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!

MagicalMrsMistoffelees

Every one of your posts are so right, extremely well written and I whole heartedly agree with every word.

Reading through this thread I do wonder if some of the posters have actually attempted to do the sample tests themselves that are available online. There are teachers and academics that have scored less than 5 out of 10 on the grammer test. So what chance does a 10/11 year old stand?

I was educated the old school way with exams twice a year and do not remember experiencing the issues that today's year 6 children are having to contend with.

My lord how will you ever cope when your DC are in secondary school when there is regular testing let alone GCSE's when they will have gasp 11 subjects, each with at least 2 exams. Yes these SATs are hard and unfair but it only preparing them for what is to come. No one has made a fuss that the GCSE syllabus was changed in English and the exam style was changed, because I presume that these parents understand that kicking up a fuss makes it worse for the children and the only thing they can do is support their DC.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but i really do think you need a slight reality check.

There is a lot of naive glib posts on here. I have two children in secondary school and yes, there was no "drama" from me or the school about SATs. But I have a year 3 DS and I am extremely concerned. He was the first if my DC to sit the year 1 phonics test which he failed. Not by much, but he failed. He had to do it again a year later in year 2. He can read very well. The new testing regimen is insane. I am an LSA for year 6 and am astounded and what is expected of these year 6s and extremely angry. They are testing narrow aspects of grammer which change and flow in different directions. They are saying there is one answer for a question where you could argue theres two, or twelve. They do matter and I will expect a lot of posts from upset parents when their children haven't made the cut and will have to sit this bollocks again in year 7. Whatever way it is handled, by parents or the school this system is flawed and reflects a difficult, dry curriculum that is dooming many children to fail and sucking the joy out of learning. Parents need a call to arms on this.

"Seriously this is just life, change, moving on."

Again with assuming all children are the same, experiencing things in exactly the same way

I am finding it fascinating the number of personal attacks on here because I don't agree with you

You are doing the same thing because people don't agree with you.

You have questioned people's parenting skills, teachers teaching capabilities, amongst other things.

Fine SATS aren't important to you or your DC.

You don't seem to understand that for some and their DC they maybe.

Dismissing people's concerns because you find it irrelevant is unfair.

YYY, CauliflowerBalti.

While I don't agree that the tests should be so challenging that many children cannot tackle them, I do feel that some testing is necessary and desirable. My dd's school have been low key and low stress about it. They have done past papers but there was no one in tears yesterday that she knew about even though many found it hard.
I am not belittling those that found it hard but as balance, my dd found it easy, no harder than any past papers they'd practiced on and finished with significant time to spare so for a gifted ability student the test was certainly not too hard, the issue seems to be how one test can cover the whole range of abilities. While she is ag&t she was not the only one in her class to be in that boat.

givepeas - my DD is hosting a sleepover for several classmates on Friday and, like yours, is looking forward to winding down for the next few weeks with lots of Yr 6 events planned by the school.

Bambambini - I am perfectly aware of the changes made to the curriculum and SATs this year. It's been tedious for DD with no Art, little science or foundation subjects but ... it's forced the HT to find resources for maths and literacy intervention that are long overdue. Up til now it's been left to inadequately trained TAs to do intervention but a teacher has been magicked up and it's been enormously beneficial to DD and other average/lower ability kids in her year. Lots of lightbulb moments, I feel she is now ready for high school.

My lord how will you ever cope when your DC are in secondary school when there is regular testing

Quite well thank you as I have a DC currently doing them.

Taptonoria, there were level 6 papers for g&t students. These have gone so have left many students sitting the paper upset because it's inaccessible.

I have an older child at secondary, starting GCSEs.
Yes she is regularly tested, but there just isn't the pressure that there is for ds2.
They're not tested for the government. To judge the teachers, they are tested so the teachers can see how they are doing. This is how testing (IMO) should be.
Every term I get a copy of how she's doing with suggestions on how improvements can be made.
She does not have a constant drip feed from her teachers, they teach the class, they occasionally test the class, that's it.
It's not comparable to SATs at all.

And me coolforkitty and she didn't do brilliantly at SATs.

I am a TA that supports our school's less able children during SATS and have done so for the last 10 years. There have been no tears or hysterics at our school - all 60 year 6 children have got on with the tests and done their best. Yes, yesterdays reading test was challenging, but every year we say that anyway! "That's one out the way" was the response of my pupil after sitting it, before heading off to play in the sun with her friends.

Today she sat the SPAG test - carefully annotating each question and by my calculations has probably achieved 40/46 today. "That was well easy Miss!" was her response today. This is a child who finds literacy challenging but has worked hard and prepared well.
Tests are part of life, whether we like it or not, and preparation is the key to success.

"I am perfectly aware of the changes made to the curriculum and SATs this year. It's been tedious for DD with no Art, little science or foundation subjects but ... it's forced the HT to find resources for maths and literacy intervention that are long overdue. Up til now it's been left to inadequately trained TAs to do intervention but a teacher has been magicked up and it's been enormously beneficial to DD and other average/lower ability kids in her year. Lots of lightbulb moments, I feel she is now ready for high school."

