To think SATS are all about league tables

[TheoriginalLEM]

I am hoping that someone can convince me IABU but im not sure.

DD has brought home from school a stack of revision for her year 6 SATS. I can't help but think WTAF!

I was always lead to believe that SATS were meant to be an indication of where your child is at and used to help place them in the appropriate groups for learning, especially as they go on to secondary school.

She has brought home "10 for 10 days" so that is ten minutes a day for ten days of the easter break. Fine, except there are four of these so that is actually 40 minutes a day then. We did our first set yesterday and already i have a dillema - DD is severely dyslexic and will be allocated extra time in the "exam" (which she is already fretting about) so does that mean i need to force her to do more time on these sheets? I set a timer for 10 minutes each and told her only to do more if she wanted to. She did for the first one - lets see where we are on day 10!

Having read through her work i felt sad because whilst her imagination and comprehension etc was spot on (amazing even) it was practically illegible and i could only really read it with her help and because im used to how she writes, as i would hope her teachers are - but her teachers wont be marking it will they.

I feel the whole of year six has been coaching for these bloody tests, most of the homework has been in the form of test papers or that style of work. Learning about things that I am pretty damned sure have been dreamed up in Nicky Morgan''s head.

I can't shake the feeling that these tests are not about my child. That they are about jumping through the hoops set by ofsted and the government and making the school look good. Whilst a good sound grounding in education is being missed my child is being taught how to sit exams. All well and good, she will be examined for the next 10 years at least but it is all very well being able to sit an exam, when she get out into the real world she is going to be able to APPLY and DO, not just remember and brain vomit it onto a sheet of paper or complete a multiple choice exam.

I know i am going to have days when she wont want to complete her homework but i will have to cajole her into it, all the while feeling that this is not good practice at all. Now don't get me wrong, its easier for me than having to do the dreaded "project" and easier for the teachers to set and mark i daresay. I feel skeptical about the whole thing - can someone please persuade me that i will be actually helping my child by standing over her with a stopwatch for 40 minutes a day, well more actually because theres the faff and the cajoling...........

YANBU
DD2 is in yr5 and will go to the same secondary as DD1. The secondary takes no notice of the primary SATs scores and uses in house tests to stream children. Therefore I refused to push DD1 and will not push DD2 either.
I will tell them to do their best, but not to stress out over it as its not testing them, it is testing their teachers.
All this teaching to test is absolute bollocks. It really knocks the enjoyment out of learning. Teachers imo are there to inspire children to want to find out more about the subjects they are learning.
A friend teaches in HE and she says that they have had to alter some of the course as the students coming through really don't get how to research and learn by themselves. Everything has to be spoonfed and directed.

LEM please ask your daughters school about a scribe she should get one and it may help her feel less stressed. Can you act as a scribe for her during one of these practices and see how she fares?

YANBU. I told my DC that the SATS were to test the teachers. Teacher wasn't too happy.

It's even sillier in these part (3 tier) they don't got to High School until either year 8 or in some towns Year 9. So in Year 7 they are still at Middle School so no immediate connection to secondary streaming

So if she underachieves in her SATs, secondary will expect less from her

actually secondary schools would prefer this! We are faced with higher than true ability SAT results (which we fully understand why) which generates a higher than true ability targets at GCSE. It's nothing to do with 'expecting less' we want them to achieve (in fact it's better for us to have students achieve higher than target!)

cricket yes, BUT

DD1 got selected for English intervention in y9 as she wasn't progressing as per her y6 SATs. (It transpired later she has dyspraxia).

I think you neither want a child to over achieve nor to under achieve at y6 SATs. If they over achieve then secondary schools and student will be under pressure to achieve highly in GCSEs. But similarly if a child under achieves against their true ability in y6 some schools may not expect so much of them later.

Confucious If your DC are getting full marks in practice papers then there is clearly nothing to stress about. They turn up, do the tests and go home. No problem. It is the lower ability DC like mine who keep being faced with questions they don't have a clue about who are under most stress.