The government’s plans to assess four and five-year-old children in their first few weeks of school from September should be postponed, according to a report from the More Than A Score campaign group.

A YouGov survey of 2,012 parents in England with children aged 4 to 11 suggests that only 15% think spending time preparing for assessments should be included in a “catch-up” programme for pupils.

The poll found that 67% of parents would prefer the programme to include their children participating in activities which were not accessible during lockdown, most of which take place outside of the classroom such as drama, outdoor play and group sports.

The More Than A Score report urges the government to pause the introduction of the RBA, as well as SATs and all other statutory assessments in Years 1, 2, 4 and 6, including the phonics and times tables checks.

Alison Ali, a spokesperson for More Than A Score, said: “Everyone’s talking about catch-up and lost learning. At More Than A Score, we say there’s a simple solution for primary schools: don’t bring back Sats and the other assessments children have to sit in five out of seven years.

“Cancelling them for two years has had zero negative impact. Keeping them out of schools will give teachers and children the time they need to bridge learning gaps and focus on wellbeing.

“Change to the system is long overdue and any focus on true recovery is incomplete without an acknowledgement of this.

“The chorus of parents, heads, children, unions, MPs and dozens of organisations working in the field agree: the time has come to turn the page on the current primary assessment regime.”

In response, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesman said: “Assessments are designed to enable teachers to track pupils’ progress, helping to make sure they stay on track to fulfil their potential throughout school.

“Our reforms are helping to ensure children leave primary school with a secure grasp of reading, writing and mathematics, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.

“We have already invested £1.7 billion in ambitious catch-up activity, and are working with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure all pupils have the chance to recover from the impact of the pandemic as quickly and comprehensively as possible.”

Around two in three teachers (68%) believe pupils should be supported through sport and exercise and increased creative and practical learning (66%), the poll found.

It comes after the Secretary for Education, Gavin Williamson, confirmed that changes to the summer holidays and longer school days had not been ruled out of the recovery plan which aims to help pupils make up for time missed in the classroom.

However, the survey from the National Education Union indicates that more than four in five teachers believe education providers should be given the flexibility to decide what is important for their students learning and wellbeing.

The poll found that only 2% of teachers, school leaders and support staff believe lengthening the school days or term times is an important way of supporting pupils who have missed in-person learning as a result of school closures throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government has announced £1.7 billion of “catch up” funding for schools in England, as well as summer schools for pupils in greatest need of support.

However, 68% of the 10,700 NEU members surveyed believe the Downing Street should focus on reducing levels of child poverty to help support the recovery of those children most impacted by the pandemic.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “Learning has continued throughout lockdown, although precious little appears to have occurred at the Department for Education.

“The message is clear: we need to steer a course beyond Covid which rights the historic faults of the education system in this country and the distorted priorities of those who run it.

“If the Government is serious about building back better, then they should take on board these views.

“Education professionals have been on the frontline, either virtual or physical, throughout the last 12 months and it is their insights on what has worked best that should be taken forward.”

Published yesterday, the report found that nearly half of parents who responded to Ofsted’s survey said that keeping their child focused on studying was a top concern, along with motivation and having enough contact with teachers.

This view was echoed by school leaders, with many working hard to increase pupils’ engagement and to find better ways for pupils and teachers to interact.

The study also found that more than half of parents of a pupil with special educational needs said that their child has been disengaged with remote learning.

Whilst maintaining focus was of major concern to parents and leaders, three fifths of teachers surveyed said they were confident they were providing a high-quality remote education when this was needed. However, the study highlights that schools are at different stages of development, and there is wide variability in the remote learning on offer.

In response to the reports finding, her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, said:

“While remote education will help to mitigate the learning lost when children are out of the classroom, it’s clear that pupils’ motivation and engagement remain issues. These, along with the pressure remote learning places on teachers and parents, are proving real barriers to children’s learning and development.

“Despite the challenges, I am impressed by the flexibility and innovation shown by teachers and leaders involved in our research. I hope these insights will be valuable to schools that are still developing their own remote education offer.

“My thanks to all the teachers and school leaders across the country whose continued efforts mean that children can still receive a quality education, even in such difficult circumstances.’

The new strategy will see every new teacher in the country receive training in how to spot the signs that a young person is struggling with their mental health. Today’s announcement means schools will receive extra support to make sure people know how to promote good mental health in the same way that they look after physical wellbeing.

