SATS cheating - by the Head!

The reality is that if you do report it you are going to put your child and the TA you know who was there into very difficult positions. They will be key "witnesses" who will be dragged into this

Should Heads cheat? No, of course not.

Is it worth the agro given your child will be moving on soon and it probably won't make a huge difference to his score anyway? I would say No.

If your child felt "mortified" being helped by the Head, imagine how they will feel to be questioned about what went on & being placed in the centre of a possible scandal.

Of course cheating happens in SAT - a set of tests used to check up on schools and to create league tables but which aren't conducted like public exams are always going to be exploited by desperate, under pressure Heads.
No doubt it will be far worse than this in other schools.

There’s a lack of understanding of SATs and predicted grades.

It’s best to think of them as a cohort measure. Statistically they are a good predictor of GCSEs, which is not to say individual children don’t move around grades and that is the whole point. They are used to measure quality of education, so it’s hoped children would outperform.

Until last academic year there were KS1 SATs, so primary schools have 2 data points. Have they managed to improve performance, worsen or stay the same?

Likewise if the secondary school receives a Y7 cohort all predicted 5’s and they all got 6’s at GCSE, that secondary is deemed to have a good progress score (quality of education).

At an individual pupil and school level, they may be one indicator of setting. It is silly to think children would be streamed in Y7 and remain in the same set throughout if they are under/over performing. Again - it is in the secondary school interest to maximise performance so this won’t happen.

The HT is inflating the performance of their school. What’s most likely to happen is borderline children (those either not meeting age related expectations or those working at greater depth) were targeted for an intervention.

So you've never seen what I'm describing. I've never seen what you're describing. Neither of the situations either of us have described are maladministration. The guidance makes absolutely no mention of how many adults should be in a room.

ETA: Obviously there should be at least one adult per room!

So I have just 'checked my facts', despite knowing them inside out already as a Year 6 teacher who has just completed my fifth SATs (although I've never had to write a paper on them...) and here they are:

3. Demonstrating correct test administration
We recommend inviting a governor, a trusted member of the school community or a staff member from a nearby secondary school, who is not otherwise involved in administering the tests, to observe their administration.
Observers should expect to see the complete administration of the test or tests they are observing. They should check:

• all test administrators are familiar with the procedures, including what is and is not permitted during the administration of all tests
• test packs are stored securely in a locked cupboard and have remained unopened until, at most, one hour before the test taking place on the published test date, unless the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) has approved an early opening application
• pupils are suitably seated and supervised, and classroom displays have been removed or covered, as appropriate
• the school is administering the tests in the order published in the test timetable, and access arrangements are being used correctly
• test scripts are collected from the test room immediately after the test and packaged securely in a locked cupboard until they are dispatched for marking
• any unused test papers are accounted for and stored securely until Friday 23 May

Absolutely no mention of needing more than one adult in a room.

No parents or relatives OF CHILDREN can be readers or scribes- if you read what I wrote again, you'll see I said we used parents and spouses of TEACHERS (and not as readers or scribes, just as one-to-ones for children entitled to rest breaks).

What course are you doing, out of interest? And have you ever been involved in administering the actual SATs? Because your post is giving serious mansplaining vibes.

Most secondaries do baseline testing in y7 because we know SATs scores are totally unreliable and bear very little relation to the child’s actual ability.

Don’t report the head. A lot of primary schools fiddle the SATs one way or another. If he/she is a good head, you’ll be doing more harm than good.

I said this happens. Didn't I?

My dd school years ago had this all children recieved no marks at all. All staff were sacked and now 5 years later they are still.supervised. now keep your mouth shut unless you want your child to receive no marks

The head teacher wasn’t doing it to help your child.

SATs are about school performance. He did it to make the school look better. And by doing so, is preventing real improvement from taking place.

He’s also setting an awful example to the children.

I would absolutely complain.

Any teacher can ammend the target grade at any point in their secondary school life. The sats results are a loose starting point for year 7.

No it’s not.

These people you talk about are hard to come by, there's already a national shortage of teachers etc, if you took away the dishonest (or kind) depending on how you see it, or HUMANS that make mistakes! There wouldn't be many left. This is not an issue.

If it doesn't matter why endeavour to ruin someone's life? Just for kicks?!

Report it. We don’t need dishonest cheats for headteachers. Our children deserve to be taught by people with integrity and professionalism.

I doubt a few questions hinted are going to make much difference, maybe he was being kind? Is your child known to be intelligent and he felt sorry for him for making too many obvious mistakes? Maybe he's just a really kind man!! Don't be a dick and report him.

There was a teacher got caught out doing this a while ago and he lost his job and was struck off from teaching. I don’t think it’s great but not sure I could report. The heads must be under so much pressure and stress.

That poster wasn’t saying all children with SEN aren’t capable. She’s talking about specific children who scored well above their individual ability (not above some low score she thinks all children with SEN will get), and therefore probably had help from the scribe or reader.

This is my issue is that it’s what people believe but many children with Sen are capable and the scribe gives fhem access - my daughter has quite complex Sen needs and requires a scribe but she is academically able her scribe would not help her but is she does well that’s what people will assume.

How has it helped the child? SATS measure the performance of the school, not the child. By cheating, the head teacher is trying to bump up the schools performance, presumably to make the school appear more attractive to prospective parents. It’s very dishonest.

I think this practice is pretty widespread. Just a gentle ‘you might want to look at that again’ sort of thing. It certainly happened to my child years ago.

Outside invigilation is the only way to prevent it and that’s unlikely to happen because of the cost.

Reporting one person will not make any difference. However, it may destroy someone’s career and even their life if the tabloids jump on it which they have in the past, although to be fair I think the case I heard about involved a teacher or Headteacher actually altering papers after the test.

Of course it’s wrong, but personally I would let it go, or have a quiet word with the headteacher making them aware that you have concerns. This would probably ensure they didn’t do it again.

As long as the system remains as it is, it will always be open to abuse.

I'd report it to the governors.

It's about time SATS were abolished. They are pointless as secondary schools do CATS when they start.

I would absolutely report it. That is really, really terrible behaviour from a head teacher. SATS don’t matter. They shouldn’t matter. So nobody should need to cheat.

I can't speak for all secondary schools but we don't use SATs for target levels for KS3 or grades for GCSEs We use MIDYIS (Middle Years Information System) for that. For setting, we issue own tests mainly though SATs results are also taken into account as well as the class teacher's view in the first term of secondary.

If the HT did cheat, it's obviously highly unethical and may be a sign of the pressures they feel they are under.

Yes they are, though my daughter’s year missed SATS due to lockdown and her predictions were based on average CAT scores from year 7 instead. Her CAT scores were very spiky, with 134 for verbal reasoning and around 110 for everything else , so the average score gave her predictions of grade 6 in all subjects when she is really advanced in English and wordy subjects but struggles in maths and science. SATS have been shown to (statistically) correlate with GCSE results. That’s not to say a predicted score is what a child will achieve. My daughter’s maths teacher insisted for the past two years that she’d achieve a grade 6 in maths, when she was averaging just below grade 4 in every test!

The children won't be disqualified.

The head may face closer scrutiny in future, particularly if enough people report it.

I reported my son's head and there was no suggestion of any possibility he would be interviewed about it /the children would be disqualified