School refusing access to exam results

I completely agree, OP.
There seem to be some sort of secrecy around scores at primary schools in the UK - in other countries you get a percentage or at least a letter grade, not a ‘working towards expectations’ comment.
I see it as schools being patronising towards parents « they won’t know how to handle it / they will stress the children out / etc ».

Interestingly, when we moved from state to private we had grades for each class at the end of each term.

Not too often in the first couple of years but increases a lot to one a week on average by end of primary. I expect most parents don't find it an issue as its what they're used to and wasn't a problem for me to adjust to but language barriers might cause issues but its not something that's come up in any discussions or news articles about issues with education.
On the flip side we don't have to complete reading records.

If you want to help her over the summer wouldn't the report be more useful? Ours are a good 4/5 paragraphs per child.
e.g. DS2 (in year 1) got 'expected' for English but the report explains his reading and sentence creation is good but he could work a little harder on hand writing.

How often do they do tests? Also you are in a different education system. If schools here sent out all test papers and asked parents to sign them and send them back, they probably wouldn’t get 100% compliance. How does your country deal with language barriers, illiteracy etc amongst parents? Many parents here complain about having to complete reading records, having to sign off tests on a regular basis would tip many of them over the edge.

At 7, surely you can ask her if there's anything she's found difficult to practice? That's what I've always done. You can also look through her work books for yourself.

You're coming across as really pushy. The 'meets expectations' is a typical benchmarking framework (or our has moved to 'At') - probably to stop pushy parents getting overly competitive and harrassing their young children.

I’m not really sure what you’re arguing for here? For constant assessments?

I have a 6 year old with SEN. He’s in the top reading band and can read fluently, he actually needs to move to the next stage away from reading bands entirely but because they can’t progress through that without taking assessments based on each book they read, he’s stuck below his actual level. Batshittery. He passed Gove’s phonics screening with full marks so at least he can read alien words fluently too…

His report said he was significantly below age expectations? I had no idea why so had to ask the teacher. She said it’s because all assessments are paper and he accesses writing primarily through iPads. She said he’s above age expectations but they had to put significantly below because he doesn’t access the assessments in the same way as other children. Make it make sense!

Well, you could go along to the local bookstore/stationers and buy the KS books applicable for her age group and use those at home……that way you’d at least know yourself where she needs help or not as the case may be.

A test only shows you what a child could remember at a particular time on a particular day under a particular set of circumstances, which is why, even when statutory, KS1 assessment scores were only ever used as PART of the teacher assessment. The majority of the “evidence” used for the outcome is the day to day work the child can do, which you have got. As other posters have said, if you look through the exercise books, you will get a much better idea of what your child finds easy or difficult than being given a test score.

I think using the word “exam” for assessments being carried out in Year 2 is perhaps what has confused you. End of year assessments have always been carried out. Parents get the outcome in an end of year report. The report is quite clear in the information it gives about how your child is progressing.

You can either approach working with your child at home by doing any number of formal work books that can be purchased OR you can go to museums to learn science, history and geography, write diaries, do cooking, sports, crafts and projects together to learn about measuring, estimating, following instructions, summarizing, planning and having fun.

Guess which approach I prefer.

also you csn just test your daughter from tests on line etc sndcfind out what she can do or not
or just relax and enjoy the summer if something was seriously wrong you would be told

Do the latter! She will not be a child for long .... let her enjoy it.

Oh dear. Big mistake on the schools part in sending home her work. You will be going through it with a nit comb looking for evidence that they did not mark every spelling mistake, said “well done for using a powerful adjective” on Tuesday but ignoring how well she used speech marks on Friday . You will be asking why every single pencil mark hasn’t been fully annotated by the teacher. You will be wanting to know where the sums are in her maths notebook, or why she isn’t doing long multiplication and carry ten like you used to.

“Wishy washy meets expectations and exceeds expectations” did we all spot the stealth boast?

Your DD will have done other assessments in the year. These are just end of year ones. A few years ago KS1 SATS were statutory tests like the phonics test, now they are voluntary. You will get the marks for KS2 SATS at the end of Y6.

You won’t have been told about them to try and make sure you don’t see them as a big deal and put pressure on your DC. They are just another data drop for schools

Let your DD have a break over the summer. Carry on reading with them

We got the not meeting/meeting/exceeding in our school reports

I was still that parent and asked for the scores which the teacher gave me no problem. Maybe they think I'm that parent though! But this is the second child with the same teacher who gave me the scores at parents evening for my first child without asking.

