School refusing access to exam results

Oh good grief!!

Just give them a paddling pool, a tree, a few cardboard boxes, some food ingredients to make what they will, lots of paints, a ball, a magnifying glass, a hose, as bit of garden to cultivate, ... and let THEM explore and learn.

Answer any questions they ask - because they will arise from their natural curiosity - but leave it to the school to lead them by the nose. Our job as parents is to truly educate them - to lead them out and nourish them.

Make them read books. - I can't find a head-in-hands icon but wish I could! MAKE THEM???!!! That will increase their enthusiasm for sure??!!

Leave our children be!!

@LittleWhiteRabbit OP has had school report which actually gives a bigger picture than the test result would. I’m not sure what the test result would add. If she is so interested why hasn’t she asked for every assessment that her child had done since starting in reception, and under the English system she would have done many in her 3 years in school. And will do many more. Her child is at greater depth, so already performing beyond age expectations. Her mum is proposing doing school work with her over the summer holidays rather than giving her 7yo a break. Maybe there is a reason school are reluctant to give her the information!

OP. Are you in training to be "That" mother or does it come naturally to you?

I do see your point, but fundamentally I'm oppossed to the idea that an engaged parent, interested in their child's progress and wanting a fuller picture, is 'vexatious'. It may well be inconvenient and time consuming.

To me vexatious would mean: a high volume of emails and calls every day; using an aggressive tone; making unrealistic demands; expecting instant responses outside of school hours; bypassing school protocols.

Asking for test results does not make a vexatious parent. There is a legal right to view your child’s Educational Record within 15 school days of a written request. Internal test results and academic achievements are part of that record.

Potentially then, if all parents asked for all information, a school's ability to deliver its core purpose, educating pupils, would be disabled as time was invested in responding to parental queries so they were able to fulfil their legal responsibility. Freedom of Information legislation already places a burden on schools, in most cases rightly, but most schools have at least one vexatious complainant whose requests are time-consuming for staff.

There’s already a poster on here who, when told her child’s “score”, made the poor child sit the paper again so he/she could prove that the score was wrong!

I wasn't suggeesting that she isnt doing so. Only that the responsibility is somewhat hampered without a full picture.
'An individual without information can't take responsibilty. An individual with information cant' help but take responsibility'.

Responsibiliy cannot exist in an information vacuum. The necessary data, context, and transparency is essentail. Whether the information the OP has asked for is pertinent to that responsibility is for her to decide, not the school.

Exactly this. We are supporting human beings to grow, not robots. School is stressful enough for children these days. Some are naturally academic, some will need a bit more support, but at this small age school should be enough for the academic side and home should be a place to grow as a human being - learn life skills, gain independence and enjoy themselves! As a teacher, op, do you not think you and your child could both do with a good break from academic education this summer?

Here is how to help your child:

1. Make them read books. Turn off all screens, and give them the choice of household chores or reading a book, do this regularly. Also read to them. They are not too old to be read to.
2. Give them "cultural capital", which basically means lots and lots of general knowledge and a wide variety of experiences. Go to events and shows of all sorts - whatever is on. Go for trips out to interesting places. Discuss the history and/or geography of where you are when out (castles, old buildings, hills and rivers, farmland, etc.). Go for walks and identify flowers and trees (app on your phone). Walk around town and notice things, look up answers to questions. Watch documentaries on TV together: science, nature, history, etc. Go to the library and browse with them.
3. If you are worried about maths, consider getting a tutor for an hour a week and after a few weeks ask the tutor for feedback.
4. Leave the school to do the schooling.

Which the OP is already doing by sending her child to a state school, receiving information about her child supplied by school, reading the information and understanding what it means (in this case, no issues).

I have every sympathy with teachers and the difficulties they face in the profession.
But people often forget that under UK law it is parents that are legally responsible for ensuring their child receives and efficient, full time education - which must be suitable to the child's age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs they may have.

