Pupil sums up this year’s Sats controversy with technically correct deadpan exam answer
Online reaction seems to be in the student's favour
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Kids - they really do say the darndest things. No more so than during exam time when their sassiness level goes through the roof, as demonstrated by this one student.
A Year Six pupil at Temple Grove Academy in Royal Tunbridge Wells has earned a legion of fans online after giving a hilariously sharp answer to the question: ‘Write a sentence using the word point as a noun’.
The response? “I don’t see the point in Sats.”
The arguably accurate answer - which many parents and pupils could, no doubt, relate to this year - came to light after an image of the handwritten sentence was shared on Facebook by the school’s assistant head, Damith Bandara.
Mr Bandara wrote: “Now that Sats are over. One of my children wrote this on the grammar paper. The question was to write the word ‘point’ as verb and noun. The answer you see is for the latter!”
And it seems the educator may have agreed with the student, by adding: “An intelligent response I thought.”
The image - which was posted two days ago in a public group called UK Education Crisis - has already amassed almost 7,000 likes and reactions and close to 5,000 shares.
The group describes itself as a place where people involved and concerned with all levels of education unite to “voice their displeasure at Michael Gove and the legacy of his despicable education policies.”
This year’s Sats have been marred by controversy. Around 600,000 ten and 11-year-olds sat their Key Stage Two English reading paper two weeks ago which received widespread criticism for being “too difficult.”
Parents and teachers reacted with anger the following day over the “ridiculous” test so tough that children were said to have been reduced to tears.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education had said: “The 2016 reading test was developed in the same way as the sample test. Trialling of the 2016 test showed that the difficulty of the paper was broadly similar.”
Even Mr Bandara seemed to make reference to the ever-changing face of the British education system when reacting to a friend’s comment in his post which made reference to “the same old insanity in education” in England.
The assistant head responded: “Education is always going to change with the type of people that are running it! Teachers just have to conform!”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments