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With SATs over for another year, the countdown to a new brand of tests covering the content of the 2014 curriculum has begun.

Complete with a new floor standard for school accountability, pending decision-making on performance descriptors and controversy over SATs re-sits, the new age of assessment promises to be an interesting one.

Progress versus attainment

From 2022 schools that have elected to adopt the Reception Baseline check from September 2015 will be able to be judged on the progress that their children have made rather than on their final attainment.

However, as the first eligible cohort work their way through the Key Stages, the measure for school accountability over the next 7 years will remain attainment. As we know, the DfE has set the bar high - 85% of pupils reaching a level equivalent to a 4b (in old money) in the core subjects, meaning that SATs pressure is about to ramp up another notch.

The weakness of this plan is the absence of information or support relating to how schools are to achieve this, beyond a notion that by expecting more of pupils they will strive to meet up to them.

Official figures from the DfE show that around 100,000 pupils a year currently are failing to achieve the required standards in English and maths, and with pupils now facing tests based on harder curriculum content this figure is likely to grow. Which could be a problem in light of the policy announced in April that pupils who do not pass their end of KS2 SATs will be required to re-sit them.

Resisting resits

It is fair to say that SATs resits have not been well received by the teaching community. First and foremost, it is in direct contradiction of the original intention of SATs to benchmark school performance, not that of the children. Even the kindest of critics believe it’s an idea that has not been fully worked through.

Rhetoric around the time of the election was unhelpful, obscuring the intention of this policy to give children a further chance to catch-up before they get stuck into their Secondary education. Language such as “zero tolerance of failure and mediocrity” and claims that Conservative educational policy would not allow children who failed their SATs to drag down standards for brighter pupils (reported in the Telegraph) came off to many as discriminatory.

However, removed from all of the pre-election bluster, the policy is at its core about a pre-emptive strike to help pupils destined for poor performance at GCSE. “We know that the biggest predictor of success at GCSE is whether young people have mastered the basics at age 11. That means if we fail to get it right for young people at the start of secondary school they’ll struggle for the rest of their time in education,” argues Nicky Morgan.

Not many could argue with the sentiment. There needs to be more of a focus on supporting struggling pupils, particularly as the harder curriculum may mean this group becomes more numerous, pulling in pupils previously considered ‘middling’ into its orbit.

A policy with potential…?

Laura McInerney, editor of Schools Week, concludes that there is potential to the policy – as long as certain ‘sticking points’ can be overcome, and it comes with ideas and resources for support, rather than becoming a stick to beat schools with.

McInerney’s conditions really are the key, of course. The ‘sticking points’ are substantial: relating primarily to the increased pressures on both children and teachers.

Although children will be taking the resits once they start in Secondary, and therefore the onus is on their new school to help them pass – the threat of resits increases the pressure on children to succeed first time round, and the pressure on Primary teachers to ensure they do so.

Whereas previously the impact of poor results would be felt largely by the school, in future they will also be borne by the children themselves.

A stressful start to secondary

In a worst-case scenario, we may see desperate secondary schools seeking ways to minimise their intake of children with weak results or ability-streaming enacted from the very start of Year 7.

Children starting their secondary lives in the position of having to retake their SATs could feel stigmatised – a failure from the start, which can only exacerbate the growing social problem of anxiety and depression in children. The NSPCC reports a 200% increase over recent years in calls related to exam stress.

We must therefore find ways to relieve the pressure on the children. This may take the form of pastoral care, a focus for PSHE lessons, or best of all by removing the pressure from the whole of the accountability chain, so that it doesn’t trickle down to the most vulnerable. In this regard, it might be helpful if the DfE would reconsider the target for the number of pupils expected to pass re-sits (currently set at 80%, criticised by the ASCL as ‘arbitrary’) and the obligation on Secondary schools to report on these results.

All this being said, there are mitigating factors for the re-sits: they will be slimmed down versions of the actual SATs, and will be internally marked, which might help make them slightly less of an administrative burden.

