To not care that my son failed all his SATs

[Anotherdayanotherusername]

Year 6. Not exactly a shock, we were told by school that he probably wouldn't pass - he's very dyslexic & probably has the maths one too.

However, we know he is far from stupid as well as being sporty & creative and that these results will not affect him in high school or life actually. He's gutted though.

AIBU to think these tests are a massive waste of time & to wish the school could've spent year 6 teaching them instead of doing endless mock tests

He attends a high achieving school so is just one of a handful that "failed" and I can't help but be irritated by all the fb posts from other school mums chuffed to bits that their kids passed. His best friend is getting a hamster for passing

[TeenAndTween]

pudcat You cannot fail SATs. They give you the Level your child is working at. Some children will be working above the level for Y6, some at the level and some below.

Under the system introduced last year, instead of NC levels they are now given scaled scores between 80 and 120, with the magic 100 being deemed 'age related expectation / secondary ready'. Some schools put a lot of emphasis on this to the children, so if they score less than 100 they (and parents) feel they have failed.

A lot can be avoided by how the school approaches SATs. last year DD's school didn't spend all year doing practice papers and there wasn't mention of the 100 score either. Hence my DD was happy when we told her she had done really well, and we were proud (even though 2/3 were less than 100).

For info: Progress 8 measures for secondary GCSE results are based on SATs scores. hence to some extent targets are also based on these. Not making required progress may trigger interventions in secondary. Having too low/high a score compared with actual ability may therefore impact some expectations/interventions at the next school.

[mum22boys83]

Be proud he tried.
I also try to stay away from boasting on Fb due to this reason.
I always put something like "really proud of (DS) well done to all the kids for trying so hard...
It pisses me off when people gloat although I'm sure they are just very proud of their kids.
My sons maths teacher said it was as hard as her A levels. So I'm sure if he tried his best you can't ask for anymore

[bingolittle]

SATs are a pile of shit imo. They are very, very poorly designed and schools waste hours teaching up to them instead of teaching more reasonable and useful stuff.

Kids stress about their results even though the impact on the kids' lives is minimal to nil (at secondary they will be reassessed) - the SATs are mostly used to assess how well the school is performing, not the individual child.

DC1 did well in SATs despite my telling him before, during and after that they were an unfortunate waste of everyone's time. But I still resent the waste of most of his Y6 time on the preparation, not to mention the stress put on those poor children.

DC2 is moving to private school soon and one of our reasons for this is SATs avoidance. Incidentally, I notice pretty much no private schools bother with SATs. I don't think many state schools would, either, if the govt didn't insist on them.

[Rainybo]

I agree with all this PPs saying that you reward the effort not the results. We had our end of SATs celebration of pizza when they finished - I took a group of them out the evening of the last one.

[BertrandRussell]

YANBU not to bothered that he hasn't done well in his SATS.

YABU not to be outraged that a high achieving school hasn't done more for him than tell you " he probably wouldn't pass - he's very dyslexic & probably has the maths one too"

Wtf have they been doing to support him over the past 6 years?

[Whatawaytomakealiving]

I am a HT. SATs are a government initiative that they use to ensure they can check up on schools. A measure.
They are not about children, they do not help children. Some will never meet national standard and will be 'below' throughout their education. 'Below' expectation at the end of foundation, 'below' at the end of Ks1, 'below' at the end of Ks2. Awful for self esteem.

SATs are about training children to match a test not about learning in a wide sense.
Locally we even have children tutored for SATs tests, the linked school will look great in the 'league' tables. Not my school where parents can't afford tutoring ( and don't have the ability to support at home).

I have children who can recite a rule and apply. They do really well in the grammar test. However with limited language and experiences they don't achieve national standard in writing.....so what is the point. Recite a grammar rule for what purpose?

[PhilODox]

bingo little no says was one of the big drivers for us choosing independent at primary level too. It has been a very different experience for DD from her nursery friends.

[NotYoda]

Is "failed" a term he's used or you have used with him, or the school has used?

I'm quite surprised you are referring to "failure" (a bit disbelieving, actually...)

[Anotherdayanotherusername]

Brilliant post zzzzz - sums up how I feel. I agree passing exams may be important for many but are not the be all and end all for others!

[grannytomine]

I hate presents for passing exams, I don't think it gives the right motivation as passing the exam should be the reward. If I want to give something (for GC now as my kids are all grown up) I give it to them before the results, so they get something for working hard and trying hard

I hope he isn't too upset and I hope he is getting the help he needs, did he get extra time or a reader or anything?

[youarenotkiddingme]

Important question: did your ds have a reader and scribe and extra time for the sats?

[Margoletta]

That is very interestingwhataway. The intake for this year have done far better in the GVS test than in reading, and than in their cats vocab tests. Thanks for that insight (we have over one third PP).