“Too many of us have seen first-hand the devastating consequences of mental illness, which is why tackling this burning injustice has always been a personal priority for me,” the prime minister said.

“But we should never accept a rise in mental health problems as inevitable. It’s time to rethink how we tackle this issue, which is why I believe the next great revolution in mental health should be in prevention.

“The measures we’ve launched today will make sure at every stage of life, for people of all backgrounds, preventing mental illness gets the urgent attention it deserves.”

She wants teacher training to include lessons in identifying children who might have mental health problems and to address issues such as self-harm.

At university level, there will be £1m for a competition to come up with innovative ideas to tackle mental health problems among students.

The plans come on top of the measures announced as part of the mental health services expansion under the NHS long-term plan.

Additional plans to increase public awareness around looking after mental health include a new national awareness campaign called Every Mind Matters, to be launched in October.

Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, believes education would benefit from replacing traditional Key Stage Four exams with a qualification that recognises academic and technical skills, alongside personal development.

On Monday, Mr Halfon will address an audience of people from the education sector at the Cabinet War Rooms.

He will tell them an emphasis on a “knowledge-rich curriculum”, through performance measures like the EBacc, has pressurised teachers to train to the test. The MP believes that this leads to the focus being on rote learning above skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem-solving and team-working.

He is expected to say: “I fully support the need for every young person to be able to access through their schooling, a working knowledge of our cultural capital, our history and our literature.

“But it is also essential that we are developing our next generation of engineers, entrepreneurs and designers. All young people should have access to the technical and creative subjects that will give them the skills that employers are looking for.

“These are not ‘soft skills’ developed at the expense of knowledge, but the essential skills that will enable young people to interpret, manipulate and communicate that knowledge.”

Edge Foundation chief executive, Alice Barnard, said: “I think Robert is reflecting the concerns not only of parents, teachers and pupils themselves, but employers and business leaders from across all sectors.

“Technology is moving at such a rapid pace and change happening so quickly, we are failing young people if we do not enable them to develop the adaptability and the critical skills they need now and in the future.”
However, the Department for Education (DfE) has shown no signs of supporting the call.

A spokesperson said: “GSCEs are the gold standard qualification at age 16 and a passport to further study and employability – they were recently reformed so that their demand matches that in other high-performing countries and better prepare students for work and further study.

“We are also taking forward reforms from the Independent Panel on Technical Education to give students a clear choice between an academic or technical path at aged 16. T Levels, alongside apprenticeships, will form the basis of our high-quality technical education offer.”

However, the DfE is not alone in its desire to retain GCSEs. A snap poll of over 500 students carried out by chat forum, The Student Room, revealed that 62% of students want to keep the exams as they are. A few typical responses include:

“After all the effort that they went into, changing the grading system to 9-1, I think all that would have been for nothing.”

“Can we not change the education system every few years? GCSEs should not be scrapped.”

“The system is fine as it currently is. I swear T levels are also being introduced to help with the vocational aspect of our education system anyway…”

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A persistently absent child is one who misses school for at least 10% of the time.

The figures show that secondary schools had a higher rate of persistent absence than in primary schools. Moreover, unauthorised absence, whether persistent or not, also increased.

To assess why pupils skipped classes, the BBC took to the streets in cities across the country to speak to school children. They gave a range of reasons including anxiety, depression, bullying and having little interest in the subjects they are taught. Many of those interviewed also claim they wanted more support at school, with some wishing they could go back and “start all over again”.

According to DfE statistics, sickness absence was the main reason why children would miss school in the autumn 2016 and spring 2017 terms. Despite this, illness rates remained the same as the previous year at 2.7%. Unauthorised absences increased, including unauthorised family holidays.

It is important to note that overall school absences in England declined since the same period a decade earlier, as did the percentage of pupils who were persistently absent.

Perhaps the most surprising finding to come from the statistics was where the truancy was at its highest. While high deprivation indicators based on health, crime, education and crucially income are commonly linked to high truancy, a closer look shows this isn’t necessarily the case.

Some of the wealthiest local authorities such as Bath and North East Somerset had one of the highest levels of truancy in 2015 to 2016. Manchester, a city which ranks highly on deprivation levels, sat at the other end of the scale and had one of the lowest levels of truancy.

Comparing middle income areas also throws up contrasts. For instance, Norfolk and Herefordshire are similar overall when assessing health, crime education and income, yet the truancy rate in Norfolk in 2015 to 2016 was significantly higher than in Herefordshire.

