Former Scarborough headteacher backs independent commission into pupil assessments
Anne Swift believes young people should be celebrated for their uniqueness, rather than being part of 'exam factories'
A former primary school headteacher from Scarborough has given her backing to a new independent commission which has been set up to look at how pupils are assessed.
Anne Swift, who's now a senior member of the National Education Union, believes young people should be celebrated for their uniqueness, rather than being part of 'exam factories'.
At the moment, pupils work towards exams, including SATs and GCSEs.
But the commission will work with parents, young people and businesses, to explore other alternatives for assessing the achievements of pupils.
Anne Swift said:
"At the moment, we're just sorting kids out into those who can do something and those who can't, based on a pencil and paper test. That's very unfair and doesn't really recognise the uniqueness of our youngsters and all the talents they possess.
"Particularly at primary schools, the children should have a rich and varied curriculum, so they can find out what interests them, what motivates them, what they're good at. There's lots of different ways of assessing children's skills, knowledge and understanding across a broad range of the curriculum.
"If you're judging a school by the results that it gets in particular tests, in particular subjects, then it's not unnatural that the teachers and schools will want the children to do their very best in those testable subjects, and so that has impacted on the curriculum."