[MsJudgemental]

Is your child's tutor a dyslexia / dyscalculia specialist? If not, find one who is as your child will continue to struggle. The secondary school is unlikely to have the resources to put much support in place.

[Aeroflotgirl]

I agree with you op, they aren't necessary, they are more for official use. Keep reassuring him, it bears no reflection on how he is and how he will be in the future. All they do is is provide extra stress for teachers and pupils. I woukd have definitely failed my SATS, but i now have a BA(hons) 2:1 in Psycholoy and a Merit for my Msc Health Psychology, oh and I have Dyslexia, dyscalculia and I had a developmental delay when I was younger, but now caught up.

[grannytomine]

Not sure how you can think this won't impact his time at secondary school: these results will form the basis of what sets he is placed in for most subjects and as PP said, will also be used to ascertain his GCSE target grades.

Carry on burying your head in the sand though.

Might be the case in some schools but not all. I took GS to view secondary school he might go to and they said they broadly look at SATs for start of year 7 but by the end of the first term they will have assessed the kids and make their own judgements and will continually reassess as children progress at different rates and times.

[fishinmyhair]

I think that at least with the old levels, a child could see they had made progress, so even if they didn't do as well as others, they would see that they had moved from one level to another.
With the new way at our school, if my dd stays in the expected band it is harder to feel like there has been progress made after the hard work.

[kaitlinktm]

I remember when I took the 11+ in 1966 (everyone had to take it then in my area) my Dad told me that if I passed he would buy me a bike ... and my Mum said that if I failed, she would buy me one. I got a bike.

I think you should buy your son a hamster for being talented, creative and caring.

I think he should see this cartoon which I think puts SATs in their place:

[Rosenspants]

I abhorred the SATS testing of primary school children. My DD did both the yr 2 and the yr 6 SATS and didn't get a grade in anything in either sets of tests. She has similar specific learning difficulties to what OP and other PPs describe although her clumsiness didn't do much for sport either. She struggled all the way through school with no recognition or help apart from what we did for her at home. She performed poorly at GCSE but is now studying for a BTEC extended diploma in a practical, creative subject, and is getting merits and distinctions. She's done retakes as well and is doing better because she's happy and achieving in other areas. She uses a laptop with spell and grammar check for written assignments. It's been a very hard road but she's resilient and has learned a very important life skill...learning to fail, pick herself up, dust herself off and get back in the saddle, albeit on a different horse.

Make a fuss of your DSs effort, OP, ignore the Facebook braggers...they'll always be there after all and when they were good friends of mine I was genuinely pleased for them even if I had a pang or two....

Zzzz above talks much sense.

[Eolian]

As for the accusations of gloating, I don't see why it seems to be considered perfectly ok to post on social media about your child learning to ride a bike, getting a martial arts grading, winning a gymnastics competition, climbing a mountain etc, but somehow being pleased about them doing well academically is sneeringly referred to as gloating. It's no wonder that there is such an anti-achievement culture in British schools - kids who work hard and do well are sneered at by their peers. Fwiw I don't post about my dc's achievements on FB, but I don't see that academic 'boasting' is any different from the rest.

[vickibee]

My son will be y6 in sept and he has hf asd, and an IEP. I am dreading the anxiety sats will cause for him. He has a high IQ but struggles to record his ideas on paper and this is how they are judged. I agree that they are a government judging schools exercise. A more holistic approach to education makes sense. I looked at a sample English paper and it was so ridiculously hard, I reckon mist adults wouldn't be able to do it.

[MrsOverTheRoad]

HIs skills lie somewhere other than in writing stuff down OP...that's all. YANBU. He will find his way anyway.

[Anotherdayanotherusername]

Important question: did your ds have a reader and scribe and extra time for the sats?

Extra time.

[hiccupgirl]

SATS are solely for measuring the supposed performance of schools and should not be put to the kids as they have passed or failed the arbitrary measures governments have decided are age appropriate. Any decent secondary school discounts the results and reassesses the new yr 7s because they know most primaries teach to the test because they feel they have too.

Your son hasn't failed anything - he has done his best and I would reward that and ignore parents boasting that their child is, basically, good at learning to past tests.

Before anyone jumps on me, my DS is in year 2 and will be above age expectations across the board. He loved the yr 2 SATS because he is exactly the kind of child they are aimed at. But how is that ok or reasonable for the other 95% of his class who will have struggled with questions, let alone the ones who won't have been able to tackle many of them due to their learning needs?

[Tw1nsetAndPearls]

Might be the case in some schools but not all. I took GS to view secondary school he might go to and they said they broadly look at SATs for start of year 7 but by the end of the first term they will have assessed the kids and make their own judgements and will continually reassess as children progress at different rates and times