Four Jersey schools to introduce SATs papers

Tuesday 17 May 2016

The questions have stumped Tory Education Minister Nick Gibb, had parents up in arms and children reportedly in tears - now the UK’s controversial SATs test papers are heading into some primary schools here.

Education say four local schools will be using the tests - 'purely for internal use' - to see how well some of their pupils are getting on and compare with schoolchildren in the UK.

The tests are compulsory in the UK for all seven and 11-year-olds who are tested in reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling and maths. They are expected to reach the national standard in both Year 2 and Year 6 and the idea is that teachers can use the results to compare how well each child is doing with their peers and across the country.

But the Education department said they don't have to follow what the UK is doing and plan to use the tests just to make sure youngsters here are on track at school:

"UK-style SATs tests are not being introduced in Jersey primary schools. Our students’ progress is monitored through ongoing assessment by teachers which is externally verified; this will continue.

"We have, however, just introduced a new curriculum and a new assessment scheme and a small number of schools have volunteered to use the UK SATs papers in a limited way to double-check pupil progress and cross-check with schools in England. This will only apply to Key Stage 2 and only to a limited number of students, which is likely to be about 10% of children. It is purely for internal use."

Just this month, Tory Education Minister Nick Gibb showed even he didn’t know his prepositions from this subordinating conjunctions when he failed an exam question for 11-year-olds live on radio.

Education haven't confirmed yet which primary schools will be using the tests papers.