Heads want politics left out of assessing schools

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) says the commission has been set up amid concerns about plans which could allow schools to adopt their own individual system of evalutating their own performance.

The NAHT’s general secretary Russell Hobby said: “The idea that each school should create its own assessment system is extremely dubious. Do we need 22,000 wheels reinvented? How will anyone be able to compare like with like? To take just two examples: how well will inspectors be able to use school data to make judgments when each method of rating pupil performance varies from school to school?

“And how will secondary schools cope with different data from each of their primaries?

Former chief inspector of schools, Sir Stewart Sutherland, has been appointed to chair the commission. Leading figures from education will be invited to join the panel which is expected to produce a report next year.

Mr Hobby added: “We need a nationally consistent system of assessment but instead of leaving it to politicians, we need to hear from education experts from the teaching profession. As an association of leaders, we believe that if there is a better way to secure the best for pupils, then we owe it to children, their families and our colleagues to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.

“Schools should be able to have confidence that when they invest in developing or acquiring an assessment system, it will be used and accepted by officials, recognisable to other schools and genuinely effective in supporting teaching and learning.”