If all children were constantly told, as grit supremo Angela Duckworth was by her father, that “You’re no genius”, what would their reaction be? For some, like Duckworth, it would spur them on to greatness to prove their critics wrong. Others, however, would accept it as true and crumple.
The problem is that we don’t always know how children will react to life’s stresses and strains and slings and arrows. This week saw 600,000 Year 6 children sit the new, tougher Sats tests. Some, their teachers say, were reduced to tears by the reading test. Others took it in their stride.
The more demanding nature of the tests has undoubtedly increased stress for children, but how much of it is standard exam anxiety and how much is down to teachers and parents projecting their own concerns on to them?
The rushed and chaotic introduction of the reformed curriculum and tests, combined with high-stakes accountability, has put leaders and teachers under enormous strain. It is, however, their job to absorb these pressures, as, indeed, it is for parents.
That’s not to diminish the extent of the challenge faced by schools; it’s certainly not been an easy ride. Added to the various delays and the bungled implementation of the reforms are a couple of well-publicised cock-ups.
When schools are under threat of maladministration charges if they do not keep the papers sealed and secure, to have two leaks in three weeks from the Department for Education itself is as unacceptable as it is farcical.
Schools minister Nick Gibb’s hunt for the culprit in the latest leak is a desperate attempt to deflect responsibility. As with headteachers and all people in charge, the buck stops with you, minister.
If the Sats are proving so hugely unpopular and confidence in them is being constantly eroded, should they be scrapped? In a joint poll by TES, Mumsnet and First News, 89 per cent of teachers thought so and 68 per cent of parents agreed. But when it came to those actually sitting them, the pupils, only 44 per cent wanted them abolished.
That’s not surprising, says Michael Tidd, a columnist for TES and a deputy head in Nottinghamshire. “They can’t conceive of a world where [Sats] don’t exist. For them, that’s what happens - you get to the end of school and you do tests. They see it as part of a process of completing primary education.”
We adults, however, can conceive of such a world. It is our duty to ensure that any assessment of them is fit for purpose and that there is firm evidence that it is of long-term benefit.
Further, it is for us to protect children from being exploited for political ends.
Those political ends are fast unravelling, however, with the government’s own hubris proving to be its undoing. Nicky Morgan’s obsession with character, grit and resilience was no isolated whim.
She knew that the raised standards and heightened expectations she had been charged with delivering would be hard on children. Along with fattening them up for weighing, she needed to toughen them up to withstand the process. She knew just how testing the government’s rather rushed “rigour revolution” would end up being.
What the education secretary did not know was that in the end, it would be she who was tested the most. We will now see just how much grit she has.
@AnnMroz
This is an article from the 13 May edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here
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