I do think it's very easy to go through school thinking your child is doing well because they are so positively encouraging that it's really hard to get a clear idea of how they are doing. I also think it's really strange that people think their child's education should be entirely left to the teachers. They have 30 children in one room trying to get through a huge curriculum with very little TA support and often send children with no additional or not enough support.

When our LB started in reception they did some assessments to establish a starting position and these weren’t shared with parents - I think it forms a basis for the progress scores for each kid. I assume the tests you are talking about are the same thing and they do them every year. Given it’s a way to assess the school rather than the kids I imagine they think it’s easier not to share the results. If they did there’d be a lot of interaction around it and that would take up lots of time. I can see where they are coming but on a more general point I share your frustration because I have found it difficult to get a much quantitive information from our LB’s primary school. I assume it’s because they are young but I get lots of vague ‘he’s doing well’. Given facts seem to be in short supply it’s a bit frustrating that they don’t share the results which would give you more insight into how she is doing.

I only found out about the Y2 tests by chance - was walking home after drop off and another parent mentioned them (she has an older child too). The school seems to have handled them really well and

I'm glad they didn't share the exact results with us. My 7yo daughter did a dance exam earlier this year and they were all given a sheet with their results. I saw how they compared the numbers and upset some of them were at getting even slightly lower marks than their friends.

You’ve got her workbooks, look through them and see what she’s struggling with if you want to help her over summer.

This is a year 2 child, right? So 7 years old? I'm a bit surprised at the school using the word exam at this age. Is that really what they called them?

They’re not ‘exams’ in Year 2, you fanny. Calm down 🤣

My daughter is likely dyslexic and behind on a few areas. The school were very slow at picking this up and I didn’t realise the extent of the problem until Y2. I really regret not keeping a closer eye in reception and Y1.

The school have never given me test results - but when I have asked me how I can support her they have told me things I can do with her at home. Like spelling high frequency words, and learning her 12 times table.

Also the CGP books are pretty good in my experience - I was able to gauge my daughter’s level and we have used them to support her English. She is still “working towards” but I think the gap is closing.

I agree with you that leaving your child’s academics just to the school isn’t always the best approach. There is lots you can do at home though. I do think the test results are a bit meaningless though, and I agree the “working towards/meeting expectations” is very vague. I largely just let the school get on with it/ support where they mention it and do my own thing with her at home. I think if I hadn’t done stuff with her at home she wouldn’t have made such good progress. However I do think the school are trying to help and every little helps!

Why would it take any longer than the time it takes to mark? Every test my children have done in primary school has been marked then sent home for me to look at. Parents then have to sign them to show they've looked at them and the child returns them to the teacher. Quite helpful as I can see what questions my children get wrong and help them understand those kinds of questions better.

With the greatest of respect, my dd was diagnosed with ADHD aged 16. Looking back all the signs were there but because she performed highly, no teacher ever noticed. If the results had been monitored, the slip from early stellar may have been picked up.

The minute she started an independent 6th form, the difficulty with writing was nailed and she was allowed to work and do exams on a laptop. We raised the issues repeatedly throughout primary and secondary. Because she was above the norm nobody helped her. She always knew she wasn't performing to her ability hence why the cutting, o'dosing and decline into anxiety and depressuon arose aged 15.

Once diagnosed (privately, because CAMHS didn't give a flying) she turned round.

Because we are talking about a child who got 5A/A and 6B's at GCSE, she wasn't the school's priority. However, her intellectual ability should have delivered 11A/A. Once medicated and supported with therapy, she got 3A* A'Levels, dropping only about 10 UMS points and went on to take a first from Cambridge.

In my opinion it is therefore very imporyant to statistically track progress on the basis of all assessments because state schools teach to sats and normarive GCSE results rather than holistically and in accirdance with the potential of each child.

I would absolutely insist, and would be That Mother with absolutely zero shame as much as I saw fit.

I think that’s very odd from the school…surely they will share this with you maybe as a report? I would want to know about my child and their exams to support them at home. I would put extra effort into the bits they are struggling with. Isn’t that part of being a normal concerned supportive parent?

Essentially you are entitled to the data.

I would call again and follow up with an email. It it’ll have to be today and they may drag their feet

ask specifically for the exam papers as part of a subject access request - but make it clear to them if you have copies of the papers (and don’t expect originals) then you don’t need the SAR to be completed in full.

id frankly fall over myself not to have to do the admin of the sar!!

@Rainbowstarssunlight you could buy a KS1 workbook from Waterstones or Amazon and work through over the summer, you’ll soon see the areas your DD needs support in.