In case you haven’t seen it the MMSA (the Meeting of Mathematics Subject Associations)* have written an openly published letter to Nicky Morgan (and sent to some of the media too!) expressing their concerns about the year 7 tests that the government proposes to introduce next year and requesting the opportunity to discuss the matter further.

I do so hope that Nicky takes them up on the invite (I would give my right arm to get involved in that meeting!!). As to whether subject associations have any sway with the “powers that be” I do hope so. To be honest until 18 months ago I had little to do with any association – part of me felt that they weren’t for people “like me” – I always feel a bit of a fraud with other more “mathsey” Maths teachers. Now don’t get me wrong – I love Maths – I just sometimes feel slightly inadequate in the company of other more established teachers. Irrational, I know, and was part of my reticence when I was asked to get involved with the Teaching Committee of the MA last year.

The media have also started to prick up their ears, with articles from the Guardian and the TES this week and the petition passed the 5000 signature point in just under a week (please sign and share, share, share!!) which shows there is little support for these tests – they seem to have gone from being what we know them to be – SATs RESITS – to now being called “progress tests”.  ARGGGGGHHHHH the fecking nonsense of it all, as if wrapping it up in a more user-friendly name will make a difference. This isn’t a gripe with the MMSA for using the phrase, I’m just annoyed that the government are considering the idea at all, it is just soooooo poorly thought through – my objections can be summarised (** ahem I use the word “summarised” glibly) in this post -> here.

Once again … I urge you to sign the petition and share, share, share! Oh … keep your fingers crossed that Nicky Morgan publishes her response to this letter publicly too!

*  The MMSA is a collaboration of the classroom-facing professional associations focused on mathematics education in this country: Association of Mathematics Education Teachers (AMET), Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM), National Association of Mathematics Advisers (NAMA), National Association for Numeracy and Mathematics in Colleges (NANAMIC) and The Mathematical Association (MA).