Children will have two opportunities in the year to pass them, but crucially will not be held back if they persistently fail. And finally, contrary to the furore over resits penalising those with Special Education Needs, there is in fact no requirement for this group to take them.

Support and direction needed

Beyond this, there is also the information and support gap already mentioned. What needs to happen to help children pass tests that they failed only a few months earlier – that has not already been attempted by talented and hard-working Primary teaching professionals?

How will secondary teachers close a gap potentially made worse by summer slide? Will there be any central recommendations or co-ordination?

Early intervention seems a better route: it feels less rushed, and less stigmatising than an all-or-nothing Year 7 sprint. But in a world of overstretched class sizes, overworked teachers and dwindling budgets – still more investment in resources and training is needed.

Let us hope that having announced the birth of this particular policy, Nicky Morgan’s department has spent the intervening time working out how to bring it up.

It is a policy that comes from a good place, but which risks sinking - dragging pupil and teacher morale with it – unless it can be buoyed by some real investment in resource and some rethinking around whether there is any real benefit in setting reportable targets for the resit pass rate.

Alongside our commitment to making resources that have a measurable impact on children’s lives, we seek out and support charities that are equally dedicated to helping people make progress in their lives through learning.

Feeding imaginations��(and tummies)

We know for example a child’s ability to concentrate is seriously impaired when they come to school hungry, as sadly an estimated 700,000 children in the UK do each day. So we’ve donated over £64,500 to Magic Breakfast and voted them our charity of the year for three years running.��.
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Reading for pleasure isn’t just fun but also a key indicator of future academic success; that having books at home and being read to from an early age is crucial to making this happen. That’s why, through Booktime, we’ve given away over 10 million books to Reception-aged children, and why we’re extremely proud to sponsor the annual national Read for my School competition that has over 200,000 children in over 3500 schools reading one million books each year.

To help facilitate the sharing of outstanding teaching and leadership practice, we’re working with the Cambridge Primary Review Trust to help schools to build an outstanding, creative curriculum in a principled, evidence-based way. Plus we’re proud to sponsor the ����app Teaching Awards, giving a platform for rewarding and recognising the unsung heroes that are so vital to our children’s futures.

So many children all over the world are far less privileged than our own children, which is why ����app has been working with Book Aid International since 1980, donating over 2.5 million books, including many of our primary titles.

Literacy is the key to transforming lives. So, ����app has embarked on a campaign to inspire new collaboration on the evolving challenges and opportunities around literacy. If Project Literacy was to achieve one thing in the next five years, what would it be? Do share with us at #projectliteracy.

And lastly but certainly by no means least, Save the Children and ����app have launched an ‘Every Child Learning’ partnership, to help out-of-school children caught in the Syrian refugee crisis access quality education.

Providing education for children in conflict and emergency settings presents many unique challenges. Over the course of the three year partnership, ����app has committed £1 million to work with Save the Children to identify and develop solutions for delivering education in emergencies, drawing on the expertise and assets of both organisations. Of course, the credit for all these achievements goes to the wonderful organisations we work with. We are honoured to be able to play a part in making them happen.

Last week we received a video made by the children and teachers at Springwood Primary in Wales. It was a short but exuberant film in which they share some love for our whole school reading programme - Bug Club.

Made by the children and teachers themselves, it was so natural and honest it couldn't possibly have been scripted. For the Bug Club team, it was so special because it was completely Springwood's own initiative. We never asked them to do it, we didn't give them any discounts for their 'free marketing' - they just made it and shared it to our Twitter feed.

����app is a fairly large organisation but the Primary team here in Oxford is not. Bug Club is created and managed by a surprisingly small team of people whose job it is to keep improving both the printed and online eBooks, ensuring they are as fun and engaging as possible. Seeing the children of Springwood, iPads in hand, speaking so enthusiastically about Bug Club has delighted the team of people who work on it every day.

