Assessment and oracy press coverage, home and away

Testing the Water coverage abroad

We are delighted that Testing The Water – our report on assessment with Pearson, has attracted attention from overseas. Last week, London-based Chilean journalist Mónica Pérez from the news channel T13 interviewed Will Millard about curriculum and assessment reforms in England. In the segment Will explains that while reforms in England sought to move schools away from an over-reliance on levels and grades, many continue to use them regularly.

You can read our Testing the Water report, here.

Coverage of our oracy event with Emma Hardy MP and others in Parliament

We were pleased that Emma Hardy’s brilliant event celebrating oracy in parliament was reported in Schools Week and the TES. Both emphasised calls for better teacher development on oracy- an issue at the heart of our landmark, 2016 report.

Geoff Barton, ASCL’s General Secretary, spoke at the event, and wrote afterwards in the TES about the “liberating power of oracy”, and the importance for pupils from all backgrounds to participate in debating. He said:

“Debating is at the heart of the way our democracy works, how our laws are formed, our justice enacted, our values enforced. It should be an entitlement of every child in every school of every background.”

Duncan Partridge, Director of Education at the English Speaking Union (ESU), said in his blog that the event demonstrated oracy is now recognised as something the government, Ofsted and schools need to take seriously.