SATS cheating - by the Head!

All I can conclude from this thread is that the cheaty teachers were drawn to it like magpies.

I am shocked at all the people tying themselves in knots to justify not reporting it.

No, because they aren’t told these grades until Year 9 or 10 and other factors go into them too.

I deal with parents who try to tell me their child is well-behaved in school.
You really have no idea.

I think this head was looking out for their reputation and wanting high results. Did he go around looking at everyone’s papers? It’s quite bizarre and I feel conflicted about tbh. The rule follower in me does not like this at all but the mum in me doesn’t want all the children disqualified. Tricky situation, perhaps approach the head for a discussion.

Please report. As a headteacher who conducts SATs with integrity it’s not fair.

This is true.

It also reflects on how well the primary school performs

And the guidelines quite clearly state that this is not allowed.

I can't believe how many people seem to think this is okay. It's also unfair on those of us who do follow correct procedures, because our results are compared nationally.

This is absolutely correct, one of my children had their PTM/PTE test manipulated by school (child told how to answer questions, pointed to correct answers, told which ones to correct, several children inc my child taken out class to ‘work on test’. This hindered my child greatly as all looked good on paper child ended up getting a ECHP due to SEWB from unmet needs, child’s detailed as ‘Complex SEN’ but you wouldn’t know it from their test scores!

But you're not allowed to suggest they have another go, or indicate they have got it wrong. The child got it wrong and it's up to them to check their answers and correct them, or lose marks. The teacher cheating means that the child will look again and gain marks that they wouldn't have.

oh but I'd report, absolutely.

ugh this thread has made me proud of the fact that we're all a bunch of rule following nerds at our school 😆 No one even opens the outer boxes of the papers without witnesses, much less the inner plastic packs. etc. I remember one year feeling badly that I'd messed up IN PRACTICE RUNS because I'd read everything aloud for the child who needed someone to read for them, but after being instructed on the guidance I found out I couldn't read the symbols aloud for them for the real exams. I still worry about that one!

I would leave it. It’s only SATs, is it that big of a deal? My kids school doesn’t do SATs so I could be wrong but surely the secondary schools would just use common sense and re jig their sets/ do their own assessments rather than use a SAT result from primary to inform their set for the whole of secondary?! The head will prob deny it and it’ll be stressful for your child in the last term of primary which I wouldn’t want for mine. Just move on is my advice.

I did mean to high a price. You are right.
Are you an english teacher 😂
I wish I could tell you where I worked but it would be outing and I could probably lose my job for misspelling an adjective phrase😂
Fair point but it doesn't seem like cheating to me, but then I am not a teacher or an exam board person and I like to think the head was doing it out of kindness to help a stressed student. I accept I could be wrong and if it is to bump scores up for personal gain then obviously this is unacceptable.
I stand by my previous comment that I do think this should be dealt with by speaking directly to the head as a first port of call.

Yes, having a chat with parents she likely knows about something their kids have likely told them already is pure scandal 🙄

As an ex teacher, I'm firmly of the opinion that if any careers were to be ended over this, they'd be both self-caused and deserved.

Just leave it. This kind of jiggery pokery is likely widespread.

It is completely wrong and should never ever happen. I’ve never seen or heard of this happening in all my years of educating.

That said, you are going to open a huge shit show for the whole school and all those year six pupils if you report it.

You mean ‘too high a price’. Also, this has nothing to do with compassion for a child (this is a laughable reading of the situation!!) and everything to do with league tables. Neither do you know the head ‘is otherwise good’.

HTs who cheat like this also put any other adult who becomes aware of the cheating in a very difficult position.

OP, whilst I agree with the sentiment of your post -
that this is wrong, shouldn’t happen etc, I would prioritise just moving on with life. Put this behind you. Do you really want your child interviewed as part of an investigation or would you prefer to just congratulate him/her for getting through the exams?

Or instead of playing amateur detective and spreading potentially career-ending rumours among the other parents, OP could report her concerns through official channels so they can be properly investigated by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

My two were at very different primary schools, one was wholly sats results driven whilst the other didn't do extra coaching/apply extra pressure. When children from the fist group moved to senior school they were put in top groups which soon showed they weren't able to keep up with the rest of the class and were moved down one or two groups. Not good for any child so I would definitely call the school or governors out on this.

Secondary teachers were polled on this:

That's really reckless behaviour from the head, doing that in front of other kids.

I wouldn't be surprised if they've gone home and told their parents about it.

Do you know who the kids were/their parents?

Might be worth a chat with them.

I'd be pissed if this had happened at DS's primary.

It happens in a lot of schools unfortunately, high schools already know this and make the kids do assessments during year 7 to check the knowledge levels

But their targets are based on SATs. Progress 8 and target setting is based on prior data.

Either do SATs properly with external invigilators or stop the farce!

This is a pretty big drip feed!

So you've contacted your friend the TA to tell her that you suspect the HT (so your friends Boss) of cheating? And she has told you to "write to the school"? What does that even mean, write to who at the school??

I'm very surprised the TA was willing to discuss it with you at all to be honest.

If this is true you've put her in an extremely difficult position by contacting her about it directly rather than reporting your concerns through official channels.