More than 30,000 kids aged six- and seven-years-old are to go 'on strike' next week in protest against the controversial SATS exams.

 

Saying that our children are “in a school system that places more importance of test results and league tables than children's happiness and joy of learning', the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign is calling for parents to keep children off school on Tuesday, 3rd May.

 

A petition set up by a group of Year 2 parents, who have had “enough of endless testing, enough of teachers not being trusted to teach, enough of an Ofsted driven, dull, dry curriculum aimed solely at passing National Curriculum Tests” has over 32,000 signatures.

 

Explaining how children in Year 2 will have to sit a week’s worth of exams this May, they highlight how the pressure has seen a decrease in outdoor learning and an increase in childhood anxiety.

 

 

Asking for a return to teacher-led assessments which value individuality and creativity, those behind the campaign added that all year, the curriculum has been centred around “comprehension and arithmetic in order to pass these tests”.

 

“Games have been replaced with grammar, playing with punctuation” they wrote.

 

The Let Our Kids Be Kids campaigners have written an open letter to Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities, saying: "Your government has effectively spent millions of pounds of tax payers’ money chucking marshmallows at our children’s heads."

 

"You’ve had some wonderful teachers trying their hardest to chuck these marshmallows about but no matter how hard they try they are still missing… because these children are in the vast majority of cases simply not mentally ready to learn the material you have placed in front of them. It’s a bit like teaching an 8 year old to drive a sports car or a 6 month old to walk… it’s not going to happen [sic].”

 

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