SATS cheating - by the Head!

A local primary school posted on social media about the Saturday revision classes they ran for SATs! I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Why on earth are they doing this? What purpose does it serve? It just makes lots of children stressed and upset about tests when they don’t need to be. Absolutely absurd. No SATS happened during Covid. Funnily enough everyone seems to have managed to function just fine without them.

Okay, I am happy to change my comment to:

"As well as understanding the difficulties of finding enough willing, available adults to have more than one person per room in a school with 96 Year 6 children and a fairly high proportion of children with SEN, which necessitates using a large number of rooms."

I'm not convinced that makes the task significantly easier to achieve.

Rubbish - I can name three locally who do. Depends on the school.

If this happened relax. Secondary schools do not use sat results to set children. Secondary schools hate sats. They know kids have had a year of intense coaching to pass these tests designed solely for the benefit of the school and not for the pupils. What usually happens is staff enjoy scoffing at the results, bin them and either make the kids sit cat tests in the first couple of weeks or end of term.

Sats really ought to be abolished. They serve no purpose other than to make the school look good on paper. The kids spend a year being spoon fed on how to pass a test & getting stressed out rather than actually learning.

Do your kid a favour. Chill. Let her know she’s gonna have to sit a test at secondary school without being coached for a year so they can assess her real level.

I am a TA and have been involved in year 6 SATs for many years. In our school we stagger the tests so that all children who need a reader or scribe, have one. We also have at least two adults in every room. It requires some juggling of the timetable, especially on Wednesday when there are two maths papers, but it can be, and was, done. Because ours is an old school, it was fairly easy to keep the two main groups apart until the tests were completion each day.
Everyone involved with the tests had training and we were all given a copy of the rules regarding administering them. It was very clearly stated in the rules and reiterated verbally by the HT, that adults were NOT to give the children any clues as to whether there answers were correct or otherwise. IMO, the HT in the OPs school breached that rule. It doesn't matter what we think individually about SATs and their importance, or how serious this HTs actions were, or what impact reporting it could have, their actions were in breach of the rules and therefore should be reported. I would report and I would expect to be reported if I had done this. SATs maynor may net be important, integrity is.

But as a kid. Like genuinely I don't see why they'd care as they have no impact in further life.

But sadly the children do finish up caring/getting anxious in those schools who make a big thing of it. And the parents start to worry and convey that to their children. This is what is so pernicious about it all. All that worry and upset over something that is total nonsense.

I run an arts festival and 2 of the boys who always take part on the Saturday did not because SATs were the following week and their parents were worried about it. How ridiculous - to miss out on an annual weekend activity that they love because of SATs!

Indeed so!

I'm sure that as HOD I was always in the Hall for the GCSE mainly in case there's a problem that others couldn't deal with and also to dole out all the equipment, ie pen. pencil, ruler etc., that the pupils couldn't be bothered to bring! The biggest problem was the Head of Special Needs who was far too helpful in the area where the children allowed extra time and a reader sat.

Teachers maybe. But as a kid. Like genuinely I don't see why they'd care as they have no impact in further life.

You misunderstand me. NHS staff do things wrong all the time. But they should be challenged and I would not support them getting away with it. If a fellow colleague broke some guidelines, I would absolutely think they should be reported and it managed appropriately. My issue is that I do not support unethical behaviours in my colleagues.

Judging schools on their exam results is why so many schools are jumping kids through exam techniques hoops rather than educating them. All SATs show is that some kids can pass SATs, not a skill you're going to use outsdie of school. The teacher didn't give your son the right answer, he just spotted a wrong one and suggest he try again. Silly fuss about nothing.

Did SLT change their behaviour at all after that?

That’s all on the HT, not you.
The “unfairness”has already happened - to those who did not receive any help either in your son’s school or at others.

You're absolutely right, OP.

Whatever people's opinions on SATs are, they are official tests and the Head really over-stepped. Everyone in schools is well aware of the rules around official testing.

I'm glad you're going to raise it with him. Make sure you mention that other kids saw/heard and are speaking about it, or he might try to accuse DD of lying.

If he's desperate enough to take risks like this, he's desperate enough to dig his heals in.

Hopefully your conversation will give him pause and stop him repeating these actions in future.

If a years SATS scores are invalidated it doesn't negatively impact anyone later on in life. They aren't GCSEs.

You have made the right decision

I used to work in Y6 and one year there was an investigation because someone had made an allegation about staff helping the children/cheating. I suspect it was a whistle blower in the school as it was common knowledge that the SLT would always invigilate the children who were borderline.

We were all interviewed, but we still got our results as usual.

I think there would have to be substantial evidence of cheating for a whole year group's results to be voided. Eg several children's papers where answers have clearly been altered by someone else.

When SATs first started, so a long time ago, Primary schools didn't have as much experience of external exams as the High schools. My OH, a marker, got a batch with a note from the Head saying that after the allotted time a line had been drawn under each child's work and then they could continue to finish the Paper! When OH passed this up the line he was told to mark the whole Paper just like the rest.

RTFT, @NeverDropYourMooncup

It’s just a recommendation. Not a rule. 😉

You really ought to know that it's a really bad idea to let anybody in without checking even in a two-invigilator situation as one may be needed to take a child to the toilet, though.

Out of curiosity OP, if the HT was a class teacher instead, would you still decide not to report him?