Primary school review: Minister defends SATs changes
- 00:00:37
- ITN
Primary school review: Minister defends SATs changes
Formal school learning should begin at the age of six, according to the authors of a review of primary education in England. The study found children respond better to play-based learning at a young age, and that there was no evidence to suggest it would hold them back in later life. Rather than delaying the school starting age, the way children are taught up until the age of six should be reformed, it said. Chairman of the review Dame Gillian Pugh said: "If you introduce a child to too formal a curriculum before they are ready for it then you are not taking into account where children are in terms of their learning and their capacity to develop." The report found that in the current system of early years education, "quality is too variable, and too many staff are under-qualified or poorly paid". It also called for tests at the end of primary school (SATs) to be scrapped, and criticised the testing system for making the entire curriculum too narrow.
ITN | October 16, 2009
