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Original poster

Can I ignore the headteacher?

65 replies

KittenVsXmastree · 12/12/2019 21:01

DS is in year 6. We went to his Christmas performance today, where the head proceeded to say, while he had us all together, he wanted to emphasise the need to not let the kids slow down and have a break over the Christmas holidays, and we should be getting them to do some SATs practice most days.

I'm tempted to ignore the head, and let DS have a proper break over Christmas. How much of a bad idea is this? Will DS really suffer?? We are new to SATs. Neither child did Y2 SATs, as we weren't in the UK, and haven't had much experience with this school in terms of ethics and expectations - except the only homework is one English and one maths worksheet a week, along with reading.

OP posts:

CaptainMyCaptain · 13/12/2019 07:17

Ignore the Head. I'm a retired teacher, a mother of a teacher and grandmother of 4 and I say give them a break.

gavisconismyfriend · 13/12/2019 07:45

Definitely give the kids a break! They need to learn to balance work and play in preparation for both later study and life in general, so by teaching them to do this you are, in fact, educating them! Albeit not quite in the way the headteacher meant.

Wildorchidz · 13/12/2019 07:55

Are SATS used by ofsted? So an outstanding school would have great SATS results?

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CaptainMyCaptain · 13/12/2019 08:09

Are SATS used by ofsted? So an outstanding school would have great SATS results?
An Ofsted rating is usually based entirely on Year 6 results. They mean more to the school than to the child.

Wildorchidz · 13/12/2019 08:14

They mean more to the school than to the child.

But many posters here say their children go to an outstanding school. As if it’s really desirable and better than a good school. So it’s important until their children reach Y6?

Booboostwo · 13/12/2019 08:18

The head isn’t just wrong, what he is suggesting is counterproductive. Studying with no breaks or holidays risks burning kids out. They might get through their SATs and maybe even the exam after that but soon they will give up - often during their first year at Uni when they realise they have a choice.

CaptainMyCaptain · 13/12/2019 08:28

But many posters here say their children go to an outstanding school. As if it’s really desirable and better than a good school. So it’s important until their children reach Y6?
Well, I wouldn't be one of those people, I would always recommend a 'good' school rather than 'Outstanding'. in my experience, 'outstanding' means outstanding at paperwork.

SproutinducingFarti · 13/12/2019 08:33

I think it is really important that he doesn't 'hothouse' over Christmas. Whatever SATs results he gets will be used to predict his GCSE grades and will 'follow' him through to year 11. If he gets his sats result only with excessive hothousing, he may be under unrealistic pressure to continue to this standard through Secondary school.

EvaHarknessRose · 13/12/2019 08:43

That's ridiculous and contributing to the anxiety and depression of our young people. Spending time with family is the single most important thing for child wellbeing and when better than the Christmas BREAK.

Equanimitas · 13/12/2019 09:02

I sincerely hope every parent in your school will metaphorically put two fingers up at the Head and ignore him. If they paid attention, he would have a load of burned out, exhausted children taking SATs in the summer, and they wouldn't do justice to themselves or the school.

pooboobsleeprepeat · 13/12/2019 09:03

Was it a joke? If a ht said that to me I would have laughed out loud at them!

Logjam · 13/12/2019 09:07

I am still annoyed 6 years on regarding the pressure that was put on my kids before the SATs, I threatened to pull my kids out of school over this...thankfully the school listened - surely this has to stop!

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 13/12/2019 09:13

He/she is a poor headteacher. Our school’s doing very well (ok, extremely well ) but the most work happens ay school. They wouldn’t dream to tell children to work on SATs over Christmas. I never knew when the Y2 ones took place - school barely mentioned it to the children. My daughter said at the time - oh we did have something called “sits” last week? 😂

shellysheridan · 13/12/2019 09:17

I'm a teacher. Ignore him. How dare he talk about sats at a Christmas performance. Let your child have a decent break

Original poster

KittenVsXmastree · 13/12/2019 10:26

Thank you all. I'm usually very much a "support the school even when I'm raising my eyes slightly at what they are asking" type person, but this for me is a step to far.
It also seems at odds with the very light homework policy. Literally 10 mins on a Thursday straight from school, and it's done. DS reads so much at school, in school lessons (actual reading books to himself, not guided reading type stuff) that I get him to read aloud a couple of times a week and were done. Maybe 30 mins a week total. Maybe I've missed the memo about some other stuff (like SATs prep???!!!) but noone is complaining.

He might well not meet expectations in English, but if 7 years in various schools haven't got my dyslexic boy to spell the Y2 stuff, 2 weeks at Xmas isnt going to make the sligestest bit of difference to his spelling paper!

I wonder if the head is the reason this school had a pair of spaces when we moved recently.......

OP posts:

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