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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think the school is being a CF?

75 replies

mrscupcake · 10/01/2018 17:14

DS age 10 has come home from primary school (yr6) with a letter asking all parents to pay for revision books for Sats. It isn't a huge amount of money, however they have stated that:

"it is really important that all the Yr 6 children are able to start using the revision books at the same time, we would therefore like the form below completed with the payment by Friday 19th January".

I will pay the money as, of course, I don't want DS to be different to any of his peers, however I feel really really cross that the school are effectively demanding payment from parents for books.

I know schools have very limited budgets, BUT I can't help feeling the real reason they want the kids to have the books is so that the Sats results look good for the school in the league tables and I begrudge paying them for that.

I am already paying a tutor a fair whack every week to help DS with his maths as he hasn't progressed at all at school and had such a negative mind set towards maths that he had completely switched off in the classroom. The school's attitude was that he 'would just have to learn to concentrate and focus'. Unsurprisingly since he started having an hour a week with the tutor his maths has come on in leaps and bounds and he loves doing maths at home and with his tutor. He still isn't very keen at school.

I'm also not particularly pro Sats for many reasons so this, along with the fact that I really don't like the school, could be colouring my view.

So AIBU?

OP posts:

Middleoftheroad · 11/01/2018 17:27

**When my youngest was doing them her older siblings said don't try too hard as your GCSE progress/targets will be based on them and the school all set them high.

My son scored very highly in SATs as school really pushed.

He's now in year 7 with super high targets for everything (not just Eng and Maths) and was upset not to get a 9 in most subjects tested at comp, so a 'mere' 7/8 is deemed underperforming. It's crazy.

But you cant blame schools. They feel the same - blame the govt!

Frusso · 11/01/2018 17:36

If you don't like sats or the idea of them why don't you withdraw ds from them?

user789653241 · 11/01/2018 17:40

It really depend on what kind of sats revision books they are asking to buy.
If it's something like my ds has(covers all ks2 maths topics in detail), then it's good for children to find out gaps and work on it if it needs strengthening. It won't be just for sats, it will prepare children for more advanced maths in secondary.
Tbh, sats are only testing basic knowledge(maybe not for English, but for maths at least), so working on sats would benefit children after all, especially less able ones, imo.

Llangollen · 11/01/2018 17:45

I think it's high time parents are buying books and material for their children. It works really well in other countries. It would stop people believing that school = FREE childcare, and nothing else.

Hoppinggreen · 11/01/2018 17:45

I honestly don’t get the angst over SATS but maybe it varies in other areas. They don’t matter at all round here. The Secondaries the kids go to either don’t put the children into sets or retest in the first term to decide sets or they go to The Grammar where the 11+ results are used or The Private School who assess themselves anyway.
Why do the children need good SATS results? Not snarky genuinely curious
If it’s the School that needs them ( no idea why if it’s oversubscribed anyway as most Primaries here are) then why do parents care about them? And why wouid parents buy books to ensure good SATS results if no benefit to the children?
Have I misunderstood the system.

GrockleBocs · 11/01/2018 17:50

I'm probably going to withdraw dd from SATS. She would probably do well if they just stuck the paper in front of her but all this build up is awful. She has ASD and her anxiety is spiralling.

HermioneAndMsJones · 11/01/2018 17:54

Two things
1- wel ime to the work of free education where only the ones who can pay for books can actually get the education they at every supposed to get.
2- i thought that SATs would have no impact in my dcs at secondary. I was wrong. They dint use them to put the children in sets etc.. at the start of Y7 (esp as they didn’t have any sets in Y7 anyway). But these are the numbers used to evaluate the progress of the child. Get a bad results in the SATS and the secondary school won’t expect said child to do more than that because the child will have met the ‘expected amount of progress’ unless they do so badly that they do t get the ‘minimum reuqited’.

HermioneAndMsJones · 11/01/2018 17:55

Oh and these are the numbers used to assess progress up to CGSE, not just Y7 or KS3 btw.....

cindersrella · 11/01/2018 18:00

I think the problem is with the SATS the children are our under a lot of pressure for them at a young age. Would it be better for the school to ask for a contribution towards books? What happens to the children who's parents can't afford or won't buy books?

Starlight2345 · 11/01/2018 18:22

My Ds year 6 didn’t want the books so I didn’t order them . Teacher spoke to class about importance and he wanted them . So I did pay for them .

Demanding money with a few days notice in January seems crazy . It is also not a level playing field my Ds has had them a couple of months.

My objection is all I hear is about says how to become above age expected . I get it from the schools point of view however I do not want my 10 year old focussing on passing a test .

