Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

The mess up of this year's SATs tests for Year 6 children has dominated the news this week. I happen to know someone who has been marking the papers, so I can confirm that the changeover to the new supplier has been horrendous. However, some parents do need to get things into perspective, I think.

I heard one mother on the radio yesterday saying that her daughter was so nervous about the results that she (the mother) had taken a day off work specially to be by her daughter's side when they arrived. Of course, the mother was then complaining that she'd waste a day's annual leave, and now would have to dash across the county to be there when the results finally arrive.

Dear me, some people need to get a grip! It doesn't take a massive leap of the imagination to figure out why that poor girl is so worried about her test scores…

Although secondary schools may look at the scores to help them stream in-coming Year 7s, surely they also take account of information from the Year 6 class teachers?

And while I'm on a roll here, next time you hear a Tory spokesperson banging on about the nation's failing education system, ponder this:

• As of January 2007 (latest figures) there were 25,018 schools in England (including 2,284 independent schools).

"Since 1997, over 1,400 schools, which required special measures, have been successfully turned round and a further 200 have been closed. 51 schools closed have been given a Fresh Start with a new school opening on the same site.

At the end of the 1997/98 academic year there were 515 schools in special measures but this figure had fallen to 254 at the end of the spring term 2008."

(source: DFES The Standards Site)

As some might say: "Do the math!"