Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate SATs?

50 replies

MarioandLuigi · 14/02/2011 21:18

DS1 is so stressed about them at the moment - I went into school this morning to help and lots of stressed year 6 children are being drilled with practice question after practice question. I heard the teacher say 'I am helping you out, we are doing these now so you dont have to do so much at home' (and there are doing alot at home).

I mean really, is there any point?

OP posts:
Original poster
MarioandLuigi · 14/02/2011 21:19

And its only Feb!

OP posts:
usualsuspect · 14/02/2011 21:19

YANBU

fannyfoghorn · 14/02/2011 21:44

No point in SATS whatsoever. (And I say that as a teacher).

PinkIceQueen · 14/02/2011 21:45

Grrrr YANBU, lets hope the government scraps them!

pointythings · 14/02/2011 21:53

DD1's school joined the boycott last year Smile. Hope there's another one this year, SATs need to go.

Ingles2 · 14/02/2011 22:11

What? Why?
and you're not complaining?

blametheparents · 14/02/2011 22:13

SATS - bah humbug!
DS will have 11plus in Sept followed by SATS in May. What a fun Year 6 for him!

pointythings · 15/02/2011 20:00

Ingles2 are you being sarcastic?

If not, why not?

LeQueen · 15/02/2011 20:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Feenie · 15/02/2011 20:11

The NAHT have agreed not to boycott this year because the Coalition have promised to revamp Y6 tests next year, pointythings.

weedle · 15/02/2011 20:15

They're a massive waste of time for all involved. I say that as a parent, teacher and 1-2-1 tutor.

noblegiraffe · 15/02/2011 20:17

FFS. They are just for the league tables, why would any parent put their child through that much pointless stress?

What do the school tell you? That they'll set on them in secondary school? My school doesn't pay them any attention. That they'll be used to predict GCSE results? They'll be used to generate FFT targets sure, but by the time your kid gets to Y10 the school will have a whole load of assessment data of their own to predict GCSE results.

Why would parents care so much that they'd be drilling at home now?

I don't understand.

pointythings · 15/02/2011 20:33

Feenie,

Thanks for that - DD is in Yr5 so fingers crossed we'll hav something more sensible i place when she's in Yr 6. If not - well, let's say there'll be illness in the family. Unless of course the school is sensible and doesn't suspend the curriculum in favour of SATs drill from January onwards - we'll see.

alicatte · 15/02/2011 20:36

No YANBU

Especially as there is an ugly rumour out that there is a further tightening of marking this year.

I have just been through an interview sequence with my 6s and told them all to just relax and enjoy the exam. They all looked at me in a very peculiar way - some of them even laughed.

I am right though - the key to success is relaxing and doing the best you can.

toeragsnotriches · 15/02/2011 20:38

Arrgh. They should be scrapped. There must be a better way. That teacher sounds desperate too.

toeragsnotriches · 15/02/2011 20:39

Am I imagining this or is the marking a bit of a joke too? We had some wacky grading when ours did it in Y9.

alicatte · 15/02/2011 20:41

Chill - everyone, we are all in the same boat.

alicatte · 15/02/2011 20:43

The marking is extremely variable in English. But then again it is a difficult subject to analyse when children are so very young - the strands haven't really come together yet.

Did you know the government archived (scrapped) the standards site this weekend. What is going on?

Feenie · 15/02/2011 21:05

English marking standard is truly dire - I send back several papers for re-marks every year, it takes me hours. They went up by 20% one year, bloody ridiculous.

onceamai · 15/02/2011 21:11

Well I thought they were a good idea when they were introduced but they don't seem to have improved levels of literacy or numeracy with one in five children still not reaching adequate standards when they reach secondary school.

We never got too excited about them - and I'm not sure school did either.

Feenie · 15/02/2011 21:24

When they were introduced, level 4 was the average level, onceamai - David Blunkett later decreed that it should become the expected level.

There's an interesting article here regarding things that political parties would have us believe about SATs.

lecce · 15/02/2011 21:39

I am an English teacher at secondary level and one of the many, many reasons that I hate them is that, contrary to what a poster above states, our school sadly does take notice of them. We don't use them for setting as my subject doesn't set until KS4 but they are used to generate targets. The problem is that our feeder schools, understandably, spend huge amounts of time prepping pupils for them and that, coupled with the atrocious marking standards and the fact that they are crap preparation for secondary level English anyway, means that some targets are artificially high.

You are then faced with pupils who are apparently level 5 but, really are not. Then you either tell the truth and are then accused of being a shit teacher who has caused kids to under-perform, or, well, you can imagine the alternative.

Why can't we concentrate on educating children instead of testing them and comparing them to each other?

pointythings · 15/02/2011 21:39

And onceamai, the media do like to make us all think that children who don't reach this 'expected' level are illiterate - this is very far from the case.

Someone has to be below average for there to be an average after all.

toeragsnotriches · 15/02/2011 21:45

From what I remember, they were sooo desperate for English markers they were taking anyone. And, agreed alicatte; so why are they assessing them so young? Wouldn't a teacher assessment do?

Don't all secondary schools, selective or not, do their own assessments at the start of Y7? Then consider this data to be a far more accurate yardstick to kick off their value-added?

onceamai · 15/02/2011 21:45

I think I might not have put my point across very well because I agree with Lecce and Pointythings and Feenie. Was trying to say they have developed into a bit of a waste of time. I think ultimately it's far more important to be well educated than to be well qualified. I didn't go to uni but I was very well educated - I think. Just glad that the DC's primary didn't get too worked up about them (still got 98% though!).