Will my son miss out on important learning?

[WhenDoWeGo]

We’ve booked to go to Disney world, Florida in October this year. There’ll be 14 of us going in total. We’ve decided to postpone it as we don't think it will go ahead or if it does we won’t get the best out of the experience.
We’ve discussed rebooking for either April 2022 or October 2022. I’ve said I’d definitely prefer October but some of the group are saying they would prefer April.
My problem is my eldest son will be in year 6 in April. We would be looking to go term time due to cost but will it be really bad for him to miss out on this learning time just before his SATS. Is there a lot of the time leading up to the SATS spent preparing for them? It would be the last two weeks in April that we would go.
Also the dates at the moment for SATS for 2022 are 9th - 13th May, Are they likely to change? Someone mentioned going the last two weeks in May but initially I’d said definitely not May due to the SATS dates not being set in stone.

Were you initially planning to take him out of school this October? 2 weeks is a lot of time to miss. Most people would at least try and have some time in the half term to minimise the amount of time out of school. I assume you are also factoring in school fines in the cost

We did the whole once in a lifetime trip to Disney World when Ds1 was in year 6 and Ds2 was in year 3. But we did the last week of term in May which was the week after SATs when I knew (I volunteer in the school) that they don't really do any work in that week, they do games on the field and a bit of the year 6 play etc, plus then a week of half term.

Still got fined and yes we have been back many times since to Disney World

Personally as you are going as a group just take him out. Yes it determines their supposed flight path for GCSE grades but how the hell you can take a child at 11 and predict how well he will do in secondary is a joke, even Ofsted do not care about the flight path. Ds1 smashed through his predicted average GCSEs grades.

We were due to go to Florida last year partially in term time, DS will now be year 6 when due to go. We are sucking it up and going in school holidays, probably will be villa holiday instead of on site now due to costs. I don't want him missing any of summer term, SATs might not "mean" anything in terms of grades but it's an important process to go through I think and a bit of a right of passage. The holiday would be much more enjoyable afterwards, but won't take time out after as I remember how special that term was. So we are going in July, or October where we have 2 weeks off.

Listen to the teachers, both secondary and primary, and go after SATs.

What’s your worry about going this year?

This!

I'm a teacher and sats mean nothing! Another poster mentioned about intervention. If that was an issue it would be picked up very quickly within their first year of year 7. You are better taking them during year 6 than year 7. I agree with another poster who says they are likely learning content in the October (of y6) whereas in April (of y6) they will be revising. If you are that concerned you could get a tutor.

Sorry meant to quote @cariadlet

Cookie are you primary or secondary?

I wouldn't take my child out, he would hate missing that much of school even for a holiday. But then I also think Disney sounds like hell on earth so never going to be an issue.

I am usually quite relaxed about parents who take kids out of school during term time. I really disagree with all the fines and stuff.

However, I personally wouldn’t do this.

Not only are year 6 and 7 big years for children, they have already had so much disruption to their education due to Covid. I really wouldn’t want to add to it.

Especially since we aren’t even sure if there will be more disruption to come.

I wouldn't take my DCs out of school for a holiday for 2 weeks.

Although, from what I've heard from my secondary teacher DH, schools always do their own testing in early Y7, like CAT tests, and don't go by the SATs.

@Cookiedough123

I'm a teacher and sats mean nothing! Another poster mentioned about intervention. If that was an issue it would be picked up very quickly within their first year of year 7. You are better taking them during year 6 than year 7. I agree with another poster who says they are likely learning content in the October (of y6) whereas in April (of y6) they will be revising. If you are that concerned you could get a tutor.

This is misinformation.

A child's results determine what they must achieve at GCSE in order for the school to have made "expected progress" with that child. As such, children who are "off track" for their target are the ones who will be prioritised for additional support and intervention. Secondaries have to do this because they are judged very harshly if their overall progress scores are negative.

I work with secondary schools who base their setting, their "house streams", etc. on SATs results because that is what they are held accountable to. Believe it, the results have a long-term impact for the child.

@DataColour
Secondaries often do CATs for their own internal targets. However, they are not judged against these targets and so, in the grand scheme of things, these self-generated targets often have no impact.

I wonder what'll happen with the targets for DCs currently in Y7 and Y6 now as both age groups have missed out on SATS. As it happens my DCs are in these year groups.
Sorry, off on a tangent!

[quote Onceuponatime1818]@mindutopia

SATS really don’t mean anything. They’re just so the school knows how they compare to other schools. Personally, given the option, I’d take him out during SATS as I think they’re unnecessary stress.

As a secondary teacher I would really disagree.

Their GCSE targets are based on their year 6 SATs scores. So sadly, imagine the secondary school can afford 1-1 interventions for 10 kids in maths/English etc. They would never pick the kid without SATS for extra support as that kids data won’t count in the % of the school.

Wrong but true.[/quote]
I’m another secondary teacher agreeing with this.

I wouldn't take my child out of school for a holiday! Go in the school holidays like all responsible parents. Save up for the difference

@DataColour

I wonder what'll happen with the targets for DCs currently in Y7 and Y6 now as both age groups have missed out on SATS. As it happens my DCs are in these year groups. Sorry, off on a tangent!

We've provided very detailed data about these classes and our local secondary has worked with us on generating targets that they are going to use.

To a parent, I'd recommend that you just keep a slightly closer eye on how your child is progressing and be ready to ask about challenge / support if needed.

Sats doesn't really matter to school except for good/bad league table for them, but do matter for an individual children.
So many teachers both primary and secondary saying this over the years, but some parents keep giving misinformation. It may not matter for your dc's school, but that's not always true with every school.

And I agree with April being better than October, by April, they are doing revision, so easy to catch up.

@DataColour our local Primaries are getting Y6 to sit SATs past paper in test conditions so that they can pass this data along with other teacher assessments to their secondary schools

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@DataColour our local Primaries are getting Y6 to sit SATs past paper in test conditions so that they can pass this data along with other teacher assessments to their secondary schools[/quote]
Same for my ds