Ofsted chief calls for formal tests for children aged seven and 14

Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, talks to young children at St Paul’s Way believe in school in Bow, east London. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

The chief inspector of colleges, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has urged the government to reintroduce formal tests for 7- and 14-year-olds “for the advantage of youngsters”.

In a speech to launch Ofsted’s annual report, Wilshaw stated more required to be completed if the country was to keep pace with its overseas rivals.

The Ofsted survey of its inspections in the past year showed that almost eight in each ten schools have been judged to be excellent or excellent, the highest proportion in Ofsted’s twenty-12 months background.

But Wilshaw mentioned reintroducing national exams would be a way of measuring progress.

“If we are significant about raising standards and catching up with the best in the world, we need to know how pupils are undertaking at 7, eleven, 14 and 16.”

The get in touch with was right away criticised by teachers’ unions for overemphasising testing at the cost of learning.

Christine Blower, basic secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said testing was “an unhelpful phase”.

“We presently have formal assessment in the early many years and the phonics examine at age 5. This is all as well significantly testing too soon,” Blower explained.

National tests for seven-12 months-olds had been scrapped in 2004, replaced by teacher assessments, whilst national tests for 14-yr-olds – key stage three – were dropped by the preceding Labour government in 2009 soon after a fiasco involving marking and administration.

The recent government launched a phonics check for pupils at the end of yr one in primary college, even though eleven-yr-olds get maths and reading through exams at key stage two, with a new spelling, punctuation and grammar test additional from Might this year.

“Talk to any great headteacher and they will inform you it was a error to abolish individuals tests. Which is simply because very good teachers use people exams to make sure every child learns effectively. In getting rid of the tests, we conceded also significantly ground to vested interests,” Wilshaw said.

“Our training program need to be run for the benefit of children, and no one else.”

Ofsted had statistics from 30 infant schools that had been merged into regular major colleges, exhibiting that the efficiency of essential stage one pupils suffered after they had been in main schools. That advised that main schools put far more energy into preparing pupils for key stage two exams.

The Division for Education recently held a consultation on exams for younger pupils, providing a “baseline evaluation” of both a check for four-year-olds getting into reception class or tests for 7-12 months-olds.

A spokesman for the DfE said: “The department launched a consultation on the main accountability technique and will be responding in due course. We count on teachers to take expert duty for the accurate evaluation of pupils.”

There are now 485,000 far more main school pupils and 180,000 more secondary college pupils attending great or exceptional colleges in contrast with a yr ago.

“Hunting at the evidence across all sectors, there are unmistakable signs that England’s training system is steadily bettering,” stated Wilshaw, who attributed some of the improvement to Ofsted’s abolition of the “satisfactory” inspection grade becoming replaced by the notification “needs improvement”.

The chief inspector also announced that Ofsted inspectors would start creating “no recognize” visits to schools identified as rife with bad behaviour.

“Classrooms need to be orderly places. About 700,000 pupils attend colleges the place behaviour wants to increase,” Wilshaw stated.

Wilshaw gave a nod of approval to the academy programme launched by Labour in 2007 and expanded below Gove.

“Academies are undoubtedly generating a big distinction. Effectively-established sponsored academies in deprived locations have created especially impressive progress,” Wilshaw stated.

Ofsted chief calls for formal tests for children aged seven and 14