To fucking hate SATS?

[justwait]

Dd is in year 6. I'd like to say the school has been low key about SATS but it hasn't. She's been tested about 6 times this year. She had a test the morning she got back after easter and didn't do very well in it. We did no sats practice over easter because she's on a sports talent programme and was away a lot.

She's thin, not eating. She said she she sat at the table yesterday and everytime she looked at the paper everything went 'prickly and she didn't feel real'

I think she's massively anxious. She's doing really well in literacy predicted over 110 and maths just over 100. I have told her time and time again not to worry.

Just wanted to rant. The best thing she's done this year was make a little Anderson shelter during the ww2 topic and write a beautiful story about it. I'm gutted she's not done more of this kind of thing in her last year at primary. It's shit.

Passed = past

My ds is exactly the same. Stbxh and I have recently separated so he doesn't need this stress on top of all that. Is it definitely true that they make absolutely no difference to the year 7 sets? Can we just tell the school that they aren't doing them. Ds was crying on Monday morning and not wanting to go in.... I am fuming about it as I have TOLD the teachers about our home situation and I expected some level of support from them... can I just opt him out?

Mine is at a private school so although the autumn term was fairly hideous with 11 plus prep, tests daily and 20 practice papers over xmas the rest of the year has been lovely and they've done so many nice things including lots of history, drama, art and outings as well as cracking on with their maths and creative writing. My eldest did SAT's and this is a much better way to end primary. However, she's moving to a state school in September who do use SAT's, as well as their own tests to set so I'm hoping that the school give the secondary as decent handover because I know from having an older child there that there's not a huge amount of movement between sets.

SATs results make a difference to the targets against which secondary school GCSE results are measured.
So underperforming in SATs may mean that the secondary expects less of the pupil, and so perhaps may not target them for interventions if they underperform.

Some secondaries use SATs for initial setting.
Some secondary schools are not very good at adjusting sets when needed.

Some secondary schools are not very good at adjusting sets when needed.
And this is one of them, children don't get moved around much and I would really like her to be in the correct sets to start with and not just put anywhere because she hasn't got SAT's. (top english, middle maths please)

The constant pressure on kids these days due to primary school SATs is the main reason I'm planning to home educate the baby I'm currently pregnant with.

It is awful that young children are just on a conveyor belt of tests from the time they begin nursery until the time they leave Year 6. And so often these days they seem to be taught to the test to the expense of all else. I used to teach and I follow a couple of FB teaching pages and teachers will show evidence of their children's 'independent writing' because they're so pleased with the fronted adverbials or similes or whatever that they've used. But so often the evidence is dull as ditchwater or so contrived it barely makes sense, all because the children have had to think so hard about the technical aspect of their writing that the actual narrative has been deemed unimportant.

And I have heard from friends in other schools that cheating in last year's Y6 SATs was rife so, if that's the case, the 'scores' that the schools are coming out with are meaningless anyway.

Changes to education in the name of 'accountability' have really messed things up for all involved, children and teachers.

Education is not like a manufacturing line; you cannot apply the rules of business to education it doesn't work. Like the attendance issue, target setting of specific areas often conflicts with the overall aim of education - wellbeing is a necessity for learning.

I read this the other day which gives an idea of how pointless it all is: community.tes.com/threads/cheating-the-system.756116/

When DD did SATs in 2008, it wasn't a big deal. Setting didn't take place until Year 8. Now the same secondary school is setting based on SATs in Year 7 and my friend's DD is far more stressed, as is the rest of her year, than my DC ever were. As a PP said, the difficulty is when the secondary school won't move the children easily once they're in their sets.

This just all highlights why grammar schools, and all the issues around the 11+, are bad news.

I don't think the exam itself is a bad thing, it is just the fact that the whole curriculum focuses on them for 18 months. With practice tests and learning formal grammar for its own ends rather than as part of a more enjoyable theme.

My two daughters are/were in different schools but at both points SATS has completely changed the whole way of learning and made it very rigid and boring for them.

dd is really anxious too, despite me not pushing her. school are ramping up the tension.

Please complain to your MP they don't listen to teachers but they are starting to listen to parents as they are phasing out KS1 SATs. The more we all stand up about this ridiculous education system the better. My dd is doing the first year of the new GCSEs and it seems horrendous.

I'm another with private school experience; we've just had the annual email explaining how exams later this term will work. Year 4 and 5 have tests but aren't expected to do anything out of class to prepare. Year 6 are asked to do a little revision over half term (and are guided in what to do). Year 7 are "the first year of formal exams"; they are expected to make some effort. Year 8 - final year of school - should therefore know the procedures. In exam week the school timetable changes a bit for the upper years - but games afternoons continue unchanged. As does choir practice and services for the choristers.

The aim is clearly that they reach the point of knowing how to prepare for and sit exams effectively, without it becoming a major trauma or excessive effort let along requiring life to be put on hold.

