Failing the laugh test

Liz Brown

SowhatBallsup is such pompous arrogantlittle shit that he wouldn't know a laugh if it stood up and hit him in the face

Ian

Laugh? It's enough to make you cry. Is there a school in the land where the children don't know they are taking SATs, and where education isn't being bastardised in pursuit of these crude measures of a school's worth?

Thomas Widmann

Balls' "testing without telling" is exactly how my stepkids (aged 8 and 10) are being tested here in Newton Mearns (Scotland), and that seems to work well. For once, what he's saying actually sounds sensible to me.

kinglear

Good teachers always lead their pupils. Unfortunately, neithe Balls nor Brown have any leadership qualities.

Mike, Brighton

Laugh? I'd rather cry that this complete idiot is in charge of our schools until 2010

Scotsman

@Thomas Widmann, having spent the first 20 years of my life living in Newton Mearns and attending schools there I think you will appreciate that you are blessed with an abundance of good schools in that area. The rest of the country I fear is not so lucky.

Leo Bajzert

I'm in love with Liz Brown (comment 1). I'm so used to reading staid responses to blogs that her visceral reaction to Balls made me spit my tea over the desk. Fabulous.

jim

Balls

Tiberius

Balls is being obtuse (or worse).

His supposition assumes, for example, that children don't talk to each other, particularly the older to the younger, that kids don't understand what revision is for, and that parents avoid coaching their children through the tests.

The Laughing Cavalier

It evokes hollow laughter so it is a pass in a way. How you and your colleagues can maintain that this clown is intelligent is beyond me.

Nicholas

"I promise you" and "Honestly" sound more like the patter of a salesman than a Minister. I suppose that is what happens when you staff the cabinet with immature, inexperienced and shallow oiks like Balls.

How much more of this New Labour crap are we going to have to swallow?

thomas

My mother works at a first school where this is also true. I don't think it's in itself ridiculous. It is the teachers' way of saving them from an unnecessary stress and far preferrable to them knowing about it.

Frankly, how could a seven year old understand the concepts of SATs anyway? How can they understand the concept of a test that will affect their future education? Why wouldn't they just draw cows and moons?

Testing at such an age is unecessarily stressful for teachers and distorts their choice of what to teach. Also, due to the cow/moon problem it is a complete waste of time.

dave, surrey

It's sad and ironic that our children are the most tested and coerced in the world and at the end of their formal education the exams they sit are probably the easiest. For what it's worth, I think testing of young children to gauge future academic performance a total nonsense.

Marian C

Balls, well he's got the right name; he talks enough of it. Of course the children and parents know that they are sitting their SAT's it's nonsense to suggest otherwise. What I would like to know is who thought (realistically) that this numpty, Ed Balls, was the best person to be the Education Minister!! I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Silent Hunter

Tiberius:

'Balls is being obtuse or worse'

Yes indeed.

It's called 'Lying'....The New Nasty Party are very good at telling lies..........only they prefer the euphemism - 'spin'.

Scotsman:

Good point about the plethora of good schools in Newton Mearns.

Newton Mearns, for those who don't know, is predominantly well off, upper middle class territory where they used to be fanatically Thatcherite..... and since New Labour are a fanatically Thatcherite party, it's unsurprising that they find support there.

Anan

Not knowing when you are being tested is far more stressful for anyone than having to only be stressed on one particular day. These stupid changes being made by this loon will only serve to ruin educational standards even further. Preventing hurt feelings of students who have failed an exam are not as important as making sure the most intelligent students are found and encouraged. Those who fail need more support, not some feel-good, "we are all the same", non-sensical hippy crap.

DW

Sorry, but he's right. I have had three children go through this in the last few years at the Year 2 stage (private schools) and they were unaware of what it was. The schools did not make a big deal of it. In fact neither parent nor child knew what day anything was about to happen, and the children just got on in the classroom with whatever was presented to them that day. It can be done. Don't know if the private sector rather than the state sector is the key point here...

HJ

My daughter did SATs at an independent school age 7. Neither she nor I knew she was even taking SATs.

The point DW (above) doesn't quite make is that in the state system, the schools are measured by the government by their SAT results, so all the staff and students, quite understandably, prepare specially for them, beholden as they are to their political masters. In the independent sector, the schools are instead answerable to parents...

Silent Hunter

DW.........I think the key point in your post is..........Private Schools.

Rather skews the result, don't you think?

Alan Phillips

"And Prime Minister, this is how I propose that we introduce all these money raising measures through taxation by stealth" - circa 2000 - Gordon Brown of No 11 Downing Street.

and 8 years later, the same approach to a different client. How much more of this deception do we need in our lives.

Ben L

My headmaster sprang the 11+ on us by surprise (in reality the scholarship exam to the local public school, where the Council paid for places). The only clue was that pupils who didn't live in Lincolnshire were weeded out and went to do something in another room.

So we did the exam, and the results weren't a great surprise to anyone. And no child was particularly stressed out.

The distinction, though, is that poor SATs scores can land a school into a nightmare of government interference, special measures and even closure - so weaker schools will of course make sure the children are pressurised to do well. In other words, the kids who would most benefit from the 'not knowing' approach are often the ones who are under pressure to perform, and who do get stressed. Usually because their teachers are stressed.

Balls is right, but the fact is that the system his government has constructed penalises the people in society they continually claim to want to help.

dilys

"Don't know if the private sector rather than the state sector is the key point here..."

Of course you don't DW, but you will appreciate that private isn't an option for most people. These private schools were actually doing SAT's? In state primary schools the non statutory SAT's have become the norm, so the kids are tested every year.

Michael St George

What more explicit statement of what the entire NuLab Gramscian Long March project is really about could you want? The State doing things to you in the name of outcome-centred social engineering while you are not aware of it being done.

Mike Kingscott

"Martin Bright and Suzanne Moore press Balls" - hee hee hee!

That is all!

Simon Orr

I was in the first batch of seven year olds to do year 2 SATS (16 years ago) and I didn't know what was going on. But once I was given my results a while later I remembered what had happened and put 2 and 2 together. It wasn't stressful at all, unlike our preparation for year 6 SATS which was very intense and put plenty of pressure on us.

Mr Leatherhead

Why should we be surprised at Balls comments. His "Testing without Telling" is philosophy identical to New Labour's "Taxing with Telling" (ie stealth taxes)

Silent Hunter

Mr Leatherhead:

Brilliant point - well made!