'HELP ME MAM!' wrote one 7 year-old pupil taking the Welsh Government's National Reading Test recently.
Others broke down in tears, as the NUT reported.
Minister Leighton Andrews and his department dismissed the Union as 'alarmist'. What would they know, they're only teachers?
All this at a time when Andrews proposes fining parents for their children's truancy. Far better to fine Government Ministers for appalling acts of cruelty to children.
While Gove is imposing his brand of 19th century education on England, with rote learning and exams based on memorising information, it would be easy to view Wales as a haven of the Comprehensive ideal.
It would also be seriously delusional!
As well as tortuous tests, Andrews seeks to impose a similarly reactionary vision on the entire system and opposition parties offer few objections.
A Head of History at a Comp. tells me that the whole focus of his subject is being altered in a Govian manner, with a shift towards regressive notions of history shaped by powerful individuals alone. In English, grammar for its own sake is coming to a fore.
Recently every Primary teacher in RCT (a Labour-run Council) had to attend courses on 'synthetic phonics' at a huge expense to tax-payers. The courses were run by experts from England who had no notion of the differences in methodology here, where literacy is taught deploying more than one single approach.
Andrews' banding system is an example of the way he has introduced league tables, by the back door.
It has lead to Comprehensives becoming even more obsessed with targets and assessments, at the expense of developing new resources and widening the curriculum.
And so to the dreaded tests.
What they are about (as one parent told me) is - 'The Minister of Education , not the children.'
As a direct result of Wales performing so badly in the Pisa international tests of 2010 (when he actually shifted blame onto schools and teachers), Andrews decided to act.
Just like Gove, his idea of action has nothing to do with improving the long-term prospects of children and everything to do with improving the long-term prospects of his career.
The same parent sarcastically noted - ' Still, if it demoralises teachers and pupils, then that's okay!'
To add to the absurdity of these tests in literacy and numeracy, parents will be told, when they receive the results, that they weren't overly important and , if they have any problems, to go and see the class teachers.
Most teachers know their pupils' strengths and weaknesses intimately. Their own tests are far superior as they are child-friendly and also take into account the ages of pupils and those who achieve beyond the ceilings set by the National Tests.
Instead of time wasted on the tests, teachers could be producing resources so they could apply themselves to literacy through scripts, books and poetry and to numeracy through the basics of Maths, showing its relevance to society.
The tests were conducted in schools under widely differing conditions and no clear instructions were given to Heads. Some would've encouraged befuddled pupils to guess, while others told them to abandon them if they couldn't cope.
Trials took place last year in certain schools and the responses by teachers were duly ignored.
Looking at any text, pupils should be encouraged to find their own interpretations. Yet only certain answers were deemed correct.
They should be encouraged to write in full sentences, while these tests consisted almost entirely of tick-boxes and gaps which goaded them into guesswork.
The same parent commented on the vocabulary used - ' The test had words like 'skitter ' and 'Hydra'.......but how many adults even, have come across such words?'
Year 2 pupils were asked to do the same test as Year 3, thus pupils who could be two academic years apart were faced with the same 19 pages of reading material!
Whoever set these tests has no understanding of Primary education, nor did they know what they wanted to achieve (apart from intimidation).
One Primary teacher even claimed that the former SATs were more acceptable.
In previous blogs I've outlined most of my ideas for a radical improvement , from straight-forward reforms like reducing class sizes, to more revolutionary changes such as the abolition of exams and inspections.
Sadly, no alternatives have been offered by Plaid Cymru, who have shied away from applying democratic and socialist ideals to education.
Pupils would not truant if all the positive work they did at school counted towards a final outcome.
They wouldn't truant if they - alongside teachers - helped to run schools and evolve their own curriculum.
They would not truant if uniforms were jettisoned and all the friction caused by their implementation removed.
They wouldn't truant if classes were small and they were afforded far more individual attention.
They would not truant if - in their early years - instead of testing, everything was focused on enjoyable and creative literacy and numeracy, so they could access all subjects later on.
The boundless enthusiasm of the vast majority of teachers and pupils is being systematically destroyed by Andrews and his department. As the same parent pointed out - 'If it was Gove doing it in Wales, we wouldn't stand for it!'
LEARNING PUNCTUATION
My daughter comes home worried -
'We've got a SPAG test, dad!
Can you help?'
'I can do a mean Bolognese sauce!'
'Don't be daft! Spelling and Grammar.
It's Punctuation tomorrow and I'm lost!
What's a colon for a start?'
' A tube in your stomach,
part of your intestine.'
I watch as her eyes pop.
'No ,love, it's two dots,
often before lists. Any good?'
'I can't even use an exclamation mark!'
'You just did!'
'Well, how about a semicolon?
And don't tell me it's a part
of your tummy cut in half!'
' It's a pause, between a comma and full-stop,
which the Americans call period.......
but we won't go into that!
Hey, the best way to learn is to read.'
And I give her Joyce's 'Ulysses':
'Classic lit........read the last 100 pages....
he knew how to punctuate!'