Their rather fabulous little video, freely created and so kindly shared, genuinely has made our week.

We spoke to Justin Dowd, a teacher at Springwood, after seeing the video, and were even more delighted by a comment he made that, ‘he thought Bug Club would improve reading standards, but since getting it in, it’s transformed them!’

Much as we love hearing the good stuff, just like the schools and children we serve we are on a journey of continuous improvement and learning. If you have feedback about any ����app Primary product please let us know. Use this blog to comment, fill out one of regular online surveys, speak to one of sales consultants or customer service people or use Twitter, Facebook or email us. We value your feedback enormously.

Here’s our statement in response to September 2012 press reports on the subject of GCSE English grade boundaries.

A spokesperson for ����app said:

“The letters which have been leaked to the press today reflect a moment in time during extensive discussions with the regulator this summer. Following these we went on to make a decision on grade boundaries for English GCSE, which we consider fair to learners and which we stand by as right.

“We understand that the ongoing debate is unsettling to students and we want to give reassurance that we have done everything in our power to represent their interests.

“In setting grade boundaries, our responsibilities are two-fold. First, to maintain standards year-on-year for our qualifications, so that similar candidate performance is rewarded comparably over time. Second, to work with Ofqual and other awarding organisations to ensure a nationally-maintained standard, so that students of different cohorts and different awarding organisations are treated comparably.

“We have been consistent in stating that grade boundaries for Edexcel GCSE English this year were the subject of lengthy discussion both with Ofqual and the other awarding organisations. With the introduction of new specifications, all awarding organisations needed to make changes to their January boundaries for June to ensure standards were maintained year on year. We also considered reissuing grades for students who took units in January.

“The letters which have emerged in the press and have been discussed in select committee today are part of that discussion.

“At the time these letters were issued, other awarding organisations had already taken decisions on changes to their grade boundaries and had those decisions accepted by Ofqual. Given the relatively small number of students who take English with Edexcel, the grade boundary decisions of other awarding organisations have a larger impact on national results than our own.

“We felt that the original grade boundary changes suggested by Ofqual, based on prediction data and the decisions of other awarding organisations, would not enable us to adequately reflect student work in their grades. After extensive discussion with Ofqual we agreed a June grade boundary which took account of our concerns to recognise the candidate performance our examiners observed. This reported results slightly above original Ofqual predictions.

“We are therefore satisfied that the final grade boundary we set for June enabled us to fairly reward learners as well as uphold the standard of the GCSE.

“The letters which have emerged in the press give a partial picture of the discussions between Edexcel and Ofqual. We therefore feel it is important to publish the full set of letters in order to give a full picture of what was agreed.”

At ����app, we’re launching a higher education college - becoming the first FTSE 100 company to directly deliver degrees in the UK.

The college is seeking to recruit the brightest and most entrepreneurial students and equip them with the knowledge and skills employers seek.

The college has worked with a range of businesses to design a unique style of business degree. The ����app Business and Enterprise degree course will focus on preparing students for the world of business and has been developed in conjunction with BT, Cisco, the Peter Jones Foundation and Atos. Students will graduate with a BSc (Hons) degree validated by Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, part of the University of London. Students will study in a corporate environment at ����app’s offices in London or Manchester and also take part in a residential at Royal Holloway’s campus. The degree includes a guaranteed internship programme and a company-based mentor for every student.

����app College is currently recruiting a small cohort of pioneers to start in September, ready for the main launch in September 2013. Applicants will undergo an Oxbridge style assessment day which includes an interview and aptitude test. While standard entry requirements are ABB at A-Level (or equivalent), the college is using the assessment day to consider students with potential, looking at their ability and motivation, and not just their previous academic success.

Tuition fees are set at £6,500 per year for the three year programme. ����app is offering ‘Performance Scholarships’ to cover the course fees for the very brightest.

