Not to send DD to school in Easter holidays?

[muminthecity]

DD is in year 6, and preparations for the SATS are well underway. DD is very bright, and expected to do well, but she is really feeling the pressure and is not particularly happy at school at the moment, mainly because her favourite subjects (art and history) have been sidelined in favour of extra SATS practice. She gets practice tests sent home every week which she does well in, as well as maths, English and grammar homework.

Today we had a letter home informing us that the school are laying on extra lessons to prepare for the SATS over the Easter holidays. They have asked if DD can attend 4 days (mon-thurs) in the first week, for 3 hours a day (1-4pm.)

On one hand, extra education is no bad thing, and it is good of the teachers to give up their time in the holidays for this. On the other hand, DD is only 11, she's under enough pressure as it is, shouldn't the school holidays be a chance for her to relax and do things she enjoys? Not to mention the awkward timing which will really limit what else we can do that week. I'd like to have days out, visit family and friends etc. Having to be back by 1pm for school would severely limit that. WWYD? AIBU not to send her?

Being paid extra is definitely possible. They just set up on payroll for that month. I have been paid extra for something before (not extra classes).

I clearly need to move to a different LA!

Sorry, mum I think I was being a bit snippy last night. I just get sick of reading threads on here talking about teachers like we're the enemy of the whole of humanity (not that you were) and I was feeling unnecessarily "grr".

I believe that education is really important but the priority always has to be the mental/emotional wellbeing of the child.

You've said yourself that she's doing well academically and that you feel she is under pressure at school; She deserves a break and more to the point probably needs a break.

It will do her good to focus on non school related activity for a week, so on that basis I would not send her and it is not unreasonable.

I think there's far too much pressure on young ones these days and it isn't healthy, nor is it fair. She has her whole life to study, it doesn't need to be crammed into one year of her life - More important exams will come up when she's older, teach her the coping mechanisms now so that she will be better able to cope with exam stress in later years.

Everyone has to unwind and be carefree from time to time, even children - Don't oblige the school, do what's best for your daughter, let her have a break over Easter.

I'm not in the UK, though used to be. Even if your child's future secondary setted on KS3 SATs results, any evidence of being misplaced would be acted on pronto. As has been said upthread, loads re-test with CATs anyway.
My experience back in the day was that teacher judgements of attainment were spot-on. SATs, not so much, and such pisser to be tied to hot-housed results.

Do they still use level 4/5/6? I thought all that had changed.
When Dd1 did the SATS her school invited her in for one morning or afternoon. She wanted to go so went.
If you Dd is anti just say no. Secondary do there own tests anyway.

Forgot to add. Don't send her in, but then I speak as teacher who has never set weekend or holiday homework for any KS3 child, ever: 38 years and counting.

It's recorded as additional hours, signed off by the head and sent to the authority monthly.

Seems it depends on the school though! I wouldn't teach for an extra hour unpaid regularly or it becomes the norm.

I think kids being put under pressure at this age is horrendous. It's also prioritising the school's results over the children. I have a son in yr6. I just asked him and he has no idea they'll be doing SATs this year. My other DS did them in Yr 2 last year and it was kept very low key. They did a few practice papers in school in the weeks before (none sent home) but other than that carried on with educating the children as normal and rely in the fact they have actually been doing a good job to get decent results. It just highlights how unreliable the results are if some schools are doing all this extra work to boost their results. It shouldn't be allowed. I wouldnt send my child in to holiday classes as a point of principle. Also because it gives your dd the wrong message if she is already feeling under pressure.

My DH is a teacher and does a lot of "Summer Schools" where extra sessions are run at the school for children to attend for extra teaching and they do get paid extra and it's a nice amount of money. He usually gives up two weeks of his six week holiday to do this. He said the majority of the teachers want to do it because of the extra pay they receive and the sessions are shared out equally amongst them.

He's at a Secondary school, I don't know if that makes any difference or not, but it's definitely not a case of teachers being forced to do something they don't want to....

