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.

I went into school this week to complain that the constant testing the children have gone though since christmas has resulted in my daughter coming home sobbing and telling me she wants to kill herself.

I have consistently told her and the school that SATS mean nothing and the only expectation I have of my children is that they perform to the best of their abilities.
Her form teacher emailed me back yesterday and amongst other meaningless platitudes, she told me that if DD continues to make the current progress then she will meet the age related expectations in the tests. I don't care about the tests, I care that my child wants to die because of the pressure being put on her by the school!

The other gem I got from the teacher this week is that the tests get them ready for secondary school!

Yanbu.

SATs SATs SATs from xmas - may here. It's bored two of mine utterly brainless having it endlessly rammed down their throats. My eldest ended up in tears. My current yr 6 child is fine thankfully, but complains daily about doing SATs this that or the other. Especially when the yr 5's in his class get to go off and do PE. Frankly, I think its shit!

If the test was simply the test fine. It's the whole months of revision in the run up to it that frustrate me. I don't even feel it's fair to pull ds out for the SATs, as all his hard work would be wasted.

I cannot get my head around tutors for SATs, no wonder kids feel stressed and anxious these days.

YANBU (yr5/6 teacher). I deliberately took my class out this afternoon to do some outdoor learning (not sats related). Yesterday they did history/ DT creative stuff- it looks great, they enjoyed it.

Next week may be sadly different.

Our school has been SATS orientated since September! 2 full mock weeks and multiple test papers every week plus extra lessons before and after school. Seriously

DS1 has ASD and is in Y6. He's bright, engaged and loves learning. He could fly through his SATs with his eyes closed. For the last 7 months school have rammed it down the children's throats that "if you fail, it could affect the rest of your lives" (which is bollocks; I did really well at my sats and still ended up a bit of a twat - it's no measure of future success). The end result is that DS1 has got himself all worked up and anxious about the whole thing.

He's gone from being a happy, confident, independent learner to being the kind of kid who throws himself on the kitchen floor shouting "for the love of God I can't do any more practise tests" whenever homework is mentioned. And he's right; the fact that schools are held accountable and tested is fine. The fact that schools push the pupils to breaking point is absolutely not fine. When it impacts on them negatively it's time to burn the SATs results on the bbq and show your DCs that, actually, they just have to try their best and you won't give a shit about the results. I certainly won't be opening the envelope unless DS1 wants to.

My DTs have tests every day now and this week were given a piece of homework every night (as well as general SATs revision). So I have two 11-yr-olds to keep an eye on!

The school is obsessed and now so are the kids! A friend broke his hand and the first thing he thought of was that he couldn't write for the SATs.

Home education is being mootef but I have no idea how you both manage to work full time and home ed?

mooted!

I'm a teacher with a class of yr 6 I'm responsible for getting through the maths. Some of what is described here makes me very angry. My kids know they've got to do them. We've done 2 practise papers. Low key, optional boosters for the last few weeks. and thats it. They know we want them to do their best and have been encourging a bit of practise at home BUT I would be mortified if any of them felt under any kind of unusual pressure. I didn't even tell them how they scored in the practises so it didn't dent their confidence.

Tutoring to improve their numeracy and Literacy is fine but tutoring FOR SATS is ridiculous.

I've got 1 more week to get them through then I've promised some fun learning!

well what is everyone on this thread doing about it? These are children they need to be protected. It is absolutely ludicrous to say that parents should just reassure it doesn't matter - you need to complain! You need to write to your Mps and write to the department for education. You need to write to your school so they know they would have your backing if they stood up to the Dfe

Tutoring for Sats is laughably missing the point - sats are there to TEST THE TEACHING in the school! NOT the pupil. So if you tutor - you completely fucking miss the point - and there is then literally no point to sats at all.

headteacher and his partner quit school because they think current education policy is a disaster for children

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/apr/28/headteacher-and-deputy-send-resignation-letter-to-parents-longparish-primary-school-hampshire

Worst thing is, I'm not even convinced this is an effective way of learning. No one remembers things that they stuffed into their short term memory under huge stress just for the purposes of an exam.

