SATS cheating - by the Head!

It is out and out cheating and I am amazed that you and others apparently think it is OK for a headteacher to demonstrate to children that that’s the right way to behave in public examinations (and life).

All schools I've monitored have children across large rooms, sitting with a 1-1 in various corners or in small rooms with doors open to a central space.

At least one extra adult is in the middle of the room or in the corridor sitting between all rooms, with some occasional walking between. Practical arrangements to allow a second person to oversee the first.

Very dependant on the school building and layout. Also sometimes on the needs of the child (minimise disturbance).

We do the same during unannounced monitoring visits, sitting between, wandering between, listening in, watching.

I've never seen a closed room, 1-1 child/adult. (10 years in the role, unannounced visits during SATS, 4 schools per year) Plus 8 years of SATS as the headteacher responsible for administration.

I suggest you read up on the administration of SATS and of Access Arrangements like having a reader because you are talking nonsense!
I happen to know because I had to write a piece on them for a course I am doing. No parents or relatives can be readers, scribes or anything else for children in SATs and there must be two adults in the room at all times when the papers are there.

Obviously schools don't have to follow these rules but they can have someone from the LA turn up to check their administration and many schools call their own Governors in to check they are administering them correctly.

Check your facts.

My teacher did the same thing... walked around the desks and would tut indicating answer was wrong. Would whisper the answer to us after

I would report it but only once your child has left and is settled in secondary school and there is no chance of them having to resit them.

You would be surprised what heads and other staff do, especially in schools that are under achieving.

You think cheating doesn't happen?

The most worrying thing about this incident is the HT is basically telling your DS and his classmates that it's OK to cheat. I'd report.

It happens.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/16374460.heighington-school-investigated-sats-maladministration-pupils-test-results-annulled/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/school-s-exam-results-annulled-over-cheating-9135150.html

They absolutely do make a difference to secondary school. They are measured on how closely their students achieve their gcse grades which are, on the whole, predicted by sats. Schools can alter them internally but ultimately they are still judged on the government grades done by sats. It means some high schools can do a brilliant job with their students, but get rubbish value added because their original ‘values’ were artificially high because of primary schools cheating on sats. So, yes, it’s ‘only’ a school measure but how many on here chose their schools
or where to live based on ofsted reports? The students i feel most sorry for are the ones who are coached and cajoled through them to get good results which boost the primary’s value added, but then give them stupidly high targets in secondary so they spend their whole secondary career feeling like they aren’t good enough. The sats should be done unseen and unpractised. Like the cats tests, which are still done by some school, but these are not funded and are expensive for schools to do.

Primary SLT here who hates SATS.

My hatred of SATS does not mean I condone this behaviour. Report.

For those of you not aware, this happens regularly. The HT of my previous school was seconded by county to be head at another local school following SATS cheating. In that case, the DD of the chair of governors asked her dad if Mr X should have been rubbing out people's answers and telling them to try again.

The CoG had no choice but to report his headteacher.

This is why sats are pointless. They matter more as a reflection of the school than a benefit to your child. If they are in the wrong set in secondary they will just move them after getting to know the child, we don’t use them at all because we know this happens. It will be more common that you realise. We have some students come with really high target grades that can barely read, when we ask about sats they frequently say “my teacher wrote down for me to copy”. This is from more than one feeder primary.

I would urge caution in doing what you see as the right thing.
My daughter struggled badly with her SATS.
She had always suffered from anxiety and this was compounded by me being seriously ill in hospital for 3 weeks around that period, obviously this contributed to her achieving poor results.
Unfortunately her secondary school did indeed use her results to determine class sets and predict GCSE grades, she was predicted to fail every single exam and was placed in the lowest two groups for everything.
During her time at the school, despite the obvious improvement in her work in comparison to her SATS, I believe she was held back as a calming influence and as a student helper to others in the class who should have been getting support but weren't.
This was obviously denied time and again.
My daughter was the first year to sit the new style GCSEs and did a test exam in Science for the foundation tier, her result placed her in the top 15% in the country. She was still held back in the lowest set, she achieved a 5.4, the highest she could have achieved with the foundation paper was a 5.5.
She was let down massively and if I was in your position, I would be saying absolutely nothing.

You're a Head Teacher and you condone cheating in exams?? Doesn't say a lot for the independent sector

If you report it they will lose their job.
I wouldn’t be arsed - it’s SATs not GCSE’s.

utterly unreasonable! You do realise that the actual SATS test are just a fraction of the measurement of progress across primary school? Yes he shouldn’t have done it but it really wouldn’t make that much of a difference as teachers have to select a ‘best fit’ assessment result based on ongoing assessment all year with the actual exams being just a back up.

Are you sure the head didn’t ask them to rub it out as maybe it wasn’t clear? In our training we were told to make sure that mistakes were rubbed out clearly as it might still be visible? Was the head saying rub out something that had been crossed out but wasn’t clear?

Knowing something is nonsense, is one thing. Setting a poor example by cheating quite another.

In any event, it doesn't stack up. At my daughter's school the head is obsessed with SATS and has had them doing before school or after school revision sessions for months. She's had them revising every spare moment when they weren't in an exam this week. Far from thinking SATS are stupid she has a huge fixation with them, to the detriment of children's wellbeing

I've just 'done' (as a Y6 teacher) my fifth set of SATs. Not once, in any of those years, has any of the rooms had more than one adult in it.

We've always just had one adult (e.g. deputy head) wandering around and checking on each room at random.

ETA: Where do you work where you have enough spare adults to do this?!

Let someone else report it. You were not there, in the room, were you?

Really?

Some people just have high moral standards.

My job depends on me always acting with integrity. I would have assumed teachers would hold themselves to the same standards, but judging by this thread a lot of teachers see nothing wrong with cheating. Fascinating.

Love it when MNers try to outdo each other in virtue-signalling. Bravo!

I'm astonished by the responses on here. I think most people on here would agree that SATs are well past their sell by date. I'm not sure that gives Primary Heads carte blanche to walk round an exam room changing answers. Would these posters be quite so laissez faire abour Head teachers changing GCSE or, gasp, A Level answers?
Of course they wouldn't, report, report, report.