AS one of Wales’ biggest teaching unions calls on the Welsh Government to rethink its strategy of testing children aged six to 14, EMMA MACKINTOSH takes a look at some of the responses from teachers to the tests.

TRAWLING through 12 pages of comments by teachers on the Welsh Government’s recently introduced literacy and numeracy tests makes for some depressing reading.

The majority of the teachers, who were responding to their union NUT Cymru’s request for feedback on the nationwide tests, have not held back in describing their frustration and disappointment at subjecting pupils as young as six to exam conditions.

This may come as a surprise to a generation who were brought up with the Sats exams, long since banished in Wales. Other comments go straight to specific problems that teachers have with these latest tests.

The most common complaint is that for the youngest pupils, the idea of sitting in isolation under exam conditions goes against the whole ethos of the Welsh Government’s flagship education initiative, the foundation phase, where children are taught through seeing and doing and are able to work with others.

Other teachers were concerned that the test was the same for all pupils regardless of whether they have additional learning needs, or what their reading age is.

“One of my Year 4 boys is working at a Year 2 level,” said one teacher. “After sitting the literacy test for Year 4/5, he has refused to even try to read. All our hard work [was] undone in one stupid test.”

One comment called it a “political venture”, while others called on the Welsh Government to “listen to teachers”.

NUT Cymru is now asking education minister Huw Lewis to review the tests, but his department has responded that the tests have been welcomed by parents of all age groups across Wales and that making sure pupils never fall behind can “only be achieved through rigorous monitoring and assessment”.

That is the culture of the British school system, said Fairwater High School head teacher Helen Coulson.

“I’ve got opinions as a head teacher and a parent,” she said. “Our education system is fundamentally based on testing children. When they all get to 16 they will have GCSE and BTEC exams and they are tested at every single point.

“Personally, I’m more than happy with them having a simple test at the end of Year 2, just before they go up to the juniors as it was called, it does set a benchmark,” she said.

“My children have both been through it, and they weren’t at all stressed. It depends how the school will handle it.

“As a parent, you’ve got to be really careful because you go to parents’ evenings and everything these days has to be positive,” she said.

“Parents want to know if their child is average, above or below average because then they can work with the school to do something about it.

“Sometimes it doesn’t reflect their full ability, but all children sit the same test, which I like. It’s across Wales.”

Part of the reason for prominence of these literacy and numeracy tests, apart from a Wales-wide push on integrating reading and maths skills into the curriculum to catch up with the rest of the globe, is concerns around teacher assessment levels.

“There has been a bit of controversy at foundation phase, and Key Stages 1 and 2 in Torfaen in particular, because teacher assessment levels are very different to outcomes in the literacy and numeracy tests,” said Mrs Coulson.

“We’re the best for teacher assessments but 19th in Wales for the test results, so there’s something going on there. Teacher assessment levels are being questioned as to how accurate they are, whereas the test is a bit more black-and-white.

“In my opinion, it will give a realistic idea of what the children can do on their own.”

But the possibility of offering a different exam for children with additional learning needs should be looked at, said Mrs Coulson.

“You don’t want them to have a negative experience at such a young age,” she said.

“But that’s our culture in Britain, exams and testing. Results are becoming more and more important. For secondary schools, it’s still GCSE results [which are the most looked at] but this is the next most important thing.

“There is a lot of pressure on schools as a result, but I still personally think it’s a clear way of looking at children’s progress and ability across the board. You do need to have a reasonably accurate snapshot.”

When asked about claims by teachers that it’s easy to change conditions so they are more favourable for the tests, Mrs Coulson said spot-checks of exams like the system used at GCSE level would be useful.

“I am not saying the tests are perfect, but it’s one test at the end of a whole key stage,” she said. “We need to be competitive in a worldwide market, because if we don’t, then we have low expectations and I think that’s unfair.

“Overall we surely should be pushing for better and better all the time.”