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The government has committed to strengthening assessments in primary and adding a new one in secondary. They have let the profession down badly.
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The review was a unique opportunity to break from the rigid, exam-driven system and create a curriculum and assessment system which supports all students now and in the future.

The government must also focus on ensuring schools are funded to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum and listen to the profession and change tack on the punitive Ofsted reforms.
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We have an opportunity to re-engage students in their learning and foster a love of reading. To do so the government must change tack and invest in a broad and balanced curriculum that celebrated the talents of all children. Another statutory test will not achieve this.

Children in the UK are tested from age 4, and are the unhappiest readers in the OECD.

There is no evidence that a new statutory assessment will improve reading, and a wealth of evidence that our already overloaded statutory assessment system narrows the curriculum and disengages pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged.

Thousands contributed evidence to the independent review and will feel let down by this arbitrary announcement. We need reform that supports breadth and flexibility in the curriculum, not another top-down statutory test that will only add unnecessary stress and anxiety for staff and students.

Education policy should not be based on 'taking on unions' but on what is best for pupils. The education profession - union members - should play a key role in this and it is sad to see the government using this divisive rhetoric.