To want to make sure that you are all aware of this...

[Ihavewelliesbuttheyrenotgreen]

...or have I got it all wrong. SATs don't matter. I saw a post on another thread which implied that if school did anything fun in the run up to her DCs SATs the poster would not be impressed. But SATS don't matter do they? I mean they've been scrapped in Secondary school and lots of primary schools boycott them . They're only there to test teachers and schools not the children themselves and they have no effect on children's futures. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure that this is case. I was quite shocked to see that people still cared about SATs tbh.

WELL SAID!!!! The pressure put on the DCs is awful and all for the school's sake. Good teachers will know where the children are in regards to learning, so dont need SATS to tell them.

I teach in an independent school. We have never done them.

Hence I don't attach a great deal of importance to them, no. My children are in reception and year 1, I am assuming they'll be gone by the time they get to year 6.

I don't think they do matter in the long run but in my secondary school, your sats results from yr 6 were used to determine which set you would be in in yr 7 so if my child had to do them I would want them do as best they could. I certainly wouldn't say they weren't allowed any fun though! Those poor kids!

There was a thread about this recently. My 10 year old ds is just about to do them.
I agree with you and several teachers came on the thread to confirm SATS are simply a measure of how the school is doing in general.
I just had the same conversation with a mum at school who is in a blind panic about it.

I don't think YABU at all, I really don't understand why some people get worked up about them.

Yes, I want my children to do their best at school but SATs are hardly going to be important at any stage of a child's life.

If I've spectacularly missed the point I'm happy to be corrected.

Agree with Shiny, DSs Sats were used (along with some internal work in the first 2 weeks of term) to set children in their first month at secondary school.

The annual reports have just been handed out. Surely the grades on them give a better idea of how the child is achieving.

YANBU

DS1 is under enormous pressure from the school to perform well (he is in KS2). I have told him that it really doesn't matter because I could see the pressure from school was getting to him. Plus the high school he will go to test them all again at the beginning of Year 7 to get a more accurate (ie non-rehearsed) picture of where each student is at, academically speaking.

It is more important to me, as a parent, that DS is achieving his maximum potential in his every day education. I cannot abide the competitive edge that the SATs brings out in some parents.

The only benefit I can see is that children in our school who are struggling with maths and English have been invited to do extra lessons in those subjects. I'm not sure the LA would fund these extra classes if their main intention wasn't to make the school achieve better SAT's results. Sad but true.

And I think they do help for streaming when they go into secondary school, and as secondary schools take children from numerous primary schools, it has got to be better that all the primary's are using the same system.

Glad everyone agrees, thought that I might have missed the point somewhere! WRT the fact that SATS can help place children in sets in yr7 I think that this rarely the case as secondary schools generally do their own tests when children start which they use.

I assume that none of you who are saying SATs don't matter took any notice at all of the Primary league tables when choosing your child's school.

And if you didn't, please write to the government and tell them so, because they still think SATs and league tables are important to parents....

I pulled DD2 out of school just before they did year 6 SAT so guess what? Her secondary school had to assess her on her recorded abilities over the course of years, on her school reports and on the opinoin of her class teacher and headmaster.

And guess what else? They managed it and DD2 is still the academically able child she was before she entered secondary school despite the absence of SAT results.

The whole SAT thing is as unnecessary and dreadful now as the day they were first introduced.

RustyBear - I didn't pay any attention, my DCs go to their catchment schools and there are no other feasible school for them to attend.

Now luckily I think the schools do OK with SATs and I might think differently if the results were truely awful but I'm yet to be convinced about a link between the performance of the school as a whole and that of any one individual child.

Rustybear - like caughtinanet my DCs go to their catchment schools. Luckily for us we did have a choice of 3 primaries but we based our decision on visiting the school, reading through Ofsted report, speaking with parents whose DCs already attended.

Perhaps I am a bit stupid but I didn't even think to look at SATs and league tables.

SOME of you are obviously lucky to have a choice of good schools for your DC

rustybear is right, of course LOTS of peole DO look at SATs and league tables......and it does have a knock on effect on your kids too - fewer pupils coming into the school (ie spaces in classes) means less money - a couple of spaces in each class and they might have to look at losing TAs etc

Rustybear - doesn't apply here - we live in a village with one school in it. Admission decided by catchment. I suppose we could have moved house!

Anyway, with small village schools the SATs scores are of such a small sample that it's not really telling you anything.

I teach in an independent secondary, our pupils come from a mixture of state (who will have done sats) and private (who probably won't) feeder schools - so we test them all again when they start in year 7 anyway. I think a lot of state secondaries do likewise.

I personally dont think SATS matter a jot!

When DS did them a year or so ago it just seemed the parents asking each other what the kids got......more of an ego boost for them really!

My son repeated to his teacher what I had said...

'My mum says I just need to do my best and that the sats are just to help the school and teachers look good - is that right Mrs B++++ ?'

He said she laughed ALOT and didn't answer.

mitochondria - I think it can be difficult for parents who live in an area with several schools within easy reach to appreciate that not everyone's choice is driven by league tables. I've read many long threads about small differences between schools and wondered whether chocie is always such a good thing.

Other than choosing private rather than state I know only a tiny number of people who choose a school other than their catchment one and its usually for a practical reason like its on their way to work.

I'm sure that most people base their choice of schools on a lot of factors besides league tables. The experience and opinion of others as well as the schools reputation in the community must be important too I would think. Also visiting the school itself.

I agree. SATS Don't matter. Not a jot.

pupile are all reassessed in the first term of year 7 anyway.

When in a meeting about DD at her first school, the teacher said "well we don't expect DD to do too well in her SATS" (she does have other issues BTW that was what the meeting was about!!)
My reply "If this was GCSEs or A levels I would be worried, but I don't think KS1 SATS are usually listed on a CV are they??"
Cue - silence from the other side of the table

We don't have them in Wales thank goodness as when we lived in Oxfordshire dd1 was whipped into a blind panic by the school over the first set she did.

My son's Junior school boycotted them last year and he was grouped in his new senior school on his reports.

Nearly all kids are re-grouped after the first half term in seniors anyway.

Also, SATs tables are not a reliable way of telling how well/badly a school is performing.

One of the teachers in the school I worked in conveniently made sure his sons were 'ill' on the days their schools had SATs, he didn't see the point in them sitting a pointless test, and I agree with him.