Nursery World - Take back control

Assessing children against a framework intended to promote good practice doesn’t make sense – except, perhaps, to the Government

Life is a matter of perspective and perspective depends on where you are standing at the time. What was once perfectly acceptable quickly becomes unacceptable and it can be hard to see why we ever thought it was OK in the first place. Think smoking on buses and the Underground. The reverse can also be true: ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time…’

It struck me during a conversation how our perspective has changed on assessment. It used to be ‘formative’, to enable us to plan appropriately, and it seems that it has come to mean ‘summative’ – or how to provide evidence in the accountability environment.

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