Headteachers have been told to expect changes to the way pupils’ writing is assessed next year.

The Sats were reformed in 2016 to make them tougher, and the reforms included changes to the statutory writing assessments in Year 2 and Year 6.

These have been particularly controversial because they use a “secure-fit” system in which pupils have to reach all the criteria set out by government before being judged at the expected standard.

Opponents have said that this discriminates against children with dyslexia, who may be good writers but trip up on spelling.

It also means that pupils who have reached all but one of the 18 criteria are given the same judgement, working below the expected standard - like those who do not reach any.

The NAHT headteachers’ union has been calling for a more flexible “best-fit” approach that would give teachers more leeway when judging children’s writing.

And earlier this year, the government agreed, proposing in its consultation on primary assessment that the writing assessment should move to a “best-fit” approach.

“We will use the consultation period to discuss the time frame for the publication of revised teacher assessment frameworks with stakeholders. We understand that there may be some desire to move quickly on this and introduce changes for the 2017 to 2018 academic year, and we would be open to considering this in light of stakeholder responses,” the consultation stated.

‘Encouraging’ government response

Now the NAHT has advised members that it has been “encouraged by the level of engagement from government on this issue”.

It said that the NAHT and other unions have made it clear that schools would welcome an end to secure fit for writing from September 2017.

“We are hopeful of an announcement to this effect when the government publish their response to the consultation after the summer break,” the union has said in a statement on its website.

“While we cannot guarantee that this will happen, we urge all members not to do any further work or planning using the current writing frameworks, and await the government’s response to the consultation in September.”

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