A headteacher, in her letter, “Don’t scrap test regime, reform it” (TES , 1926nbsp;December 2003), raised a perennial question when she wrote: “I am in favour of Sats in principle...”.
Why do heads persist in using this nickname for our national tests? “Sats” is the brand name for tests in schools in the USA, but not here, shy;so far.
There are three theories:
1.They believe the newspapers when they refer to “school assessment tests” or something similar (nothing like this ever appears on any QCA papers or documentation).
2. They are pretending that there is something arcane about the assessment process.
3. They like to frighten little children by hissing “satstests” at them.
Presumably the NUT ballot form was more carefully worded and did not use the “s” word at all!
Peter Tallon
Cannock
