher assessment, in writing particularly, has previously been a professional judgement, properly moderated and standardised across schools and groups of schools, which reported fairly on a rounded view of your child.

If they were very good at one aspect of the curriculum, but had one or two small gaps in other minor areas, the judgement would still be that your child was working at a certain level.

The new style of assessment means that your child must tick off every single one of a large range of criteria in order to be working at the standard – in effect, teacher assessment has now become a pass or fail system, where the pass mark is 100%.

The government has said that this is because standards must be raised, but it has undoubtedly narrowed the curriculum in some areas, and added to children’s stress as they take the new tests and try to meet the new teacher assessment criteria in class.

General confusion around the assessment process

The media has widely reported the problems with the assessments this year:

  • The abandonment of the Key Stage 1 Spelling and grammar test, as it was leaked online
  • The mistaken early publication of the Key Stage 2 spelling test to markers in the week before the test
  • The inclusion of one of the Key Stage 2 reading texts with similar questions in a revision guide for SATs published two years ago.

What might have been less widely reported are the large number of documents for teachers and school leaders to support the process this year, some of which were only released or clarified in the weeks leading up to the assessment period.

This documentation amounts to hundreds of pages, some of which had to be withdrawn, rewritten and made clearer by government.

This has not supported schools in delivering the assessments effectively.

New Assessment Outcomes at Key Stage

There is a range of new judgements this year, some of which apply to some of the assessments but not others, which we believe is confusing.

  • Working below the standard 
  • Working at Pre Key Stage 
  • Working towards the standard 
  • Has not met the standard 
  • Working at the standard 
  • Working at greater depth within the standard (not an exhaustive list - and some judgements are allowed on some subjects but not others)

The government has produced guidance for parents on how to interpret these outcomes, including the new “scaled scores” in the tests, but they are only interim for this year and may change again next year.

Conclusion As school leaders, we believe that there are major problems with the design and implementation of this year’s government assessments in schools.

We believe that, for the reasons outlined above, the results and outcomes for children, and the wider set of national data produced on the outcomes, will be statistically invalid.

We look forward to working with our professional bodies and the government to arrive at a more straightforward, easily understood and, above all, fairer system next year. We would welcome your support as parents on this.

If you have any questions about the assessments made about your child this year, please contact your child’s own school.

Yours sincerely,

School Leaders of the Southampton Primary Headteachers’ Conference