The ����app Business degree is flexible and students have the choice of three routes, enabling them to choose the one that best fits their lifestyle. The traditional three year mode follows the same yearly pattern as traditional universities; alternatively students can choose to accelerate over the summer and complete in only two years; and finally students can combine work and study and complete in only four years.

Commenting, Roxanne Stockwell, Managing Director, ����app College, said:

“Given its academic publishing heritage and over 150 years of commercial experience, ����app is uniquely placed to develop and deliver degrees that combine a solid academic foundation with meeting business and employer needs.

“Our degrees are designed by business, delivered with business, for students who are serious about succeeding in business.

“We have a network of blue chip industry relationships, many of whom are working with us on the design and delivery of our degree programmes. This gives us an inherent understanding of the modern business environment and employer needs. Our degrees will therefore embed professional work experience, business skills and etiquette, with significant and relevant input from our industry partners.”

����app is to bring together an international panel of assessment and education experts to support the development of a new gold standard qualification for age 16.

����app, which has a presence in education provision and support in over 70 countries, plans to work with the group to set out a blueprint for assessments which are

• Internationally benchmarked and rigorous
• Designed to cater for all ability levels and set high expectations for all
• Relevant for the changing landscape of the 21st century

The Panel will be chaired by ����app’s Chief Education Advisor Sir Michael Barber, one of the world’s leading education experts and will include representatives from the OECD, Harvard, University of Durham, the National Institute of Education Singapore, University of Warwick, as well as Peter Hill, formerly Chief Executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority and Secretary General of Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.

����app is committed to working with the Panel to create a new suite of qualifications, initially in the key subjects of English, Mathematics and the Sciences.

The company also plans to share the insights and suggestions of the Panel with the Department for Education and others to inform ongoing discussions about the reform of GCSEs and A levels.

Rod Bristow, President of ����app UK, said:

“The Government has this summer started a hugely important debate about whether what we are teaching and testing in our schools is doing our children justice.

“We are working with some of the world’s most eminent academic institutions and respected authorities in assessment to look beyond the UK to determine what excellence looks like internationally, and how we can embed it in the UK.

“It is vital that qualifications are of the right standard to help people progress and prosper in the 21st century. All young people should be reaching for a standard which will set them apart from the rest of the world in the ambition and relevance of what they know and can do.”

Sir Michael Barber, ����app’s Chief Education Advisor, and Chair of the Expert Group on World Class Qualifications, said:

“The UK Government has set an ambitious agenda for the reform of education, with a particular focus on qualifications and assessment. They have been the first to turn to international data and comparators to diagnose the issues and problems they see in the system.

“The gold standard is not what happened in the 1950s in England, it is what is already happening in Singapore and Hong Kong and Ontario and Alberta. The gold standard is being set by the best education systems ready for the 21st century.

“As an international education company ����app is uniquely placed to draw on our own work with Governments around the world and bring together the best and brightest in seeking to improve the quality and effectiveness of our qualifications.

“A crucial part of this work will be a new focus on using technology to make assessments more accurate and personalised. If we crack this, then we will be in position where the UK is ahead of the pack on educational innovation and reform.”

Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on Education to the OECD, said:

“Through PISA, OECD have set the current gold standard in international comparative assessment. This is important because Governments are able to really understand the impact of investment and reform they are making.

“In a global economy, it is no longer improvement by national standards alone, but the best performing education systems internationally that are the benchmark for success.

“What’s exciting about this programme is that it seeks to create a new approach to national assessment that will allow Government to compare performance with the best performing education systems globally”.

Peter Hill said:

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the high regard the UK’s examination system is held in. However it is absolutely right to push the envelope on what can be achieved.

“Education systems must embrace the significant opportunity to design assessments which are more rigorous and reliable in testing the skills higher education and employers want.

“Even in its early stages, this work is grappling with the tough question as to how we can set a standard for education which encompasses the new and fast changing skills needs of the 21st century, and extends the opportunity to achieve them to all.”