oh I want to string DS's teacher up by he bloody norks!!!!!

[stoppinattwo]

I am soooooo andgry its making me cry.
Have just had to leave DS (because i have to be in work) so upset, he is in such a tizzz about these bloody SAT's tests. He has 2 today aparently, His teacher has built them up to be so "life changing". For the first time in 4 years, he has told me he doesnt want to go to school today .

And for the first time i have undermined what his teacher has said.

I told him, do you best, Mum doesnt really mind how you do as long as you can say to me that you tried your best. But teacher has built it up to be a real monster, with all kinds of worries about not being able to be in the same calss asd your mates if you dont do well. I sat with him while he sailed through a past paper at the weekend, but am afraid that he has built this up to be so much that he will panic.

He has been sobbing this morning and that is so not him. He is year 3 ffs how important can these things be??. An 8yo boy shouldnt be having to stress about these things. Oh wait till i speak to her!!!

[gladbag]

Oh stoppinattwo, that's outrageous, and I'm feeling very angry for you and your poor ds.

It would be slightly more understandable if he were in Y6 but Y3 ?! I suppose he's doing the 'optional' SAT papers, and they do need to be done under 'test' conditions, but in no way should children be put under such pressure.

Is the school particularly hot on SATs? They may stream the children in Y4, using the results, but it should still be based mainly on teacher's own on-going assessments. The only other thing I can think of is that historically the Y3 results are nearly always down on the Y2 SATs results (Y2 ones are done very differently, and often, from the results alone, it looks as if Y3 children have made little progress, which can put Y3 teachers under pressure). But still. NO excuse at all for making the children feel so worried.

You definitely need to speak to his teacher. I hope he's ok at the end of the day. And you.

[lulumama]

oh my lovely, that is so awful..DS has his SATS, as you know, but he does not know he is doing them....i frankly don;t care what results he gets now, at the age of 7, it is not going to determine or change the course of his life....

i always say what you say, as long as you try your best, that;s all that counts..

for your boy x

[Miaou]

Oh that's awful stoppin, and I have to say, pretty counter-productive of the teacher .

If these are optional SATs, can you withdraw him from any more he does in this session? Not sure how it works as I'm not in England.

Ridiculous of the teacher to build them up to this extent. I bet he's not the only sobbing child this morning .

[stoppinattwo]

Thanks guys for your support, am gonna have to give him the biggest cuddles tonight if he will let me.................

Have spoken to the Head master this morning , who has said he will have a quiet word with DS and play it right down for him.................the HM is fab btw, just this bloody teacher.

[lulumama]

i hope the head will talk to the teacher about this....scaring children and building things up as the be all and end all is totally counterproductive, as i think this proves!!

[gladbag]

I'm glad the headteacher sounds much more sympathetic. That's what your ds needs, and I hope it does make him feel better. The head needs to have a serious word with the class teacher though.

Are the tests going on all week? (I'm trying to remember what there is in Y3 - reading comprehension, short writing task, long writing task, spelling and maths paper, I think). If so then, I'd have a word with the class teacher at the end of the day as well.

[Wotzsaname]

as gladbag says in year 3 these are optional, yearly assesments to 'make sure they are on target' term used alot by the schools.

I would raise your concers as lulu says. Its not on, for the kids to have this pressure. My dd in year 3 told me the desks had all been moved around on Friday and was surprised when I told her why. She wasn't bothered at all.

Year 6 dd has gone in today OK too, although got in a tizz yesterday.

Sounds like you have given him some good motherly support, sorry you feel rubbish, but don't beat yourself up, I am sure he will come out, much happier than he went in and tomorrow will be better.

[Freckle]

This is so out of order. DS2 has his Y6 SATs this week. I've told him to do his best but not to stress about it as the results do not affect him at all. In September he is going to a different school where the pupils are not streamed or anything, so the results are merely used as a measuring tool for the school without affecting DS2.

I hope your HM really takes this teacher to task as upsetting Y3 children about the SATs is totally unacceptable.

[SpringBunny]

Glad the HT is so much more supportive.

I hate teachers doing this to kids; personally I would withdraw him from the rest of the tests - I hate them anyway even the Yr2 and Yr6 ones but I certainly feel that the optional ones in Yr 3 et al are so unnecessary. Have you got anyone who can look after him for you if you take him out of school? Or maybe just write a note and say he is not to do them (if that works)

Good luck and hope he gets on OK

[sunnysideup]

Glad to hear the Head is sensible and I do hope some of your ds' fears are able to be allayed. Poor boy That really is unforgivable, to get him in that state, at his age, and for nothing!

Hope he lets you give him that hug

[stoppinattwo]

I will consider opting out of these tests if he is still stressed tonight, i wouldnt want him to feel more stressed if he were not doing them and his friends were iyswim.

