Today thousands of children are taking part in a ‘kids strike’ so as to avoid taking their Sats. The strike action comes following concerns from parents that Sats are putting too much pressure on young children and making them overly-stressed and anxious.
With Nick Gibb claiming it is wrong for parents to let their young children strike, the Schools Minister appeared on the World at One to defend the Government’s policy on primary school testing. However, the Conservative MP got more than he bargained for when Martha Kearney turned the tables on Gibb by asking him a Sats question:
MK: Some parents have been tearing their hair out about all of these and we were just wondering whether you could help. This is a question for slightly older children, for 11-year-olds about the use of the word ‘after’: ‘I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner’. Is the word ‘after’ being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?
NG: Well it’s a preposition ‘after’
MK: I don’t think it is
NG: After is a preposition so it can be used in some sentences as a word that…
MK: Well, in that sentence it’s been used as a subordinating conjunction
NG: Fine… but this isn’t about me.
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