﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><items p1:schemaLocation="http://www.education.gov.uk/ItemSchema.xsd" xmlns:p1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">  <item>    <url>http://www.education.gov.uk/a0064958/statement-on-national-curriculum-tests</url>    <field name="title">Statement on National Curriculum tests</field>    <field name="summary">The Department welcomes NAHT decision following letter from Michael Gove to General Secretary of NAHT outlining plans for a review of National Curriculum tests. </field>    <field name="date" type="xs:dateTime">2010-09-27T00:00:00</field>    <field name="bodytext">&lt;![CDATA[&lt;p&gt;&#xD;
	A Department for Education spokesman said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;
&lt;p style="margin-left: 40px"&gt;&#xD;
	Ministers have been clear they are committed to external accountability to give parents and professionals the information they need to gauge the standards of our schools and their pupils. Indeed, the OECD concludes that external accountability is a key driver of improvement in education and particularly important for the least advantaged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;
&lt;p style="margin-left: 40px"&gt;&#xD;
	But they also recognise concerns from heads and teachers about the current system, which is why they have said they will review it to see whether there is a better way to give parents the information they want and hold schools to account while overcoming the concerns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;
&lt;p style="margin-left: 40px"&gt;&#xD;
	We are glad that NAHT will be working with us on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;
&lt;p&gt;&#xD;
	Download a copy of the letter Michael Gove sent to&amp;nbsp;Russell Hobby, General Secretary of NAHT, from this page.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;
]]&gt;</field>    <field name="displayasarchived">false</field>    <field name="audience">      <values>        <value>Headteacher</value>        <value>Media</value>        <value>Teacher</value>        <value>Education and training professionals</value>      </values>    </field>    <field name="provider">Department for Education</field>    <field name="language">English</field>    <field name="datepublished" type="xs:dateTime">2010-09-27T00:00:00</field>  </item></items>
