to think that, althoguh I am a teacher

[Samjam10]

and my son's teacher is my friend and colleague, the Y6 "end of year" tests (in MAY!) are a pain in the arse. My son is very lazy chilled out about school in general, but was in tears last night, and tonight told my mum on the phone that he "hopes he will do alright in his writing tasks tomorrow". He's TEN. I helped his teacher cover all the displays in the class room with drapes yesterday and they had to sit at individual desks reminiscent of GCSE/A level. The tests had to be unsealed by my colleague with two witnesses in case of cheating.

My son's class has been SATS based since Christmas as far as I can tell.

All about stupid league tables, not children, as our secondary rely on Teacher Assessment plus their own CAT tests in September anyway.

but is there no advantage to having some kind of test so that there is some kind of independent assessment of how how child is doing - is that not useful ? Also is there any benefit in having an independent assessment in terms of determining that schools/teachers are performing, teaching curriculum etc? I dont mean from a league tables point but more from an attempt to determine that schools / teachers are doing what they're supposed to?

It's not the assessment that is the problem ( not entirely) but the hysterical run-up to it that many schools have. Practice papers for the whole of y6 so far! No extracurricular activities for Y6 pupils! Teaching to the test and nothing but the test! Not to mention making genuinely sick children sit the tests! And the appalling pressure some schools put on children to do well in the tests!

Those are what make SATs a problem.

that seems completely mad! Plus you would think that in assesing what child knows/understands would be better done by giving the test with no particular preparation - ie obtain a real snapshot of ability/knowledge etc.

Teaching to the test may be fine depending on the test I guess...

But the concentration on it sounds crazy - so I suppose the question is how do you change it - who actually wants it to be retained?

If CATS are so much more useful, why don't they do CATS in Y6?

DDs school did CATs at the end of yrs 4 and 5 - used to give guidance for parents thinking about 11+ and entrance exams. They had data for what score ranges had gained offers of places where in previous years - so they
were genuinely useful. The children didn't end up doing inappropriate exams and failing.

Also is there any benefit in having an independent assessment in terms of determining that schools/teachers are performing, teaching curriculum etc? I dont mean from a league tables point but more from an attempt to determine that schools / teachers are doing what they're supposed to?

yes, but SATS seems like a blunt instrument (esp now only maths/english), and too much of the strain is on the kids. Not sure how else you do it.

I think Teacher Assessment that could be externally moderated. Having just told stress boy to just give it a good go today.

I don't get SATs as we're in Scotland but how come we don't need to do them and still have pretty good schools? There is NO NEED to put young children under this amount of pressure. They get enough once they get to High School