SATs tests for 14 year olds to be scrapped

Commenting on Ed Balls' announcement that the Government is to scrap SATs for 14-year-olds, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Jill Wareham said: "I welcome the Government's complete U-turn. The SATs tests taken by 14-year-olds are not only a waste of time but have been highly unreliable over the last few years."

Jill Wareham went on to say:

"This U-turn needs to be just the first move in restoring confidence in standards in English education and putting the needs of young people first instead of the current system of factory farming our children.

"Ed Balls needs to establish a genuinely independent Educational Standards Authority to sample pupil performance each year so that we really know what is happening to standards and that results are not being inflated by teaching to the test or the dumbing down of exams.

"It is important to retain testing at 11 years so that parents have real information and that the focus is on giving young people the key skills they need to thrive in secondary education."

"It is also important that the Isle of Wight Council gets on with re-organising the schools so that our primary schools take responsibility for the children up to 11 years old. I believe retaining all Island primary schools is the best course of action for our young people and the local communities they live in."