Pressed post too soon - I also think that placing massive exam pressure on them when they're this young hugely increases the chances of them getting overwhelmed and thinking 'fuck it' when they get to the genuinely important exams in their teens.

DS is bored to tears with SATs practise. He's one of the ones who will meet 'age related expectations' fairly comfortably. Recently after doing a practise paper in school he said to me "If I already got a good mark, why do I have to do the test again?"

Yr 6 has been miserable. He's always been keen to learn and to go to school, but this year it's been such a struggle to keep him motivated.

Dd is year 5. Her year are less able than the current year six. They are being pushed already in preparation for next year's SATs.

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

Read the opening post on this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/2853436-Progress-8-less-focus-on-C-D-borderline-and-consequences-for-grade-4-students
Now you have. You would be amazed how seriously schools take their league table positions. So much depends on them, schools are pretty much forced to take every possible action to maintain/improve their positions and with ever decreasing budgets, of course interventions will be targeted where it benefits the school most.

Of course, if your child gets very stressed about exams, extra interventions for GCSE are probably the last thing they need, but a lot can change in 5 years, so it's very difficult to know what's best.

Another one with a daughter in tears over SATS this week, she isn't a high academic achiever but very artistic, sporty and practical... she feels lost and tbh labelled already.

Ok, hands up, I'm a Y6 teacher. I agree absolutely with most of what's been said. We all know it's bullshit too. But please, please lobby your MP. Write to the DfE. Share awareness with other parents and non-parents alike. Whenever teachers complain, it's always picked up by the media as a selfish money thing. We've been trying to fight against the horror that is SATS for years. We need parents everywhere to start kicking up a stink about this and work together. Hell, my DS is Y5 and I am so, so sad that I know what's about to happen in what should be a happy, exciting education for him

SATS are hideous: pointless, unnecessary and damaging to children's mental health. Yet we are being held over a barrel by the sword of Damocles that is Ofsted, academisation, performance-related pay, etc. We KNOW that your child is worth infinitely more than a number or code on a data spreadsheet.

SATS don't even translate across to the secondary curriculum so kids are learning utterly pointless bollocks that they will never touch on again (I refer you to the SPAG test as exhibit A)

I see this happening in my classroom despite desperately trying to keep a balance with jumping through the fucking ridiculous hoops demanded by the Gov. and giving them a balanced, interesting education.

I'm lucky. I have a relatively grounded Head who believes that children should enjoy their learning (despite asking me once if I thought an Easter hols booster group was a good idea...he was given short shrift).

It's fear. Fear from the heads filters down to fear from teachers which filters into fear for our poor, poor kids. Awful.

My DS crammed from xmas to try and learn about 'subordinating conjunctions' etc from scratch last year for SPAG SATS. Now coming to the end of year 7, there's been no reference to them ever again.

. This was because the school, who had been gradually teaching what the children needed for good SATs results since year 1, made no fuss over the tests and any practice was very subtle. The results were very good.

Unfortunately they moved the goal posts massively and the poor kids from last year and this year have had to play massive catch up. The children coming up behind them will be a slightly better position as they haven't had to do as much catching up.

I have just asked dd and they have been given the weekend off at least. The pressure is on though because the school is in 2 times Requires Improvement.

Now you have. You would be amazed how seriously schools take their league table positions.

No I'm not. I've taught in secondary schools for almost ten years now. Note that I said 'no good secondary school' would use SATS results to target GCSE interventions. If parents of Y6 students have been told that's the case, they're being lied to.

That thread you linked to is about Progress 8 interventions. All accountability measures will breed perverse incentives to some extent. At least the grade boundaries at GCSE and A-level are somewhat meaningful, as opposed to SATS which frankly nobody gives a fuck about except Y6 teachers and primary heads

Not quite sure what you are saying here...

Grade boundaries at GCSE are set by the KS2 SATs results of the cohort. Progress 8 scores are calculated from the difference between an individual students KS2 SAT results and their GCSE results, so all these measures are interlinked to a certain extent.

Do does that mean that little Johnnies tutor and cramming means that dd will have tougher grade boundaries at gcse?

I thought they did grade boundaries after the exams