It is May, the sun is shining and the lambs are growing bigger by the day. It must therefore be time for SAT's. Our oldest children spend parts of four days doing their SATs this week. The context this year is a national boycott led by NAHT and NUT. Our school is going ahead as while we are unhesitatingly against the SATs we feel that more noticed needed to have been given to the children before a change of expectation. As with so many other events, SATs have assumed 'rights of passage' status and are one of those things that pupils have expected for years. Contrary to popular opinion, children in our school don't mind SATs that much. Most admit to having found the week quite fun and many admit to really enjoying the process. Why the contradiction? Our school places no pressure on members of staff to reach particular targets. The pressure created by schools and parents when passed on to pupils is what really causes their stress. Our view is that we do the best job we possibly can, help all children to ac hive, provide support to those who most need it (not just those at expedient grade boundaries) and then see how they did at the end of the process. We do evaluate and see if we can learn lessons but we don't hold an inquisition.
Ofsted have been and gone this year and graciously graded us as a Good school with many Outstanding elements. Sadly they can never pay back the time to children that was lost documenting and finding evidence to support what we already knew as fact.
Our number continue to grwo and currently sit at 156 pupils on roll.
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