The politics of language and prejudice: How the New Primary Curriculum for English is outdated. Matt Carmichael argues that Conservative policy regarding language tests in English is outdated. The social attitudes which underpin the tests are divisive and dangerous and have the effect of promoting prejudice. The English curriculum – 50 years out of date? Credit: theirhistory CC BY NC SA 2.0 As an English teacher, I thought the 2016 sample SATs paper for end of primary school grammar would make a good revision task for my Sixth Form English Language classes. A strong A Level candidate should be able to identify a relative clause, or rewrite a sentence in the passive voice (I’ve changed their names).
Interestingly my students’ percentage scores were roughly in line with what they’d need at A Level to get their predicted grades. Ellie is predicted an A. Indeed, confusion reigned about what the test was meant to achieve. How has it come to this? The logic which won the day under Thatcher and Major was that pupils of all backgrounds were “entitled” to this special key to social success.