As national test results are published, Helen Ward looks at the pressures on pupils and teachers in primary schools
THE pressure on 11-year-olds to perform in national tests means children feel duty bound to turn up even if they are ill, say heads.
A dozen children off sick from Boringdon primary, Plymouth, hit by a viral infection during test week, were taken into school by their parents. The head, Jean Pilkington, said: “Children want to go to secondary school with a test result. The pressure is not from us, it is our society. It is a terribly sad way to treat children.”
Two children at a London school took the tests in isolation this year after contracting chickenpox. Other heads report children becoming so anxious that they burst into tears.
Ann Monk, head at Fen Drayton primary in Cambridgeshire, said: “We had one child who came in who was not very well. I understand we need to have standards and benchmarks, but I am not sure this constant pressure helps.
“Some children will feel they are a failure at seven years old and some of the older children feel they are failures because they have got level 4, and not level 5.”
Each year around 600,000 children take the Year 6 tests in maths, English and science in one week under strict exam conditions. Wall displays are covered up in case they contain answers and time limits are observed to the second.
Many heads say they try not to place undue emphasis on the tests, but must still prepare children for them. The annual Qualifications and Curriculum Authority evaluation reports show that teachers repeatedly give warnings about the pressure children are under.
The most recent report, on the 2000 tests, revealed that teachers felt that cramming the tests into one week was “very demanding”, especially because of the amount of writing required in the English tests.
And the pressure is spreading to seven-year-olds. One contributor to The TES website said: “I had a stressful year guiding a not very able Year 2 class with lots of children with English as an additional language or special educational needs towards these tests.
“I have never felt so stressed in my life. I had able children crying when we looked at practice tests.”
David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “The testing regime combined with league tables that count absent pupils as if they are present is forcing children to sit tests when they are too ill to do so.
“The sooner we get back to running a humane testing system that does not lead to wholly artificially produced league tables the better.”
