Talk me down. Y2 sats

[Holymolymackerel]

I had a meeting at school tonight with all the year 2 parents about sats in May. Year 1 sats so 7 year olds.

My dd is not academic, doesn't like formal subjects. Loves art, pe, topics etc.

She is struggling at school and knows she is, so her confidence is low and her concentration is poor. School are doing some interventions with her in little groups and I am doing extras at home as per school's advice. She reads every night etc.

The presentation explains the format of the sats, then we had a chance to look at past papers. I am in a real tail spin. They are so difficult and she will really struggle. I was led to believe that lots of children can do these tests with no issues so they are obviously not too hard.

I feel like a failure as a parent and know sooner rather than later my dd will do too.

Any advice from those facing the same thing or those who have been through it please.

You do realise they don't mean a thing right? Plus they are getting rid of them shortly.

I wouldn’t worry. Keep doing what you’re doing with your dd and get her involved in things that make her feel good about herself.

The whole thing is so utterly meaningless. For contrast - my son got 100% in all SATS tests and set a new record for doing the maths arithmetic paper in under 4 minutes...impressed? Well, he's autistic, hasn't been to school in months, has no friends, has been excluded multiple times, has extreme anxiety and needs psychiatric support at 8. SATS are NO indicator of anything useful, at. all. If you don't want your children to do them (and I would agree!), they don't have to do them. It's purely for the schools benefit and not the child.

Why is the school making such a big deal out of it? We weren't even told when ours sat them and they didn't really let on to the kids what was going on either.

I agree with cake ^^ there's no big deal made in my school about them. You don't even get the results of sats tests unless you ask. They are simply there for an extra bit of evidence to help or ignore in some cases for the end of year decision of whether the child met the end of year age related expectations. I'm a year 2 teacher of many years.

You’re doing all the right things for your DD.

I taught Yr2 last year, the SATstests were done in small groups, in a non threatening way. It was like a treat going into a different room and getting extra attention.

The SATs measure the teaching at the school and form part of the progress expected by Yr6.

The aim for any child is for them to make progress whilst in education, progress from their own starting point. You are helping your daughter enormously. Keep it fun and let her be a child.

Opt her out of them. She doesn't have to sit them. it's your choice as a parent. I know my dc will not be doing them if they are still a thing.

Trust me, they seem hard to us but the stuff on them is normal everyday fare to the kids. When my DS was in Year 2 (August baby, not a genius!) I looked at an online SPAG paper with horror and thought 'Oh my God he'll never do this'. Then I called him over to have a look and he went 'yeah, put the comma there, that's an adjective, what?'

They are being scrapped so don't worry and just focus on making sure your DD isn't worrying. It wasn't the tests that bothered my DS, it was the constant practices- he hated Year 2. You sound like a lovely mum OP!

DD refused to fill them in and drew a kitten on the maths paper

I like her style. My son's school makes a massive fuss about them, to the point that when I went to the first parents' evening of Y2, and asked how DS was doing in general (I don't often do school drop offs and pick ups, so hadn't met his teacher properly before), all she talked about was where he was in relation to SATS expectations, and I had to say, gently, that what I really wanted to know was stuff about general behaviour and happiness.

I’m a teacher. Honestly, don’t stress. By the start of Year 3, they will be forgotten. The Y3 teacher may give the results a cursory glance but will then form his/her own judgments. Put them out of your mind OP!

They're pointless.

Hopefully the school will keep it all very low key and she won't even know she's doing them! Honestly that's what it was like for my DC. Try not to worry. You don't need to prepare for them or even mention them at home.

They are absolutely pointless so please don't worry a second longer about them!

I work in yr2 and I've seen children that can't answer a single question. Does it make any difference? No! They still move up to yr3, they'll still get taught at their level of understanding and life will still go on!

My school have a meeting with the parents but it's all very much played down to the children. They're told they are training to become secret agents and have to try to do some quizzes to obtain their official secret agent badge. So they have to do some Secret Agent Training. Most of them love it!

They're a tiny piece of evidence that contribute to the Teacher assessments that will be reported to you, but which concentrated mostly on work in books. The test results aren't even reported anywhere.