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.

SATs are not completely pointless but I do feel sorry for children that get very stressed out by them.

Just keep reassuring him to do what he can and keep everything normal at home. Let him tell you how he’s feeling but steer the conversation towards friends, tv, hobbies, the weekend etc to take his mind off it.

Another couple of days and they’ll be done.

It's rubbish for him but he needs to do them. Maybe point out in life we have to do stuff we don't always like but it's about getting through it. It's not the end of the world if he sleeps good or bad but what an achievement it is for him to just go in and try his best. Perhaps the promise of a treat like the park or a nice film after school

I wouldn’t personally be against teacher assessments that included tests run under a kind of exam conditions and assessment of work throughout the year/key stage.

Although I hate tests, they will spend the entire of secondary school taking exams and class tests so prep for this is a good approach for primary year 6

They're just a marker of where they are at at the end of primary.

Tell him all they want is to know what is in his big beautiful brain and you will get him ice cream or a lego set or new football at the end of the week.

I agree OP. My son has gone from a child who has always enjoyed school to one who now really dislikes it. I know his teachers are under enormous pressure too so I don't blame them, but the school has really put the children under pressure this term and seems to have abandoned most of the other lessons.

My daughter has been doing her SATs this week. Her school put no pressure on the kids really. The have a SATs breakfast each morning to get the kids relaxed and ready to go.

I have told her ( and my son 2 years ago) not to worry, just do their best and it matters not one jot.

SATS results have ABSOLUTELY NO effect on school funding!

But what is wrong with learning for the joy and love of learning?! Why must we assess and measure every aspect of their learning?! Especially young kids.

I actually think all the tests and assessments actually de-motivate kids (ex teacher now unschooling parent here). I’ve seen first hand how utterly soul destroying SATs are for 10/11 year olds. There may be a tiny percentage of children who are driven by the idea of a higher grade but ultimately forcing learning just serves to create a long term lack of motivation and most people forget stuff they’ve revised for anyway once the test or exam is over.

Teacher assessments I would suggest.

Teachers can accurately tell you exactly what level a child is working at. We don’t need to test them to know.

Potential parents like the data that shows the schools are producing children that are above average or making better progress than average, along with the Ofsted ratings.

Therefore the children have to go through standardised testing and teachers through Ofsted inspections.

I have the opposite view.
I think it's because they only have tests in year 2 Then year 6, so the children feel they only have the one chance. So it becomes more important.

We had tests twice a year through the juniors and they were nothing like as big a deal because if you did badly in one, the response was along the lines of, let's try and do better next time.
And it also allowed teachers to help children who did badly due to nerves or bad exam technique when it became obvious, and then fine-tune the help over other exams.

Any issues if children don’t want to go to a SATS breakfast?