They will be year 2 SATS papers and they are supposed to be used along with teacher assessment rather than as stand alone. However, my mainstream child takes lots of internals tests and we get the papers for all of them once marked so that we can see what they need to work on. It’s not high stakes and it’s helpful. I think your school is being unnecessarily secretive. My only assumption is they have had issues with parents previously getting very het up rather than seeing it as a snapshot assessment to be considered with the rest of their work.
Ask to go and speak to them.

So if OP demanded the test results but the actual paper is exempt what is she actually going to gain from that? The test paper will make up part of the end of year grading

People need to understand more about data access rights.

Submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) to your child's school in writing via email or letter.
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, the organisation must provide your child's personal data - such as attendance records, reports, emails, and safeguarding notes within one calendar month of receiving the request and your ID.
For internal classroom tests or older KS1 SATs, schools do not automatically publish scores to parents in end-of-year reports, but they must disclose the raw/scaled scores or teacher assessment marks under a SAR once the request is officially processed, unless it falls into the official unannounced exam window for official exams. While the actual test papers (your child's written answers) are exempt from disclosure, the final scores, marks, and grades are personal data and must be provided under a Subject Access Request (SAR).
The only valid reason a school can delay releasing internal marks is if they have not yet been finalised or officially recorded. Once they are processed, they must be shared with you.

You have 11 long school years to go OP. You really need to relax a little or you will be a wreck by the time she gets to high school!!

If you don’t know that your dd finds fractions difficult and time easy then you could download a paper and ask dd to sit one at home. It won’t be the same as doing it at school but would that satisfy your curiosity? Your DD could probably tell you she likes questions about time but not fractions or whatever which would help you decide what topics to study at home.

You are taking things too seriously by calling these exams. Your dd (and her school) will have been assessed since reception to see if she’s making progress each term. Schools only send you the results legally required because it’s extra work for them. Imagine the school spend 5 mins per child inputting scores - that’s 150 minutes for a class of 30 and which staff member has that time? More if people like you want a chat or breakdown of results.

I think the original question reflects the rush, rush, rush mindset of our education system.

The Latin derivation of the word is about leading out, about nourishing. This is not what we now have. We have a rigid system that sets targets, encourages competition, focuses on exams, values academic skills above practical or artistic, puts young people under stress, makes them feel failures, pushes them towards exam success and ignores their individuality and own speed of development, sidelines the reality of childhood as a time for exploration and enthusiasms - this is not leading out or nurturing - it is inward looking and stressful.

I see so many young people who reach the GCSE stage and are anxious and stressed and beginning to wonder what the hell this is all about.

We have our whole lives to learn stuff - I retrained at 50!

I think we should do all we can to reject this rigidity in the system and encourage and nurture a bit of chilling out; of learning to care; of capitalising on a child's natural curiosity rather than nailing it down to what the system says they should be interested in.

And for goodness sake - holidays from school are just that - holidays! - to be enjoyed and a chance to relax outside of the straightjacket of the education system, which forces teachers to focus on targets and tests rather than what they would really like to be doing .... using their professional skills to nurture every child's talents.

Yes I can see. But you can’t just not share because you don’t want to. That’s not how the law works.

They may be able to apply a statutory exemption and ultimately the ICO will decide (should the requester complain about it) whether they have correctly applied that exemption. But organisations can’t withhold info just because they don’t want to release it.

Can you not see why a school wouldn’t want to share? It’s so they don’t have to remake the test papers year on year and it’s easier to track/ compare data.

Private schools don’t usually share papers. They may sit down at a meeting a let you look through, but you won’t be able to take them away.

This is strange. Schools don’t share exam papers usually as they want to use them again the next year and they don’t want them to be shared by nosey parents/tutors. Your mum would know this as an ex teacher.

In my work any request for information is treated as a SAR or FOI request (as appropriate). As a public body we can’t just say no. People have rights to information about them / their children you can’t just say no unless a statutory exemption applies.

Why not? i mean sure they’ll think she’s a pain in the arse, but it’s a statutory right.