I am a teacher and I do wonder whether it is possible to shift power back to the teacher when so many parents and children are just not interested in actually working.
The ‘entertainment in education’ agenda is very well established in the teaching profession now. If you look at the assessment criteria for Ofsted etc they actually require teachers to plan ‘interesting and engaging lessons’ – the inspectors are fascinated by the idea of lessons not being ‘boring’. Look at the criteria they apply to judge this – it’s rather interesting.
Children do need to work hard to master techniques and sometimes it isn’t the most exciting thing they could be doing. Sometimes, for some children who find them harder, subjects require practice and repetition to master them (look at the success of Kumon in both English and Maths) but our current standards actually require children to learn something new at every lesson (How can children practise and master skills if this is the case?)
Finally there are the SATs which really don’t tell you much about a child (and don’t even require children to write in full sentences or present their maths in a coherent way). You said you would abolish them. Will you – starting with this year’s?