SATS cheating - by the Head!

Sats are ridiculous. They tested my August born child and predicted she would have a 50% chance of getting 5 GCSEs 🙄
She got 12 GCSEs and 4 A levels all excellent grades .
She then did an honours degree course in Primary teaching with QT Status .
Gaining a first .
So l wouldn't take them to task OP for erasing and prompting. It's all nonsense and sounds like the head teacher knows it too .

Not during SATS. Strict administration rules means at least two adults, all with administration training must be present at all times. Good practice is to have a governor overseeing too. Schools often have volunteer parents attending.

Even the SATS papers are moved, counted, packaged with two adults present at all times.
If the storage cupboard is opened at any point this also has to be logged and double signed.

It really is a huge system.

Another secondary school teacher here who’s had experience of children with high KS2 prior attainment scores that definitely don’t reflect their ability, and a few instances of children telling of ‘help’ from TA/teacher/scribe etc. Obviously you can’t believe everything teenagers say but I can definitely believe it happens!

FWIW in my school SATs scores are taken into account with setting and predicted grades too

You can report but it will be your dc's word against the Head and the TA's.what will probably happen is that they will probably be moderated next year.

I’d report it.

Predicted results will be changed by their own tests my kids secondary schools repeated sat testing after they had started plus there is a lot of set movements in year 7=8

Cheating isn't "inconsequential". It's a monstrous example to set children. And these Headteachers are making themselves look good at the expense of honest ones

That is definitely not true.

There are tons of "testing rooms" when the SATs take place so that children who need a reader or one-to-one can be alone with them and not distracted by others. The spouses and parents of teachers often come in to be the readers and one-to-ones because there just aren't enough members of staff. There definitely aren't enough members of staff or willing volunteers for each room (we used 12 this week, to give you an idea) to have more than one adult in them!

Report it.

I find it fascinating, and rather telling, that people are trying to convince the op not to report.

I think it's time for independent invigilation of SATS. (Or we just scrap them)

Not acceptable and needs reporting, simple as that. It's cheating by the head and it is serious.

I know of at least four headteachers who have colluded in SATs cheating. One got away with it ( an infant school) three , KS2, were sacked for gross misconduct. I think it is far more common than assumed, headteachers are under huge pressure, and in a small school a couple of pupils not achieving their predicted grades can skew the statistics, which makes them do stupid things.

For me it’s a none issue. The SATs mean nothing other than too the school. It’s a measurement of progress from foundation. Helping them on two questions won’t affect their overall score massively so it’s not like a working towards kid is then going to be placed in greater depth in secondary.

Only time I would say something is if the child is SEN and trying to gather data for a diagnosis etc

My old secondary school did entrance exams in year 7 to place into sets which was better

The head teacher of DDs school was doing it this week, and she did it when my son was at the school doing SATS two years ago.

I reported it two years ago (my son told me in great detail, she was rubbing out answers, spelling out words etc, and two of his friends both told their mums (my close friends)) the same story.

I think I should report it again this time but I feel quite demoralised that nothing happened last time.

It's absolutely outrageous that headteachers are not only prepared to cheat for their own gain but also are prepared to set such an example to children

They had a parent of a year 6 child as the invigilator

I’m surprised so many people think this doesn’t happen tbh.

It's not great is it. Sats are more for the school's benefit so he's changing the results to make the school look better. Not on.

I’m with you OP - it’s abhorrent. Not so much the impact of the cheating itself but the effect on the children who’ve seen their supposed moral leader cheat in a nationally important assessment.
presumably your DC would have been in terrible trouble if they’d been caught trying to copy answers off mates or cheat in some other way? Yet the head expects to just get away with it. It’s disgusting tbh.
i think Id have a quiet word with the head and say Ive heard from a few children that thought they saw you helping children in the test. I’m sure they were mistaken but I’ve told parents in the younger year groups to look out for this because if this happens again and Dfe/Ofsted find out there would be very serious consequences for the school and all the children. Hopefully that would put the shitters up them without actually causing trouble for the school.

My eldest DC was placed in a high set maths class when he started secondary last year. He started to struggle quite early on. When we discussed it with him, he said 'the only reason I'm in that group is because Mr D kept whispering/pointing to the right answers when he walked past me during the maths SAT paper'.

I've come to realise Mr D doesn't want the results to reflect badly on him.

I think there's a lot of pressure on year 6 teachers to get good results from their class.

They are part of an algorithm used to generate target grades. Post code is too.

Independent schools aren’t exactly known for their laid back attitude? And are also very good at fudging things for the sake of looking good…

not that I disagree, most exams are stupid but what does it have to do with state vs independent?

Sorry but this really made me laugh. My friend and I had the discussion today about how private schools definitely cheat on their results and you seem to be adding a bit of evidence to that!
Morally OP it is wrong I would probably write a letter to the school and left it there