Chloe SmithMP for Norwich North
Chloe SmithThe publication of the recent Standard Assessment Test (SATS) results confirms that levels of attainment for 11 year-olds in Norfolk are still lower than the national average. This is a cause for concern in the county.
Chloe Smith, MP for the North side of the city comments:
“As someone who has come through Norfolk’s state schools and is a governor of one of them, I think it is vitally important to encourage children across Norwich and Norfolk to aim for the sky.
“These Figures are disappointing, but I do not think anyone should do Norfolk down. We have got great teachers and great kids and, given the chance to succeed they all want to do as well as they possibly can.
“I think it is important to be radical in the future and that’s why we are focusing on school standards and how we can help children from challenging backgrounds do much better.
“One of the things the Conservative party would do is to scrap SATs tests taken by 11-year-olds so they can concentrate on learning as much as possible before they move on to secondary school.”
The abolition of SATs tests, as advocated by the Conservative Party, would give way to a more reliable system of teacher assessment.
Shadow Schools secretary Michael Gove MP has said that testing at the end of primary school "completely narrows teaching" and all the focus is on "drilling" children for the purpose of league table results.
Testing pupils at the beginning of secondary school - and using teachers to mark exams in place of external examiners - would free the final stages of primary education for "teaching in a broader sense", he adds. It would also provide a "more rigorous, more transparent" indication of how well children were taught at primary school.