Interesting Facts

Hundreds of parents in the UK are expected to keep their children out of school today in protest over too stressful tests. (The first ever "kids' strike" in the UK is in protest at what parents claim is "over-testing" at the expense of children’s happiness.  Key Stage 1 testing (SATS) for six and seven-year-olds, have been made tougher this year in an attempt to drive up standards, but the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign, which is coordinating the kids’ strike, says that nearly 40,000 people have signed up in support of the action, and has written to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan calling for an "end to SATs now". The letter says: "Please take a long, hard look at this. "Do you want your legacy to be the confident cancellation of unneeded and unnecessary SATS, showing you are listening to your electorate and the teachers you claim to support ... or the overseeing of a shambolic testing regime desperately unwanted by millions of peop...

National Offer Day (around the beginning of March) is when parents across England are told by their Local Authority whether their children will be offered a place in their first choice secondary school. (It is a fraught time for parents with children who are in their final year of primary school. In 2015 84.2% of children were offered a place at their first choice school, but that means quite a few missed out. Increasingly parents whose kids don't get their first choice are spending thousands of pounds to try and secure a place in their chosen school, in what is becoming an increasingly competitive environment.) Source

According to government figures, only 30% of schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland follow the National Curriculum. (All maintained schools in England are required to follow the National Curriculum, but academies and so called Free Schools are not required to follow it, they are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which includes English, mathematics, science and religious education. From September 2013 schools won't need to follow the national curriculum at all. I'd love to know how much this faffing around has cost over the years, not just in investment, but in the number of people it has put off teaching and learning.  Quantify that Gove!) http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/secondary