Parents at Woodbridge school boycott SATs

15 May 2019, 16:06 | Updated: 15 May 2019, 16:14

school classroom

Parents of Year 2 students at a school in Woodbridge are taking a stand against SATs tests and boycotting them completely!

Fifteen parents at Bealings Village School are taking their children out of the tests, that take place throughout this month.

Heather Chandler is one of the mums. She told Heart: "We just felt that by teaching SATs we are narrowing the children's progress because a lot of the teacher time is spent preparing for the SATs, administering the SATS and not focusing on the wider education that we want them to have.

"Bealing's... is all about learning skills through play and we just felt that SATs would get in the way of this."

The head and governing body at Bealings primary school have respected the parents’ wishes for their children not to take part in the tests.

Chair of governors, Rick Gillingham, said: “As a school we are certainly not going to stand in the way of that and it fits in with our ethos that overtesting is not something we would go along with. The whole landscape around SATs has changed and is now under challenge.”

SATs tests are being phased out - but not until 2022.