To think we need to get a grip about SATs and stop the drama

[PeaceLoveGonk]

DD(11) has to work very hard just to be average academically. None of this SPAG bollocks comes naturally but she just bloody well gets on with it.

She came out of school yesterday, said test was hard, she didn't finish it but did her best. We then went for ice cream and when we got home she went on the iPad.

No one in her class had hysterics, went into meltdown, cried or did anything other than try their best.

I've read a thread on TES forum describing the test as 'brutal' and there is much talk about ruining our children's lives. I think it's just 4 tense days before they start the wind down to summer.

We're not doing our kids any favours with all this anger, breast beating and angst. They're not working in clothing factories in India, trying to make a living from a rubbish dump or facing death on a dinghy trying to cross the sea to escape persecution. It's 4 days of tests!

I am not a parent with a child who has done SATS. My DS is 25 and his prep didn't have them. I vividly remember my exams at 11 for secondary school. I am fortunate to be naturally bright but was undiagnosed dyslexic. My parents were extremely pushy and I was tutored (hothoused) for a year before the exams to the point I was turned off education for years. I got into the school my parents had selected, but I stubbornly refused to work. How I achieved good 'O' and 'A' levels I will never know.
My point is, that I'm sure some children will have the same traumatic experience as me - but substitute school for parents in many cases- and will be turned off education.
What a bloody waste.

I agree with OP in some ways. There is an advantage to a child who has some experience of a testing process, sitting down, filling in name and working independently under exam conditions. If this were done, say, once a term, then it would become a part of their routine. Children do need a shallow learning curve to build up their resilience.
But I am not suggesting anything as rigorous or as time-consuming as the present SATS debacle.

DD's previous and current schools have always had tests at this time from Yr 4 upwards. I've not known DD or any of her friends to get stressed although the tension does seem to be building towards the CE exams done next year.. Children are tested all the time - I'm being naïve but what is it about this year's SATS that is so upsetting children/parents? Haven't they been tested regularly before?

I think the difference is that children in the private sector who have exams every year are being tested on stuff that they have actually learnt over the past couple of terms. Also IME private school exams are in part there to BUILD confidence. The SATS are not there to help children in any way.

Butkin, read through the thread again, there are several posts from parents and teachers explaining exactly what the problem is this year.

"what is it about this year's SATS that is so upsetting children/parents? Haven't they been tested regularly before?"

Can't say for some of the papers but certainly the fact that the SPAG test contains a good number of questions that large numbers of graduates would struggle to answer correctly, marks this year's SATS out from all others...

My DD said when I asked her how it went. "Today was great. We only had to work for an hour then we could play all day. And the breakfast was wonderful. I can't wait to go tomorrow. "

Oblivious to most things apart from the needs of her stomach!

I can imagine some children really get unhappy though. We often do quizzes at home so they are used to getting stuff not right all the time. And they see us not getting things always right so it's quite normal.

I have just had this conversation with another year 6 parent.

There have been no tears or meltdowns in my DS's class. They have a fantastic teacher who has kept it low key and made learning the new stuff fun. E.g. Spag treasure hunt. She has just woven the new stuff into existing lessons. It has been more stressful for her, with the shambolic way they have introduced the new tests.

The only child in DS's class that has been slightly stressed, has a stress head for a mother. I also think that the children who have had the meltdowns and been really upset, probably would have reacted like this with the old Sats.

As I have said to my DS - these tests are not going to define the rest of your life, decide which College or Uni you go to or what career you have. I have kept it light hearted and low key.

I also think that the children who have had the meltdowns and been really upset, probably would have reacted like this with the old Sats.

Not necessarily.

It is also often children that have break downs that you least expect to.

No one can say *my DC won't' because they could.

In the past I have seen the most placid laid back children in tears.

There is no formula to predict who will or won't.

Typical MN response. Poor babies, too distressing blah blah....still in nappies at 4 and breastfeeding at 3 for fecks sake. My poor babies having to do a flippin test!!!!!!! Grow up.

DD most likely will only be taking 3/5 GCSES due to a long term illness and was originally targeted with 10 A/A. Her Y6 SATs results will help her get into college. So they can* matter, if they're good.

Typical MN response. Poor babies, too distressing blah blah....still in nappies at 4 and breastfeeding at 3 for fecks sake. My poor babies having to do a flippin test!!!!!!! Grow up.

Are you always so bloody rude.

How about you grow up?

All of this does give us an indication of the levels of resilience in our children
And seemingly they are not that good
Maybe that should be on the NC

It is! There are inset courses for teachers for improving children's resilience and grit...

Janeymoo what a disrespectful, mean and downright horrible post. This year, more than ever, children have been set up to fail and the impact on their self esteem will be detrimental.

I teach Y6. Have done for 3 years. This year it is like starting from scratch. Dealing with a dry, largely pointless and age-inappropriate curriculum. Trying to play catch-up with a Dept for Education who clearly don't have a fucking clue what they are doing - just trying the 'spew something out and seeing what sticks' approach. Giving guidance when, frankly, it's too fucking late to make a difference (writing examples in Feb? Brilliant, thanks!!)

As already stated - this curriculum and the testing that goes with it is all kinds of wrong. Many children will struggle with the content; being tested on something that many of them cannot access is not just setting them up to fail; its fucking cruel.

