We know that some assessment practices in our education system have negative impacts on the well-being of key stakeholders including teachers, students and their families. Not all assessment has this effect and it is largely the focus on testing and test results that puts the greatest strain on our public education systems. It is a source of great interest and rarely fails to make the headlines in public settings such as news broadcasting or on social media platforms.

But why is the current system of high stakes testing in primary and secondary schools the initiator of stress and anxiety? We believe that it’s time to investigate:

what it is that makes testing experiences challenging in schools;

why testing creates such a high-pressure environment for those in and out of school;

what impact it has on the well-being of those who are a part of the testing experience; and

most importantly, what we can do to reorientate public views about this part of educational assessment. 

We invite you to be a key part of this exploration to understand the relationship between assessment and well-being through a roundtable, live event at the IOE in London. We would like to hear your voice, to talk to you and capture your views so we can explore what might be done differently and how we might go about making such changes. Using a discussion event, led by key questions that will be provided to each group, we aim to bring together teachers, parents, students, well-being advisors, exams officers and academics to talk in small groups about their experiences. This is, to our knowledge, the first time that these particular stakeholders have been brought together to examine this aspect of assessment.

Draft programme:

4.30pm           Register and Networking with tea/coffee

5:00pm           Welcome and BERA statement

5.10pm           Introduction to the round table discussions

5.20pm           Table Discussions

6.10pm           Break

6.20pm           Plenary Discussion

6.50pm           Conclusion and Networking