Early Childhood Forum

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Letter from More Than A Score:

Don’t let them test four-year-olds

The government is splashing out £10 million on its plans to test four and five-year-olds in English and maths when they start school. This is despite overwhelming opposition from parents, heads, teachers and education experts — and no evidence that small children can be reliably assessed.

We only have a few more months to demand a halt to the roll-out of these pointless and damaging tests: from September, schools across the country will be taking part in a pilot of the new regime.

We already have over 36,000 signatures on our petition to Nick Gibb MP, the Schools Minister. Can you help us reach our goal of 50,000 names?

Share this email with your friends and family, especially if they have children starting school in September. Ask them to sign our petition.

Share our posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Would you want your four-year-old to sit tests in English and maths in their first few weeks of school?  Let’s make our voices heard: our children are More Than A Score.

Best wishes

The More Than A Score team

ECF member Learning through Landscapes recommends the Erasmus-funded project Take Me Out. Visit www.takemeoutproject.eu for a wealth of resources and information.

Professor Margaret Clark OBE has written a paper on the intended and unintended effects of the Phonics Screening Test in the EY classroom (England) in the Education Journal 349.

UPDATE
Professor Clark has had two further articles published in the Education Journal (nos. 351 and 352) where HMG's evidence supporting its phonics screening is found severely wanting...