Not all parents across England are happy about sending their children back to school, following the lifting of lockdown measures in March 2021. Our qualitative research, listening to accounts from eighty-five such families, finds that these concerns stem from Covid-related anxiety,
most commonly linked to protecting members of the household at greater risk of severe illness. The experiences of these parents resisting the return to school sheds light on the fragmented nature of our education system – the uneven, haphazard practices across different schools –
and how once again this differentially impacts certain students and their families. Particular difficulties for students with a special educational needs diagnosis (SEND), or those from multi-generational households, are underlined. Whilst some parents feel bullied into compliance, others
are pressurised to deregister in a spate of what we term 'Covid off-rolling'. Several families have been able to fully embrace a permanent move to genuine home education, further raising criticisms of our competition-driven, performative, neoliberal education system with its narrow curriculum
offer. A comprehensive education system with critical pedagogy at its heart is what is called for.
Many parents are unhappy with the way testing has altered, expanded and taken hold in Primary schools in recent years. Some parents chose to express their objections to Primary Standardised Assessment Tests (SATs) in particular, through taking part in collective strike action. While research into testing abounds, the opinions of parents and their role in such activism remains less explored. This paper draws from a qualitative pilot study into parental opinions on Primary school testing. Here, some preliminary thematic analysis is presented, giving a flavour of the data. Parents are concerned with the effect and emotional stress on children, the content and structure of testsandwith broader impact on the curriculum and on classroom teaching. They are impassioned, articulate and forthright. 'I just didn't feel happy about children being tested, being taught to tests. They were all being taught to pass these tests and I feel that it's in order to get a good Ofsted report. For the school to get a great Ofsted report, not for the sake of the child.' Against a neo-liberal backdrop, there is an ever more present perception that a school may prioritise its reputation, Ofsted ranking or league table position, perhaps even at the expense of compromising the needs of its students. With increasing marketization in education, performativity and the standards agenda have taken hold (Ball, 2017). One manifestation of this is the changing nature of testing in Primary schools, from baseline assessments in Reception, through Year 2 Standardised Assessment Tests-or SATs-to the final assessments within the Primary school, the Year 6 SATs. Primary school testing has been in the spotlight as its purpose is scrutinised and the latest variations and their possible impacts are considered, debated and critiqued. Education researchers discuss the impact on children (Hutchings, 2015) and on their teachers (Braun and Maguire, 2018); they debate the merits of one particular element of the policy, one strand of new testing (Roberts-Holmes and Bradbury, 2016), or consider the wider package of testing reforms more broadly (Bradbury and Roberts-Holmes, 2017).
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