Others broke down in tears, as the NUT reported.
Minister Leighton Andrews and his department dismissed the Union as 'alarmist'. What would they know, they're only teachers?
All this at a time when Andrews proposes fining parents for their children's truancy. Far better to fine Government Ministers for appalling acts of cruelty to children.
While Gove is imposing his brand of 19th century education on England, with rote learning and exams based on memorising information, it would be easy to view Wales as a haven of the Comprehensive ideal.
It would also be seriously delusional!
As well as tortuous tests, Andrews seeks to impose a similarly reactionary vision on the entire system and opposition parties offer few objections.
A Head of History at a Comp. tells me that the whole focus of his subject is being altered in a Govian manner, with a shift towards regressive notions of history shaped by powerful individuals alone. In English, grammar for its own sake is coming to a fore.
Recently every Primary teacher in RCT (a Labour-run Council) had to attend courses on 'synthetic phonics' at a huge expense to tax-payers. The courses were run by experts from England who had no notion of the differences in methodology here, where literacy is taught deploying more than one single approach.
Andrews' banding system is an example of the way he has introduced league tables, by the back door.
It has lead to Comprehensives becoming even more obsessed with targets and assessments, at the expense of developing new resources and widening the curriculum.
And so to the dreaded tests.
What they are about (as one parent told me) is - 'The Minister of Education , not the children.'
As a direct result of Wales performing so badly in the Pisa international tests of 2010 (when he actually shifted blame onto schools and teachers), Andrews decided to act.
Just like Gove, his idea of action has nothing to do with improving the long-term prospects of children and everything to do with improving the long-term prospects of his career.
The same parent sarcastically noted - ' Still, if it demoralises teachers and pupils, then that's okay!'
To add to the absurdity of these tests in literacy and numeracy, parents will be told, when they receive the results, that they weren't overly important and , if they have any problems, to go and see the class teachers.
Most teachers know their pupils' strengths and weaknesses intimately. Their own tests are far superior as they are child-friendly and also take into account the ages of pupils and those who achieve beyond the ceilings set by the National Tests.
Instead of time wasted on the tests, teachers could be producing resources so they could apply themselves to literacy through scripts, books and poetry and to numeracy through the basics of Maths, showing its relevance to society.
The tests were conducted in schools under widely differing conditions and no clear instructions were given to Heads. Some would've encouraged befuddled pupils to guess, while others told them to abandon them if they couldn't cope.
Trials took place last year in certain schools and the responses by teachers were duly ignored.
Looking at any text, pupils should be encouraged to find their own interpretations. Yet only certain answers were deemed correct.
They should be encouraged to write in full sentences, while these tests consisted almost entirely of tick-boxes and gaps which goaded them into guesswork.
The same parent commented on the vocabulary used - ' The test had words like 'skitter ' and 'Hydra'.......but how many adults even, have come across such words?'
Year 2 pupils were asked to do the same test as Year 3, thus pupils who could be two academic years apart were faced with the same 19 pages of reading material!
Whoever set these tests has no understanding of Primary education, nor did they know what they wanted to achieve (apart from intimidation).
One Primary teacher even claimed that the former SATs were more acceptable.
In previous blogs I've outlined most of my ideas for a radical improvement , from straight-forward reforms like reducing class sizes, to more revolutionary changes such as the abolition of exams and inspections.
Sadly, no alternatives have been offered by Plaid Cymru, who have shied away from applying democratic and socialist ideals to education.
Pupils would not truant if all the positive work they did at school counted towards a final outcome.
They wouldn't truant if they - alongside teachers - helped to run schools and evolve their own curriculum.
They would not truant if uniforms were jettisoned and all the friction caused by their implementation removed.
They wouldn't truant if classes were small and they were afforded far more individual attention.
They would not truant if - in their early years - instead of testing, everything was focused on enjoyable and creative literacy and numeracy, so they could access all subjects later on.
The boundless enthusiasm of the vast majority of teachers and pupils is being systematically destroyed by Andrews and his department. As the same parent pointed out - 'If it was Gove doing it in Wales, we wouldn't stand for it!'
LEARNING PUNCTUATION
My daughter comes home worried -
'We've got a SPAG test, dad!
Can you help?'
'I can do a mean Bolognese sauce!'
'Don't be daft! Spelling and Grammar.
It's Punctuation tomorrow and I'm lost!
What's a colon for a start?'
' A tube in your stomach,
part of your intestine.'
I watch as her eyes pop.
'No ,love, it's two dots,
often before lists. Any good?'
'I can't even use an exclamation mark!'
'You just did!'
'Well, how about a semicolon?
And don't tell me it's a part
of your tummy cut in half!'
' It's a pause, between a comma and full-stop,
which the Americans call period.......
but we won't go into that!
Hey, the best way to learn is to read.'
And I give her Joyce's 'Ulysses':
'Classic lit........read the last 100 pages....
he knew how to punctuate!'
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