I wish all schools were able to accustom children to testing in such an appropriate way. Where I grew up it was common for children to reach the end of highschool with little experience of formal exams, and they had the final 2 years of school to learn how to cope with external school leaving exams. Much better if regular exams that "don't matter" occur earlier - but not the ridiculousness that we hear about with SATS etc in the UK.

I'm a secondary teacher and I'm sorry but teachers are to blame for this. There's no need to perpetuate this shit. If the kids have been taught well in the years preceding SATs then there should be no need for cramming. It's immoral. And then the teachers bleat about how unfair everything is and how sad the children are and isn't it awful that they're forced to do this blah blah blah. No, you're not forced. Have some professional integrity ffs.

Lots of secondary schools don't even set pupils! All the ones I've taught in have taken KS2 data with a pinch of salt at the very least because generally it's unhelpful and doesn't reflect students' abilities. There is no way a good secondary school would set targets for GCSEs based only on data collected when children were eleven years old - and leave a student out of interventions! I have literally never heard of this happening and if it happened at my school I would be kicking up a fuss about it, as would my colleagues.

GCSE results are criterion referenced but they're also pegged to the KS2 results of the cohort. That has absolutely no relevance to individuals. Most secondary teachers don't even know this is the case!

When DS is old enough I will be having some fucking words with any school that makes his life a misery for the sake of their reputation. And as for paying for tutors! The mind boggles

Also, I'd like to say that I'm very much in favour of government accountability measures. I've seen enough bad teaching to know it's necessary. But when teachers start gaming the system (by cramming, dropping subjects from the curriculum, encouraging parents to pay for tutors and perpetuating a climate of fear and pressure) the only losers are the pupils.

Yes, OP I bloody hate SATS.

My DS is very bright and used to love school. He could easily have passed the SATS months ago but has been subject to constant "revision" of things he already knows. He's totally bored, hasn't learned anything for months and doesn't want to go to school at the moment.

Ridiculous!

DS1 who has SN and dysgraphia is doing his sats this time, and I have been advised to get him signed of with anxiety by taking him to the GP if I need too, as then school can't say anything!

His Mental health is way more important and so if I need too as some point even during sats week I will.

It's ridiculous they had loads of homework in the week they got off at Easter and were asked to revise every day, I said to DS1 we would do the 2 maths sheets but that's it, we were away for the week and we were on holiday, it's not fair on any of us!

I agree with Fartniss. The only ones losing out are the pupils

We are in the same position, 8 different SAT mock tests brought home over the water holiday, he went back yesterday and has brought 4 home, 2 to do each day by tomorrow.

Ds teacher is worried as he passes in practice but fails in mock exams

She's also worried as he's developed a tick recently and worried and mentioned to us be may be developingTourette Syndrome

Schools and Parents need to do more when DC are inY1-5 and then they wouldn't have to cram so much in Y6. I am happy the level of education is being dragged up so our children have a better future.

My DD is also going through this. She is 11. Massively anxious.

She has exams EVERY DAY. Because the school is under special measures, the teachers are massively pressuring them. She was also supposed to do an hour's revision every day in the holidays - more than my a-level DD is doing...!!!!

It's so wrong. I work in the NHS and can't take four months off to home ed but I have thought about it this last few weeks.

Parents who get all stressy about "how this will affect year 7" really are making it worse, children do move around. Many schools retest after the summer where most have forgotten it all. As well they should. They're children!
The tests should merely be a marker. There should be none of this prep crap. Children shouldn't have to miss their creative subjects or language subjects in year 6 just because the school is shit scared.

The best educational / supportive approach as shown by research for improvement AND wellbeing is to praise effort over results.
The end result is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. What your child has improved upon in their time at primary school is bloody amazing.
When the teachers try to tell me my daughter's score I just shrug. We celebrate how motivated she is. Her friends and teachers love her. She's going to be fine.

Anon but all they're really doing is learning how to pass tests, because it's the marks that are important to the school. Carries on in secondary too.

That1950sMum yes!!! Dd could have passed the SATS before Xmas! In fact she's LOST confidence in maths and been moved out of the top group because, and this is something that the teacher enjoys saying, the top group are working at a standard only 5% of children are working at.

I don't WANT my child to be in the top 5% of the country for maths!!! I want her to be happy and confident. Fuck this shit.

You are the parent. Reassure them that they should try their best, but they really are no big deal and that you don't give a damn how she does. It might be worth bringing a 12-14 year old (or around that age) to speak to her about how unimportant they are in the future too.

Dd will be fine in life,educationally. She's motivated (or was), pretty bright, loves reading and is a natural speller and writer. She's diligent and hard working. That's more than enough to do well. This is what I've been telling her. She's fine at maths too, I'd say she's a natural B/A maths student in old money.

What's not fine is that her stress levels are huge and she's sick of school