“Yeah Alestree, Boulton and Sinfin are renouned for their immigration populations Major Chord.

[End sarcasm]...”

“Go ahead, close them down and create an even greater mess. I despair at Nu Thinking!”

“Any form of standardised testing will always prove ONLY that the students have or have not the specific knowledge for that particular test; as a measurement tool, they are useless.

We are told in all other walks of life to not only accept differences, but to celebrate them and respect each other's right to them; why is this courtesey not extended to schoolchildren? For all the posturing of the politicians about intergration and such, there are areas of poorer families on the povertyline. This has always been the case; people migrate to areas where they are more comfortable in their surrounds, especially with like-minded people.

Not wishing to be disparaging, but those employed in lower-paid, more physical work tend to be the same ones who struggled at school; why would their kids be any different? I appreciate that testing has it's place in appraising education but to threaten to close schools or to place them in special measures simply because they don't attain the prescribed national standard is tantamount to educational sabotage. It's NOT always about teachers failing their students, and all we ask from our teaching staff is that they achieve the best they can with the kids we place in their charge. For me, that means first and foremost helping them become balanced individuals who are happy, confident and content; branding whole blocs of children by means of SATS will not achieve any of those objectives.”

“Teachers haven't been allowed to teach the subjects our children (I am a Father) need since before I was at school...I can remember the amount of pointless c**p I was tought at school!!
The issue of non English language speaking children is one that seriously needs to be addressed... I have nothing against these children, but I can only see them holding other children back with the amount of teacher time they take up with the language barrier difficulties..”

“The use of spot tests in subjects would be far more useful to the children as it would highlight areas that need more work and resources. Most of the teachers I know favour this approach as well. Far better to teach the subjects and test the children periodically than have them taught merely to pass SATs.
We were given tests every term on what we had learned the previous term, we all sat facing the teacher, not around tables facing each other as is the norm now, but the system would still work. Teachers could then do what they trained for............teaching children the subjects needed.”

“Angela, I find your views about SATS a bit disturbing.... Its not only about the tests themselves but also preparing children for an exam type, controlled atmosphere. HAve you ever stopped tot hink that your child being a no show at said exams automatically enters as a zero on the score and as such actually makes the school one of those that suffers??
This approach is obviously not working as the SATS have been going for a far while now and still look to be continued, so maybe its YOU using your child as a pawn in the Goveernments game.”

“This is an absolute joke ! In Pear Tree's case what purpose is there in shutting the school down ? It is what it is. A school that is populated by children from all backgrounds of which a lot of them speak English as their second language.

Closing the school down will just result in these children having to go elsewhere. All you will be doing then is shifting the problem further down the line for another school to suffer poor results.

I went to Pear Tree Infants and Pear Tree Junior School, i would be very saddened if it had to be closed down just on the basis that the school could not meet hits target.”

“Pete no I ma not sticking my head in the sand, teachers have been against them for years as they do not give a true figure, children who cannot read english don't do them, so why should children be used as pawns for the Government. The teaching unions have been calling for them to be abolished for years as they are pointless. The schools facing closure have teachers doing the best they can with the resources available yet are being penalised because the SATs results are below "average". A school shouldn't be closed because some Government body says so. Their teachers are no less committed to their pupils than those at schools from more affluent areas, incidently they will have lower numbers of children whose first language isn't english. So the results are skewed.”

“Pete, these tests serve no purpose other than for league tables and Government statistics and since my child is not a statistic I wasn't having him tested from severn years old merely to appease a Government office. So yes he has been off each year and will not be tested at the next stage either. Parents are able to take their children out of school for 10 days a year for holidays, I choose my holidays during SATS week. Most of the teachers I know are also opposed to SATs as it reduces the time spent on core subjects while teaching children how to pass SATs. I have no objection to spot tests that check how much a child has learned in a given subject, nor to exams in general. No I am not sticking my head in the sand, even his head teacher said the SATs are not important and would prefer not to have them foisted on her.”

“Well done Labour , you Commissars of control freakism!
That's right close the beggars down! That'll show em!
Then what you clever d***s?
Kids wandering round with no schools? Or increased bussing costs to ship them off to overcrowd other schools, which then fail the same tests because of overcrowding ?What nonsense.
All wind and no substance. It's a good job we have an opportunity to be rid of them soon (labour not the children!).”