How reliable/revealing is the data?

Pupil absence in England is measured at local authority level and deprivation by district so one can only look at the picture as an average with variation within each area.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales record pupil absence in dissimilar ways.

In Wales, overall absences increased in 2016 to 2017 for the previous year, with unauthorised and persistent absence also increasing, yet persistent absenteeism was less than half of what it was eight years prior.

Attendance records in Scotland are only recorded once every two years. From 2014-2015, the overall attendance rate got better than in the previous report but the unauthorised absence rate increased.

In Northern Ireland, the attendance rate remained unchanged from the previous year, staying at 94.6%.

The investment is intended to build on the Government’s commitment to open 500 new free schools by 2020.

The move follows on from Prime Minister Theresa May’s pledge last autumn to create a place at a good school for every child, in part through allowing selective schools to expand and new ones to open.

The Chancellor also pledged to invest in “game-changing reforms” for technical education, which would include T-levels, 15 standardised technical qualifications instead of the 13,000 different qualifications in existence today.

Investment in technical education for 16 to 19 year olds is promised to rise to over £500 million.

New T-levels for 16 to 19-year-old technical students will be introduced from autumn 2019. Students will be able to choose from 15 different routes such as construction, digital or agriculture.

The number of hours of training for these students will increase by over 50%. As part of the course, all students will take part in an industry work placement.

The government will also provide maintenance loans for students doing higher-level technical courses at National Colleges and Institutes of Technology – like those available to university students.

Also, there will be a £300 million investment for new academic research placements.

£90 million will provide 1,000 new PhD places, including in science, technology, engineering and maths.

£210 million will create new fellowships, including programmes to attract top global talent to conduct research in areas such as bioscience and biotechnology, quantum technologies, and satellite and space technology.

In some cases, the proportion has more than doubled in five years, according to Press Association analysis of official data.

New figures detailing student enrolment and qualifications show a quarter of students at UK universities now graduate with a first-class degree – a dramatic increase from just 17 percent in 2012. Last year almost three quarters of students achieved a 2:1 or higher, compared with just two-thirds five years ago.

The University of Surrey awarded a first-class degree to 41% of students last year, more than doubling the proportion five years ago.

And firsts awarded at the University of East Anglia have almost trebled to 34%.

The Press Association analysis shows:

• At 50 UK universities – roughly a third of the total – at least 25% of degrees awarded in 2015/16 were a first, while at 10 institutions, more than a third were given the highest award. By contrast, in 2010/11 just 12 institutions gave at least one in four degrees a first, and only two gave more than a third the top honour.
• On average, across all institutions there has been around an eight-percentage point rise in firsts in the last five years, the analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data shows.
• Just seven institutions have seen a fall in the proportion of firsts.
• Five universities and colleges have seen the proportion of top honours rise by at least 20 percentage points, while 40 institutions have seen at least a 10-point hike.
• The rise comes amid concerns over suspected grade inflation as universities face increasing pressure to act competitively to fill places. One expert said some increase is not unreasonable, but that issues such as university rankings may fuel grade inflation.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), said: “Some rise is not unreasonable, given that schools have got better and some universities have increased their entry tariffs so they’re getting better quality students.”

However, with most graduates now having top grades to show on their CV, employers have claimed it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between job candidates and pick out the brightest students.

The concerns have prompted many universities to introduce additional character reports alongside degree classifications, giving a more detailed breakdown of students’ academic performance and extra-curricular awards and activities.

Highest proportions of first-class degrees in mainstream universities

• Imperial College London 41.8%
• University of Surrey 41.2%
• University College London 35.6%
• University of Dundee 34.8%
• University of East Anglia 34%
• University of Oxford 33.2%
• King’s College London 31.9%
• University of Cambridge 31.7%
• University of Bath 30.8%
• University of Salford 30.4%

Biggest increases in first-class degrees in mainstream universities 2010-11 to 2015-16

• University of Surrey 19.3% to 41.2%
• University of East Anglia 12.5% to 34%
• University of Bradford 10.3% to 27.6%
• University of Stirling 11.6% to 27.8%
• University of Derby 9.4% to 25%
• University of Dundee 19.3% to 34.8%
• University of West London 11.6% to 27%
• University of Wales Trinity Saint David 7.1% to 22.2%
• Southampton Solent University 8.6% to 23.5%
• Staffordshire University 12.2% to 27%