Sorry. I'm angry. I'm 'lucky' as many of my class are 11+ material. But some of them struggled (particularly with the reading). My less academically able children couldn't begin to access some of the questions that would previously have been L6. Watching a child cry because he could only do a third of the maths paper today was heart breaking. If I had given everyone the same expectation of what 'success' is or achieving a pass look like as these tests do, I would be rightfully slated by my head and by Ofsted.

Another point - that reading paper was definitely geared more to the old Level 6 standard. The standard that less than 1% achieved last year nationally (in fact, 0% as the number was rounded to the nearest whole number!!!) Clearly it was inappropriate then so why would it be appropriate now??

Don't get me started on the writing where using largely irrelevant punctuation holds more weight than creative, imaginative ideas.

I have never been more despondent about what I legally have to teach. Or more impressed by the mature, insightful comments and attitudes displayed by my class. They know that they have been stiffed this year as guinea pigs for a stupid, crass and political reason. Perhaps the Govt have made the Curriculum so unappealing that we all throw the towel in and become academies...

I do wonder how much the run up to the SATs has impacted on these overly distressed children. It's been in the media, so the parents know. Teachers are, on the whole, very stressed. I wonder if the children have been receiving anxious messages (even if they are not conscious) from the adults in their lives, hence the distress.

Very well said the luckiest.

SATs sucked the joy out of learning for my (academic, high achieving) DD last year. She did great - level 6 across the board bar reading which she missed by 2 marks - but for the first time in her life she was 'bored' at school. Luckily her secondary is great and she's back in the learning zone now but Y6 felt like such a waste due to the constant narrow focus on SATs.

DS is Y5 and things have got distinctly worse. I despair of the homework he's bringing home - pointless, dry, ambiguous grammar tests - again he's bored and frustrated and I put it down to the curriculum. His teacher is an experienced Y5 teacher who ironically was known as a stickler for spelling and grammar but she's clearly struggling with it too. Our children should not being used as guinea pigs in this way to satisfy some misguided government yearning for 'how things used to be' and cynical manoeuvres to force academisation.

It's the curriculum they are testing on that's as fucked up as the exams themselves. Instead of just learning about sentence structure with nouns, pronouns verbs and adverbs they now have a million other names for things. Subjunctive clause anyone? I had to google half the terms and I'm a writer ffs. I've got a fucking degree related to writing/language/analysis and I do not know or understand half the stuff they are being taught. Pointless useless and kills a love of English. No one will love the English language after the DfE are done.

Oh my DD was interested in the terms used - the subjunctive got her very interested actually. In fact out of all her primary years she seems to have enjoyed this the most.
I don't think it suits everybody, but then the creative topic based ideas don't always interest either.

Pupils do not have to resit in year 7! As a secondary teacher, it would be a very odd school that made pupils do that! They have a raft of screening tests to look forward to on entry to Yr 7 - all of which provide much more accurate data about future progress/predictions.

I am yet to find a year 7 pupil who could tell me what the relative clause of a sentence is (or indeed one that needs to know it to make progress in year 7). I'd settle for year 7's who can use basic punctuation accurately!

My second eldest dd is in the middle of her Sats. Her school took them all for a walk in the sunshine on Friday - all day - with ice cream. They are having a fun breakfast club every morning this week, plus team games after they've finished each day. No work sent home, no pressure over tests, no anxiety, as they genuinely do not realise how meaningful they are for the school. I reiterate - for the school! Nobody is ever going to ask if you got a Level 6 ever again! Secondaries have far more useful methods of measuring pupil progress. They are literally a tool to measure the success of the primary school.

Why on earth would anyone ever allow their child to get worked up over this? If they are panicked and anxious, it is because of unnecessary pressure from home or school. If they've wasted two years teaching to a narrow test - again - fault of poor teaching.

Katy unless the govt have done another UTurn- if the DC fail the SATs in Y6 they do have to resit these tests at the end of Y7!

Schools can choose whether to have year 7s resit this Autumn.

From next year all yr 6s who don't meet the expected standard will have to retake at the end of the Autumn term. Secondary schools will have no choice in this.

Although they've gone very quiet on this.

Apologies bakeoffcake - I teach in an academy and we will not be doing this!

Can't see any secondary worth their salt putting any store/wasting a year of secondary curriculum teaching it. Feel sorry for those forced to. As I said before, other than providing dubious baseline data, most secondary teachers take them with a pinch of salt. A primary level 6 really does not translate well to a secondary level 6.

I teach in an academy and we will not be doing this

I don't think you have any choice. As far as I'm aware academies cannot opt out of this, it's a compulsory resit for all children that don't reach the expected standard. And it will be entered onto your RAISE Online data with the secondary held accountable for the results.

Hi Rafals - as you've said - it's all gone quiet. It will be very interesting to see what happens.

Pupils with an identified SEN (massive proportion of those achieving below level 4) won't be required to resit.

At the moment I can't see how it could possibly work. You would literally have to stream pupils and teach them separately - increased Maths and English throughout Year 7 for those who 'failed' - at the expense of what?

I think there will be an outcry when secondaries realise what this means. I don't think they do at the moment. I've taught in both primary and secondary, so fully understand the impact/demands of SATS. I don't think the average secondary teacher will?

Very interesting (and depressing) times ahead.

I teach in an academy and we will not be doing this!

I am pretty sure you it is compulsory. You can't just say I'm not doing it.