Commenting on the Government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment review, Natalie Perera, the Education Policy Institute’s Chief Executive, said:
“The government has set out a broadly sensible direction of travel in its response to the Curriculum and Assessment review. We are particularly pleased to see a greater focus on speaking, listening and oracy and reforms to accountability measures for secondary schools that will offer a better balance between academic and creative subjects and better choice for students.
“Enrichment activities provide longer-lasting benefits to young people through the development of soft skills, improved health, cognitive development, and through establishing new friendships. The government will need to set out how disadvantaged young people are fully able to access such activities, as they often have both direct and indirect costs to parents.
“It is also critical that the outcomes from any new assessments are used appropriately. Assessments have the potential to identify pupils in need of further support and help them to make progress, particularly during the first years of secondary school. But with no adjustments being made to age-related stages of education, assessments for younger children risk continuing to lead to misidentification of SEND and children being labelled as failing.
“While there are aspects of today’s announcements that will benefit children with special educational needs, the government will need to be even more ambitious in its forthcoming white paper if it is to deliver a system that works for all.”
