Reader during SATS

[chrisholt133]

Hello mums,
I am a dad. My daughter starts SATS on Monday. Today, after she was back from school we found out that she has been assigned a reader during SATS. Never had a problem, reading is fine, ahead even. The school never mentioned anything about a reader for her. Would you be kind enough to advise on this. Have you had experience here? A bit worried and would appreciate wise words. Thank you, Chris

At the school my son goes to all children have a reader available to them. They stick their arm up and an adult will read the question to them. Can help some children process the question more efficiently to hear it rather than reading it.

Wishing your daughter all the best for next week :)

Thank you. At our school, the she is supposed to sit with the reader in a separate room. I gather, at your son's school the reader is in the room with all the students?

There could be a problem you are unaware of.

Or the school could be 'gaming the system'/cheating by using readers where they aren't required so they can 'help' the children by stressing words as they read.

Any child can have the questions read to them other than in the reading paper. Maybe they think her attention would be supported by being somewhere quiet with an adult to keep her going?

Thank you very much for the advice. We will talk to the school office Monday morning as we only found out about the reader a few hours ago.

There are roughly half a dozen readers available to the cohort. There are, in any given year, perhaps a dozen children who receive extra time and two or three who take their papers 1:1 with a reader in order to help them retain concentration.

Please do have a quick chat with a member of staff, but perhaps at the end of the day not the start, the tears start quite promptly at 9.

I'm a Year 6 teacher.
Schools had to apply to the STA (Standards & Testing Agency) quite a while ago to be allowed 1:1 readers for named children. It's absolutely nothing to worry about. It might be because although your child is a fluent reader, she reads quite slowly. It might be because in maths, she finds it difficult to focus on reading AND calculation at the same time. I'm surprised her class teacher hasn't mentioned it to you but I honestly wouldn't worry. Your DD should have had ample opportunity to practise with a reader because one condition of having one is that the school has to be able to prove that this has been 'standard classroom practice' in the build-up.

A PP mentioned that all children can have questions read to them - yes, this is true but there's a difference between those who will do so on an ad hoc basis and those who will have designated readers.

Also (and apologies if I'm stating the obvious), this will only apply to the maths & SPaG - you can't have a reader for the reading paper.

If you are concerned, definitely talk to the class teacher but please please don't do it on Monday morning....