I got a bit fed up with his teacher last week ,as he was struggling with the 24 hour clock and other linked questions. he is a bright chap but seemed to be having abit of a block with it. So i went in to talk to teacher, who informed me that eh is "the only one in the class that can tell the time"

to which i said, "you know what, im delighted he cant tell the time, who really wants to be able to know what time it is let alone what day it is at the age of 8, all he is bothered about it playtime, dinner time, tea time, more play time and worst of all bath time and bed time , can you name all of Doctor whos enemies?? or can you name all of the yughio (spelling!!) cards??? ....no?.......... thats because your not 8!!"

Im sure that when the time comes for him to need to know the times then he will.

I know that teachers are put under a lot of pressure to achieve targets, most of my family are teachers, but to transfer their fear and stress onto the children is unforgivable. They are there to nurture and protect, along side their teaching, not put the fear of god in them for when they have to do exams that actually do matted

[mamazon]

In my sons school teh tests aren't even called tests which i think is great.

they are called the sats competition.
the child in each year that gets teh best marks gets a prize (usually a book token and some choccies) and each class teacher nominates someone that has done really well or made an improvment on the last score.

I think it make steh kids try their hardest without getting them stressed about it.

I undertsand the need for this type of assesment but i really dont feel teh need to put such pressure on a child. teh idea is to see how well they have been taught, not how well you can terrify them into studying themselves ill.

[cece]

TBH I think if you keep him home this week then he will only have to do them next week when he is back.

[stoppinattwo]

cece i would only opt out if it was an option, I certainy wouldnt put him through all that palavor again, he will probably be ok, i just didnt realise that the Y3 sats had a choice

[Hassled]

This SATs pressure drives me crazy. My oldest is nearly 20, which means I can remember when they were first introduced and at the time they were sold to us as a measure of how well the teachers were teaching, rather than how well the children were learning. I've told my 8 year old exactly that - i.e.the government wants to check that the school is teaching the right things in the right way, and there's no pressure on him.

[stoppinattwo]

Hassled that is the best explanation i have heard.....thankyou I shall tell DS that tonight, he will be delighted with that explanation

[Khara]

This is really, really annoying me as well. DS1 is in Y4, and since he got in the Juniors there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the SATS. They do them twice a year, around Christmas and now. And the poor kids in Y6 are constantly reminded of it. There hasn't been a good-work (parents) assembly all year where it hasn't been mentioned. And the emphasis is that this is for them and their future. No it bloody well is not, it's a measure of the school and the teachers, not the children or that's what it was supposed to be. I was so angry when the Y6 teacher told them how she felt sorry for them as they'd need to spend the Easter holidays revising.

Luckily for my ds, a lot of this goes right over his head as he's really laid back about these things. (Mind you, by the time of his GCSEs I might be revising my opinion on whether this is a good thing or not!) But Ds2 (only in reception at the moment) will, I think, get much more stressed about this sort of pressure, even though he is very bright.

I think it's very unfair to sell this to children as a make-or-break test. The secondary schools around here aren't (or aren't meant to be) selective, and from what I've heard don't take a lot of notice of Y6 SATS because they know the children have been taught to the test.

[cece]

I think they are called optional because the school has a choice whether to do them or not. They don't have to do them but if threy don't they have to show ofsted they are doing some other assessments of learning so that they can show them and the local authority that they are meeting there targets.

Agree though that the teacher seems to be putting a lot of uneccesary stress on the OP child.

[homemama]

Oh Stoppinattwo, your poor DS! Teachers like that give the rest of us a bad name.

The explanation that Hassled gave is actually true! That is the reason for SATs. Sure it's good to keep track of pupils but they exist so that everyone knows if a school is doing its job properly (you need to look at the value added scores really but that's another thread!)

I wouldn't remove him because then he may feel isolated from his classmates but I would seek to reasure him that it's actually the teacher being tested, not him.

Shame on the school for making a young child feel this way!

[homemama]

Oh and BTW; They must be some amazing school if he's the only Y3 who cannot tell the time!
I've taught Y3 and grasping time is one of the hardest maths concepts of the year, if not the hardest.

[roisin]

This is ridiculous - especially in yr3. Ds2 is in yr3 and had no idea he was doing tests this week until he arrived at school this morning. They have not done practice papers, or work at home, or anything.

He enjoyed doing the tests today (though I'm sure he'll be fed up by the end of the week), and there is absolutely no pressure or stress about them.

[christywhisty]

This is bad
My son started his Year 6 Sats this morning and came home saying he can't wait to go back tomorrow. They were given a drink and a biscuit before they started and got to watch a film when they were over.They can eventake a small cuddly in as a good luck charm to sit on their desks.

My yr 4 daughter informed me she did a comprehension test today which i assume must be optional sats, but we didn't know anything about them before hand

[stoppinattwo]

well.............he got home from school, how was it them DS??

DS -How was what Mum??

me - your day at school

DS - Oh it was ok, hey guess what mum, the teacher spoke to all of us before class today, and told us all not to worry about the test.

Me - So was it ok, ?

DS - Was what ok?

Me - Your test!!!

DS - oh that yeah, some was easy some was hard.

Guess my little chat with the head master was worth it

[stoppinattwo]

Oh well...............at elast I have the good ole DS back, till the next exam!!!