Liberal Democrats promise to end primary SATs

The Liberal Democrat Party has promised to ‘end the current system of SATS in primary schools’, warning that tests have become a ‘distraction’ in schools.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Party conference, leader Tim Farron said that the government has been focussed on the ‘wrong kinds of tests’ and said that ‘instead of building an education system, we have built a quality assurance industry’.

Farron said he wanted schools to be ‘places where our teachers have the freedom to use their skill and their knowledge to open young minds, not just train them to pass exams’ and ‘places where children are inspired to learn, not stressed out by tests’.

He criticised SATs as a ‘distraction from the real education that professional teachers want to give their children’ and promised that his party would work to end the current testing system.

Farron then moved on to condemn the government’s plans to open new grammar schools, saying that while every parent wants their children to go to a good school, grammars ‘are not the answer’.

He added: “We need better schools for all our children, not just those who can pass an exam at the age of 11. We can’t just leave children behind.”