stop persistent testing in schools

I teach and am conscious that we are forced to teach to tests. This inevitably stops me from being able to target students' actual needs. The assumption that children should be able to apply specific skills at a certain age and design tests informed by that assumption, worries me. Children do not progress at the same rate. The idea that one can predict a target for GCSE when a child is 11 is another example of over reliance on statistics with little concern for the child's sense of self esteem. An evaluation is necessary but we should not have a system which presumes all children can attain at the same rate and should do so.