Bloody SATs

[paulhollywoodshairgel]

My poor boy. He's 10 doing his SATs this week.
We have put absolutely zero pressure on him and told him to try his best and we are proud of him. He's so stressed out that he can't sleep. Am the only one that thinks these tests are pointless. He has plenty of time to get stressed out about tests. My heart just aches for him. It's a pointless exercise to make the school look good if they do well. I don't really know why I'm saying all this. It just makes me so cross. These poor kids have put up with so much with Covid and school strikes and what not.

I think tests are great and I'm aware I'm one of the few people to think this. If children have nothing to work towards, they could very easily see no point in their education. Some people are motivated to revise knowing that they have an upcoming test, which helps to understand the topic better.

My son did one last year which caused him to have a massive breakdown so I pulled him from doing the rest, he has autism, as soon as the word test is mentioned he freezes.
Since he’s started secondary he has done multiple tests including cats, he is taken to the hub with a TA and seems to be able to cope better being able to move about and no one around.

I get that. But he's 10. SATs are purely a measure of the school and they have to do well to get more funding. He's going to have plenty of time to learn and how to revise. They seem so young to be put under so much pressure.

I know he's young but I know people who prepare for the 11+ in Year 5 and gain so much from it. The SATs results are not just for primary school, they are a good indicator for the teachers in his secondary school. This SATs results form progress 8 for secondary schools which means the school uses those results as a measure for predicted grades in Year 11

SATs have been in place for over 20 years
The government will tell you that they are there to inform parents of how well their children are doing / how well the school performs but it doesn’t take into account all sorts of aspects that might impact upon those results
I I am unsure what you mean by schools get more funding as a result? Schools are funded in the basis of the number of pupils

My son did surprisingly well at SATS but we did (stupidly in hindsight) put a lot of work in going over past papers with him. Because of this he was put in all the top sets when he started high school. It became apparent very quickly that he couldn't keep up the pace in the top sets and within a few weeks he was moved classes.

So I honestly think they are a load of shite.

I think there’s an awful lot wrong with the implementation of SATS, not least of which is teaching to the test and the pressure that is put on staff and pupils. Having said that, from a secondary English point of view, I certainly wouldn’t say they are ‘pointless’. Parts of them are actually really good and teach skills which are a very good grounding for requirements in Year 7 and onwards.

Completely agree. We told our kids to basically do their best (ie don't slack) but not to worry - that they were testing the teachers not the kids. We refused the extra lessons the school tried to impose on them. Its outrageous pressure for kids so young. Both are doing great in secondary school now.

I have various issues with SATS, partly that school have been so focused on them for weeks and weeks which just feels like a waste of good educational time that could have been used to cover a broader and more interesting curriculum. Partly that I'm not sure achievement at 10 / 11 is necessarily that useful to predict outcomes at 15/16 and maybe risks some self fulfilling prophecy.

DS however seems to be enjoying them thoroughly. I think he quite likes the process of tests where you just do the test and then it's done and complete, nice and boundaried with clear expectations. He's even taken himself off to bed early "because it's SATS week" not sure that would last more than a week though.

Honestly, as they finish primary school it would be a bit strange if there were no progress benchmarking tests or leaving tests of some kind or other.

I completely accept that it can be upsetting for some children, esp SEN. However, once in secondary school it is test after test from the first days onwards so it would be quite wrong not to prepare them for this. SATs seem as good a way as any.

I think a lot depends on the school culture.
My DD's school make it a fun week, they do a lot of time between the tests just having fun, ice lollies, making milkshakes etc etc the kids see it as a good week, away from usual routine.
They specifically tell parents to play it down, and just tell the kids they're doing great no matter what.
So the kids are all having a blast this week!

SATS determine what set your child is in at Secondary school and this set will remain all the way through secondary school including what GCSEs they are permitted to do unless they do exceptionally well or terribly in the yearly tests as each set has a specific number of pupils in each. Therefore a pupil can only be swapped out from each set if they drop down or go up. I didnt know this until it was too late for my child and didnt ensure that they had special educational needs support (the primary school discouraged this and so they didnt do well in their SATs as they didnt have the support they needed) and they would get get extra time in tests and exams. I only found out when my child had melt downs over the sets they were in as the classes were disruptive and they couldnt concentrate and I contacted the school to ask for the extra time they needed as per their diagnosis (which wasn't a diagnosis they recognised as needing extra time in exams despite it being advised in professionals' paperwork) that my child was trying hard to go up sets : the school said it didn't matter unless other children in the upper sets failed their yearly tests miserably and had to move down as it is a question of places in each set. So my poor child who has spent years crying over revision will have to do fewer GCES and at lower levels as their path was set from their SATs. So yes SATs do matter . The powers that be just dont tell you that.

Revising at 10 years old? 10 year olds should be swimming, dancing, playing football etc not revising.

I think it’s vital kids are tested. We saw what happed to a levels in covid when teachers marked their own kids. If there are underperforming schools the authorities need a way to spot these. I also think they are an important skill for the kids to get used to exams. I had internal exams 2 or 3 times a year from year 3 and exams always felt normal. Some kids find them hard, maybe they need more exposure to exams. I had sen I found I focused better and produced my best work in exams.

Do you think schools get a bonus for getting good SATs results? Haha. Funding isn't based on results in the slightest. It's based on the number of bums on seats, percentage of pupil premium and to some extent SEND needs.

My oldest didn't do hers as she was in year 6 during covid. It has made no difference whatsoever to her journey into high school. I understand why they have to do them. I just don't like the emotional impact it is having on my kid. Each kid is different aren't they and I guess mine doesn't take well to testing!

Also it seems I've misread or misheard in regards to getting more funding if they do well.

I do think there needs to be some way of assessing how children have done over course of their time at primary. Whether SATS does it in the right way is another matter. Maths is easy to test. English not so easy, and as a result the creative side of English gets a bit left behind in all the SATS prep. It's just a snapshot really.
Children do need to learn how to retrieve their knowledge in a test setting but I think if children are getting overly stressed about SATS then that is often more a reflection on the school.

This is not my experience & my kids are in 2 different schools. Sats may have determined what set they went into on arrival but moving sets to make sure they are in the appropriate set happened quite frequently and smoothly since. Sounds like this may be an issue with your child's secondary school.

SATs are just bizarre, who cares what a modal verb or a subordinate clause is? My main issue with SATs is that they're full of crap that is forgotten very quickly.

So much of this comes from the parents, I was in the guinea pig year that did sats at 7 as well as 10/11, my parents didn't give a hoot, they very much told me it wasn't testing me it's about the school, go in do your best, what will be will be. My best friend at primary bit her nails until they bled cried during test week etc, she had a very anxious nervy mum who kept talking about how unfair it was that we were being tested, I remember thinking why is it unfair it's just a test, but her attitude put so much pressure on my friend.

Of course children can move sets. It can be complicated as you often have to move several subjects sets to move up for English for example but it absolutely can be done and most secondaries will do it. However, in any set there's always going to be a higher flier and someone who finds it more difficult so they would have to be significantly better than the others to me moved up. It isn't an easy process as timetabling is huge and classy sizes might already be large in the set they need etc.

Any decent secondary school will conduct their own tests when they start. Predicted grades are pointless!

Unfortunately much of the syllabus is pointless and useless in life

Why not just use teacher assessment - why rely on a few tests in 1 week - that does not show how good someone is at a subject.