| |
EXAM BOARD ‘FAILS PUPILS’
Parents’ anger as children are left waiting for SATs results
FIVE primary schools are still waiting for their Key Stage 2 results a week into the summer holidays, after being caught up in the national SATs marking fiasco.
Dozens of 11-year-olds have been left in limbo, facing an agonising wait to receive their marks for English and maths exams. Three of the five affected schools
have received just 5 per cent of their total results.
The debacle has thrown the schools into chaos, causing headaches for headteachers and anxious parents, as well as fueling fears that children will be lumped together in the wrong classes when they start Year 7 at their new secondary schools.
The schools are: All Souls in Fitzrovia, Barrow Hill Junior School in St John’s Wood, Hallfield Junior School in Bayswater, Our Lady of Dolours off the Harrow Road and St Mary of the Angels in Westbourne Park.
With parents clamouring for action, education chiefs at Westminster Council have written a letter to the exam board, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), demanding explanations.
Concerns have been raised that it could be next term before results are delivered, seriously hampering efforts to organise class bands as well as jeapordising parents’ right to contest results and seek appeals. It will also leave question marks over future league table standings and inspection reports.
Earlier this month Children’s Secretary Ed Balls launched an inquiry into the failure to deliver the results on time.
They are now more than two weeks overdue.
Nationally there are growing questions as to how ETS, an American firm, was awarded the marking contract by the QCA despite accusations it has mismanaged testing abroad.
Westminster NUT secretary Padraic Finn called the situation a “joke”.
“I don’t think secondary schools should pay too much attention to key stage 2 as it is, but this makes it even more of a joke,” he said.
He added: “As a parent I think key stage 2 is pointless, but that won’t stop other parents being seriously worried by this, not to mention the hassle it will cause for teachers. We don’t agree with league tables, but some parents look at them and this will no doubt affect them.
“Frankly, the contract should never have been awarded to ETS in the first place and this is why.”
Councillor Sarah Richardson, cabinet member for children’s services, wrote: “I write to express my deep unhappiness and disappointment with the way the QCA has failed to deliver SATs results to schools in Westminster within the expected timetable.
“The delay is not only unsatisfactory for teachers and parents but, more importantly, to the pupils, who have worked hard all year and would expect to receive their results at the same time as their peers.
“Young people across the city deserve a system that they can have confidence in and at the moment the QCA is not providing this.” |
 |
|
| |
| |