It does not happen. There is no function for paying teachers extra. You cannot work overtime.

Yes..... it really DOES happen
(missing the point of the thread)

What the hell? She needs a holiday and a break from pressure. This kind of 'overtraining' sounds unbalanced and detrimental.

Never heard of a school near me paying for after school boosters.
I got paid for doing Easter school it was time and half and it paid for my washing machine.
The sessions were small groups relaxed and with lots of snacks.
Having said that I wouldn't force any child of mine to do it

ForAllWeKnow just to clarify. I am not having a dig at teachers, far from it. I'm frustrated by government policies and changes. All this pressure is coming top down from above teachers/head teachers.

It feels like the government have created a culture of fear in education. It's like they don't understand the law of averages - there have to be people above and below average! (Same goes for health visitors and baby's weight!)

My children's primary school was set ridiculous targets just because it was considered to be in an affluent area. It wasn't based on the intake of the catchment. Many parents opted for the private system and the school's reputation (for the majority of the time mine were there) was fantastic so people travelled from other areas.

She sound like an achiever , and IMHO would benefit from r&r, not more work.

my secondary school used to pay for revision sessions in the holidays, but they no longer do. We are expected though to offer sessions after school for free and when it comes to performance management meetings and Joe Bloggs hasn't reached his stupidly high target then it is my fault for not doing after school sessions, holiday sessions with him.

The pressure for results far outweighs the concerns for the students wellbeing

They did after school and Easter classes in my son's school 3 years ago. He was only offered the Easter ones and we said no. It seemed a bit rich that for his whole school career he needed extra help with spelling and handwriting (he was diagnosed with dyslexia a year later when we had him tested privately) but hadn't really had useful targeted support. But suddenly it was important for SATs.

The head left after that year and the next head all but admittted to me that they had cheated on the writing assessments as well!

If they offer them to my younger Y5 son I will refuse too. He's already turned off school with the endless tests and dull grammar. He's just asked me if there is a pupils union to complain about the work!

.My husband and I both teach but really hate the way some of the schools are pressuring kids. His old head told the Y6s that they would never get good jobs if they didn't do well in their SATs!

When she gets to secondary school her target grades will be based on her sats results

this is really really missleading.

SATS are a test of the school and not the child. Yes, at secodnary the schoo is supposed to get them xx points further than they got in SATs, but pretty much every school does some sort of testing in year 7 and basis their expectation on that. I have heard secondary schools simply don't believe the SATs tests, and see them as primaries boosting grades for their own results.

All of which shows that SATs are really for the school and no tthe child.

dd1 didn't attend any extra session last year. She had taken the 11+ in a none 11+ area at the beginning of year 6 so she had worked hard through year 5. She passed the 11+ well, so is well above average and I politely told her year 6 teacher she would not be attending any extra classes at all.

She did well, in SATs, school was happy, she wasn't under stress and I had told her it is a comment on school not her, and I was very glad I hadn't pushed.

The only situation where I might do it is if my child was doing pretty badly. My reasoning would be that they need any support to get up to the level expected for the start of secondary, and that it would help them in the long run, rather than just for SATs

Nope, I wouldn't send mine, they need their holidays.

Oh a Harris academy - I might have guessed. Dreadful places

How many have you been to?

There was a twitter thread about this last night too. A lot of teachers are being put under pressure to offer these - some have even been asked to cancel pre booked holidays. It's madness for them and for the child. I'd say no. To be honest, SATs mean absolutely nothing for a child, but they set a worrying trajectory to GCSE. GCSE results are set based on SATs scores so if 64% meet expected standard at SATs, when they get to 16, 64% will be expected to get a C (or a grade 4 under the new system). For one child to outperform their own targets, another would have to fail. It's a mad system - one of the reasons I'm boycotting SATs as a parent. I want my child to be judged based on what he is, not what he did on a single day several years ago.