Policy makers and parents should stop using test scores as the basis for judgements on how students and schools perform, a charity coalition has warned.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is due to report back next month on its first Children's Plan, launched in December 2007 as a blueprint for improving child wellbeing and attainment in England over the next decade.
An even better children's plan, published by learning network Common Threads Alliance this coming Wednesday, 26th November, urges policy makers and educators to redress the balance between the "standards culture" and stimulating, child-centred activities that develop confidence and creativity.
Drawing on compelling evidence and research, the plan calls for "a dynamic interaction" where children, educators, parents/carers and the wider community all contribute to the learning and teaching process.
James Park, Common Threads Alliance co-ordinator and director of emotional literacy charity Antidote, said the coalition applauded initiatives such as Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) and the development of wellbeing indicators.
However neither these, nor more established measures, should be used to measure school performance as the associated "culture of judgement" hindered creative exploration of teaching and learning methods.
"Our purpose in writing this document is to help the government deliver the objectives in its Children's Plan," said Park. "We believe that this cannot happen as long as individuals can be labelled inadequate because their intellectual development does not fit the 'expected' pattern, and schools can be judged as failing because they take a large number of such children and young people."
An even better children's plan contains a number of case studies to show how schools can benefit from this approach. For example:
· Stressed students at the Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate were involved in shaping a plan to give them more time to unwind after lessons that they found demanding.
· Staff at Gallions Primary School in the London Borough of Newham have engaged disillusioned students by teaching the curriculum through the arts, including music assemblies, composition projects and performances.
· An outdoor food-growing project at Spring Meadow Primary School in Harwich has boosted student involvement and staff confidence.
James Park said: "We need policy makers and their agencies to take a lead on weaning parents, the media and learning communities off the idea that any indicator is itself a justification for action.
"We should be using all the data that is available to inform an active exploration across the learning community of what is currently happening and what could make things even better."
