Again our thanks to the  reporter Jason Seebaruth for this item:

The National Union of Teachers has called for the Government to end child poverty and Sats testing.
 
Addressing delegates at the Compass Conference last weekend, Headteacher and Senior Vice President of the NUT, Gill Goodswen, emphasised the need for education to be properly funded, suggesting the abolition of Sats could save the Government around 40 million pounds.
 
Ms Goodswen explained, “It is absolutely essential for the Government to make efforts to end child poverty. The Child Poverty Bill was published last week and the 2020 target is now law and that is very good. There are 3.9 million children living in poverty in the UK, those figures are powerful. Targets are very important, but we need to recognise that there are other forces at work.”
 
She also called for qualified teachers to be in every classroom and for children to be given a “proper voice in their education.”
 
Ms Goodswen continued, “Schools that I work with, class sizes of 38 are unacceptable. It has a huge impact on their choices and life chances, with some children needing more support. I think that it’s really important that whatever we come up with, we keep the child at heart.” en doors to help retrain people.”

 
Jason Seebaruth
http://knol.google.com/k/jason-seebaruth