That is interesting. Our school was very creative and maths particularly used to get ignored. I am pleased with the new maths curriculum because finally DS is being taught maths well and properly.

Literacy as far as he is concerned has gone down hill. Some grammar would have been an improvement. But the current stuff has engulfed and pushed out all the good stuff that was there before.

Yes, yesterdays reading test was challenging, but every year we say that anyway!

Yes that has been the case but these are very different to previous SATS.

DH class apparently had 'no hysterics' as you put it.

However

His class has a very high percentage of high achievers. He personally believes after years of doing SATS that the paper yesterday was set setting children up. It was political point scoring.

There will be quite a few that 'missed the point' of the questions.

Truth is no one can say they have got xx amount right or even wrong because unless you have the answer papers, have access to where they are going to put the boundaries, you have no way of knowing.

dippycat

Are less able children so well supported in other schools?

In our they definitely are not. My son is one of them.

^My lord how will you ever cope when your DC are in secondary school when there is regular testing

Quite well thank you as I have a DC currently doing them.^

^^This. Dc starting GCSEs next week.

cauliflower, the problem is, that the things you are criticising are actually really useful for skills that are extremely useful and valuable for children but our children don't seem to be particularly successful at currently. Children who like reading books and appreciate the English Language or can bake a cake are being churned out pretty much ten a penny.

But learning what the basic building blocks of a language are prepares children to learn foreign languages and gives them a massive head start with that. Learning the molecular structure of a cake supports budding scientists.

And scientists and foreign language skills - those are skills we need and don't have enough of.

It seems a little pointless just to be preparing children for fun soft activities nobody is actually going to pay them a good salary to do whilst ignoring things which are valuable because they might be a little tougher.

Isn't education supposed to be challenging rather than an easy ride?

lalalandxx

My lord how will you ever cope when your DC are in secondary school when there is regular testing let alone GCSE's when they will have gasp 11 subjects, each with at least 2 exams.

You seem to have missed my post about ds1 doing a GCSE exam today. I was much more concerned about how today's test will affect Dd than how ds1 will cope.
He is aiming for A*/A yet because the pressure comes from him he is able to cope well.
Dd is emotionally very resilient and more as capable as ds1 at the same age, she expects to achieve high marks and yesterdays test was a shock as she didn't finish (this is unusual for her).

It feels as though the dc this year have been set up to fail in a way that neither of her brothers weren

Great post, CauliflowerBalti

lalalandxx, it's not the testing per se. My two had tests and assessments all through primary. I haven't seen a single poster say "don't test."

Those of you with DC attending the few schools who have dealt with it in a lowkey way are very lucky. I'm lucky in that although our school has gone pretty OTT, DS2 is a phlegmatic soul who has just got on with it, and tbh let a lot of the teacher's hyperbole wash over his head.

I can totally see why some DC have found this whole thing horrible, without that reflecting on the quality of their parenting or because they are somehow not resilient enough.

No drama at my dc's school either - possibly because there are almost no children from m/c families angsting over SATS results.

But the children have spent the past 2 terms being taught to the test, because the school is very target driven and focused on league tables.

And it's spoiled year 6 for them.

Bambambini and CauliflowerBalti - too right!

Put aside the argument about pressure from teachers / schools / parents.

Put aside whether a SATs-stressed child needs to get a grip if they want to survive in the real world.

Put aside the argument about whether children should be tested or not or whether they're too hard.

We should all be cross about SPaG as it stands today!

SPaG (and consequently the content of the SATs) is quite honestly the most jumbled up, confused and pointless curriculum that teachers have ever had the misfortune to have to teach. It tries to make a very complex, fluid and creative thing like the English language into something black and white, right or wrong. Language just doesn't fit into that box!

I'm angry because I'm a teacher and I want to children to love language and to use it to express their ideas first verbally and then in writing. To reduce that to the crap that SPaG churns out has a negative impact and runs the risk of producing identikit robotic clones who have been taught a list of rules but haven't been given the space to develop imagination or creativity.

But do you know what? I wouldn't mind half as much if the bloody rules they're being taught were correct!

I agree with giving children the basics, raising standards and having high expectations. I do that in my classroom everyday. But SPaG isn't the way to do it and should be completely reviewed.

I agree with year 6 SATS, however I don't agree with the amount of pressure that goes with them. Let kids be kids, stop scaring them into thinking these tests are important, they're really not.

Also, has anyone else tried one of the online example tests? I took one thinking I'd do alright, got an A at GCSE English and most of my uni assessments have been in the higher band.
I got 4 out of 10

I dislike all these comments about resilience. So now we don't just judge our young children on their academic ability and what number/ level they achieve, but we also judge them on resilience? Will they get a score for that too? How about a test?!

On a completely different note, I don't agree with posters slagging off grammar as pointless and useless for real life. Grammar is actually a good and helpful thing. Not at that age though, when it's so disproportionate and when it's taught in a way that strips away all freedom and creativity. That's not the way to do it. That's the way to get a whole generation to hate it and hate themselves!