There is a tiring refrain in the media that contrasts wellbeing, personal growth and creativity with exams and knowledge. There is no trade-off here. Schools can promote wellbeing, and produce knowledgeable, well-prepared students. The false dichotomy is damaging.

One of the biggest mistakes is to think that wellbeing and good behaviour are opposites. They are not. In calm, safe, ordered schools wellbeing flourishes. When you have well-informed young people, they grow in confidence, creativity and autonomy. You have good relationships!

Having warm, consistently enforced rules benefits kids who have SEMH or other learning support needs. They are able to get the support they need because teachers time is not invested in constantly fighting fires and following up on behaviour issues.

Exams are just "information about how we are doing". Presumably, people who wish to focus on the generic, creativity or wellbeing, would need to know how they are doing? Yes. Would this info be used by society? Yes.

So there will always need to be some measurement. You can make the case for changing the measurement if you wish, but that's very different from being against schools as "exam factories" in itself. You can examine different stuff, but it's still an exam.