John
04-16-2009, 08:49 AM
Union officials are expected to urge caution over scrapping Sats tests in primary schools amid fears that any replacement would spell more work for teachers.
Members of the NASUWT teaching union are set to call for industrial action if changes to the current testing regime meant "increased bureaucratic and workload burdens".
The resolution to be debated at the union's annual conference in Bournemouth says: "Decisions to change the testing regime should only be made on the basis of a guarantee that these changes genuinely free up the curriculum, enable teachers to exercise greater professional judgment and freedom, and do not increase workload and bureaucracy."
Kathy Duggan, a primary school teacher from Lewisham, who is proposing the motion, said there were some concerns that ministers could still scrap Sats as a "knee-jerk reaction" to other pressures.
She said: "We don't want in its place to have a system of assessment, a regime that's intensive and workload heavy, like that which has been instigated in Wales."
She added: "It's a case of keeping hold of the nurse for fear of catching something worse.
"If Sats were to be scrapped and in their place we had a workload heavy regime of assessment then we would want to take industrial action on the workload issue."
She said she wanted to see teachers' judgments on assessment trusted, and understood that schools needed to be accountable.
"We want to give information to parents, we want to give information to pupils and have a dialogue with headteachers and local authorities," she said.
"What we don't want is a duplication of assessment and an intensive workload to do with assessment."
Members of the NASUWT teaching union are set to call for industrial action if changes to the current testing regime meant "increased bureaucratic and workload burdens".
The resolution to be debated at the union's annual conference in Bournemouth says: "Decisions to change the testing regime should only be made on the basis of a guarantee that these changes genuinely free up the curriculum, enable teachers to exercise greater professional judgment and freedom, and do not increase workload and bureaucracy."
Kathy Duggan, a primary school teacher from Lewisham, who is proposing the motion, said there were some concerns that ministers could still scrap Sats as a "knee-jerk reaction" to other pressures.
She said: "We don't want in its place to have a system of assessment, a regime that's intensive and workload heavy, like that which has been instigated in Wales."
She added: "It's a case of keeping hold of the nurse for fear of catching something worse.
"If Sats were to be scrapped and in their place we had a workload heavy regime of assessment then we would want to take industrial action on the workload issue."
She said she wanted to see teachers' judgments on assessment trusted, and understood that schools needed to be accountable.
"We want to give information to parents, we want to give information to pupils and have a dialogue with headteachers and local authorities," she said.
"What we don't want is a duplication of assessment and an intensive workload to do with assessment."