OpenthePickles · 11/01/2018 19:10

Here in Ireland we have to pay for all our children's school books. We are given a book list at the end of summer term and have to buy them all before school starts in September. Last year the total I paid was 120euro but I think the high school book list is more than double that. Thank god I only have one book list to buy, I can't imagine the cost if I were to buy for 3 or 4 on top of expensive uniforms.

Rumpledfaceskin · 11/01/2018 19:15

Why don’t more parents just withdraw from SAts? Not at this stage yet but I certainly would if it was causing my children unnecessary stress. I have a lot of friends and family who are teachers of all stages and their biggest wish is that parents would just revolt and withdraw kids from them. Doesn’t say much for the system does it?

AlexanderHamilton · 11/01/2018 19:26

It's incredibly difficult to withdraw your child from SATS. You would need to not send them into school for two whole weeks which would be unauthorised absence & probably incur a fine. There is no way to avoid the build up apart from home educating for most of year 6.

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 11/01/2018 19:43

Our school has sent a similar message home, but in our case the books we have been requested to buy are for use at home with parents supervising tuition. This I would not mind so much if the same school had not vocally condemned parents for feeling the need to tutor children for the 11+. Apparently pupils should not need extra help preparing for the 11+, but do need extra help to get good SATs grades.

I gritted my teeth whilst handing the money over today.

SimultaneousEquation · 11/01/2018 19:44

Our primary asks parents to buy the set text reading book for the term. It’s about £8 most times. I don’t blame them: the schools have no money.

Starlight2345 · 11/01/2018 19:51

I think the other problem not been discussed here... is what about the parents who are struggling to put food on the table.

There are many more children living in poverty whose parents are working and so don't qualify for FFM so not additional money this could be taken from.

School is supposed to be free so that everyone has access to the same education. I do completely understand the schools point of view and really don't know the answer .

user789653241 · 11/01/2018 19:54

There's no pass or fail for sats, just expected to achieve national standard, I believe? So I don't think you should be stressed anyway.
You can work on weak topics, but it will only benefit the child in long run, I think. Not sure about English(grammar), but practicing all those maths topics you learn in primary would make strong base for the child in secondary.

I think it's silly to withdraw, since all the stress may happen during prep rather than test itself. So if you want your child to not to have stress over sats, you need to withdraw the child from school in yr6, rather than just for test period.

worlybear · 11/01/2018 20:22

Well the new GCSE exams this year has meant that there are no 2nd hand revision books-I have paid close to £100 for revision books for my daughter.
Just another nail in the coffin IMO!

SunnyCoco · 11/01/2018 20:25

Blame those who voted for this Tory government and their sickening austerity

BewareOfDragons · 11/01/2018 21:11

Schools are judged on their SATs results.

Parents with children i the affected years may complain, but they judge schools on their SATs results as well.

Schools are punished for poor SATs results: head teachers lose jobs over them; good teachers leave; parents remove children ... it's a vicious cycle ... so schools work hard to get good results.

And they do matter for secondary setting, no matter what people think.

bonbonours · 12/01/2018 07:39

I would be cross about this, mostly because where we are at least, SAT's do not benefit the child at all. Secondary schools take no account of them because we are in an 11 plus area, so that test (the one the school are not allowed to teach for) is the one that will actually affect the child's life in a big way, meaning they can or can't apply to a particular school. I was cross that our school made a huge deal about Yr 6 Sat's telling the kids. 'This are the most important week of your school career so far' I know that schools are under pressure from often and government but it's still not fair to put 10 year olds under such pressure.

To the people talking about gcse revision books, that is different as it obviously directly affects your child's life.

eggsandwich · 12/01/2018 08:42

I brought my year 10 Dd gcse revision books online in most of the subjects she picked for her options and am glad that I did as it will benefit her and is a good resource material.

However I would feel the same as you about buying revision books for year 6 where the only person that benefits is the school ultimately, but like you I would probably buy them but wouldn’t be happy about it, and I bet they only really get used from now until May when they sit their SATS.

daisydook · 12/01/2018 10:02

donquixotedelamancha, 'I do get very irritated by people who voted Tory in the last few elections and then has the audacity to moan about this sort of thing- this situation was their decision.' bang on, well said

Nikx85 · 12/01/2018 15:33

It's pretty standard practice to ask parents to buy sats and gcse revision books, because they are NOT COMPULSORY. they cover all subjects in school and the books are an optional aid. They also ask the parents to purchase them because content changes quite frequently so last years books may not be relvent.

yerbutnobut · 12/01/2018 17:12

my DD did SATS may just gone, refused to buy the books, instead utilised websites that had year before papers on, she passed all SATS with flying colours and so did several of her classmates whose parents also chose not to buy the books

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