to ask how important the SATs are for the CHILD (not the school)

[Butchmanda]

I know SATS are massively important for the school, and it piles ridiculous amounts of pressure on the teachers etc etc. Quite aware of that and I know teachers have a tough job etc etc. Not denying it for a moment.

BUT how important are the Year SATS to the child? Do the results stay on their record forever? Do the secondary schools have to take notice, or is it entirely up to the individual school? (I know that at the school my son is going to, they do tests in English and Maths for streaming after the first half term anyway, and then retest every term).

I'm wondering about the ramifications of taking my son out of the SATs. If it's even possible. I don't want to damage his future but, equally, I would like to make a stand over the current nonsense and spare him the stress (although he would still have to go to school, and therefore would do the work all the same, even if some of it seems to be of dubious use for future). I don't want to use him as a political pawn if it'll affect him but I do feel (as with many other shit things in this country) that it's about bloody time people started taking a stand.

This is not a teacher or school-shaming post, I'd just like some information - not even opinions, just facts from people who might know or have done the same.

Thanks

Our school start prepping for SATS in October and it gives me the rage. I hate this education system.

It really really annoys me - our school has introduced Easter holiday booster classes for the first week and told the poor kids (who already have to do 8am booster classes twice a week) that they are ESSENTIAL. Not compulsory of course. I thoroughly enjoyed booking our Easter holiday abroad this year....

I know. Art and Spanish predicted off a SAT

Flight path. Mmm. That's a new one. I see that hothousing is therefore not a good thing yet primaries like ours will do it so that they look good. I find that friggin selfish. They could probably do a lot less pushing and still get good enough results. Don't have to strive for best. What's enough to not be frowned on? I think the overall result published is percentage of children who achieved the pass mark isn't it? Our school's result was 98 per cent. With a bit of cheating too from what I've heard. I never even looked at DS1 results 2 years ago - impossible to fathom so I filed them in the bin!

I'm planning a family gap year which will result in my kids missing their year 2 and year 6 SATs. All the teachers I know thinks it's an excellent idea!

Butch, the primary will be assessed on how much progress from y2 sat as well. There's a lot of ways to manipulate the data.

I was dragged into my son's secondary school because they had concerns he was not working to his target grades ( derived from his SATS results. He was behind in Art and PE-where he was targetted As and only achieving C/D's. When I asked how these grades were generated because SATS didn't cover these subjects I was told that ALL subjects are set grades based on English, maths and science ( this was a while ago when science SATS were included. )

I had to explain that he was very unlikely ever to achieve As in Art and PE as he had severe dyspraxia. PE was a particular problem because he also has Aspergers and was pretty poor at teamwork!

I found y6 recently to be massively about sats coaching - breakfast club, after school club, all lessons geared to it, nil teaching after it as 'reward' - yes they made it fun, but it was in THEIR interests, not particularly the child. Each level/band (whatever they are now) scraped into is better for the school, mainly irrelevant to the child.
Setting for secondary school could easily be as simple as low/middle/high checklist. It doesn't require sats.
I would love to see a campaign of opting out. I don't know what the options are to do it though, I'm afraid. Maybe only absence from school?

Grobags - what a brilliant idea! I wish we'd at least taken a nice term time cheap holiday when DS1 was in year 6 and DS2 in year 4 but I have always been so good about the rules. And now wouldn't dream of taking year 8 son out for even a day as he'd miss too much. Wasted opportunity!

We also had the 11plus in September which was a massive pain in the arse. so we were sick of exams before the year had started. Of course you're not supposed to prepare your kids for that but everybody does and private tutors do good business. Probably also inflates the SATs results as, although the curricula are prob different, maths is still maths. Both my kids learned more about maths outside school than they did inside. But that's another matter ...

Year 6 was hard going for both my DS, particularly DS2 who did the new tests two years ago. They were also 'set' on their SATS results. Interestingly there has been very little movement between sets with their peers over the years despite constant re-testing, and now, a few years in, those DC who performed best in SATS seem to continue to perform highest in secondary.
SATS are a measure of the primary school, but rightly or wrongly, their results do set academic expectations for the next several years.

They could probably do a lot less pushing and still get good enough results. Don't have to strive for best. What's enough to not be frowned on?

The problem is they'd then be a 'coasting' school according to ofsted and wouldn't achieve the outstanding rating their reputation depends on.

Ds was concerned about them, only because of the school pressure... he excelled, was retested with less stress in Comp, and excelled also.

We told him not to worry, SATS are for the schoo not him, he done better in Comp, as I think they were less pressurised.

I can confirm that they use Y6 sat results to set predicted grades in all subjects for gcse. It was my dd's (Y8) parents' evening last week. She got good sat results so most of the evening teachers' were basically apologising for her high targets. In fact, the Art teacher spent ten minutes telling us how stupid it was that my dd was supposed to be hitting gcse grade 5 in Y8 because she did well at maths and English at the end of ks2. Music likewise. Dd is really not artistically gifted and is tone-deaf!
The child's secondary trajectory is set by ks2 says. The cynic in me says that the school only has to get the child to the gcse level predicted by sats and so, with dwindling resources, will push the children to this level and not beyond.

My dd didn't do SATS and there's no difference tbh.
The school she goes to do their own baseline tests that have nothing to do with SATS. others in her school who did do them found their results weren't used for anything.
She has no targets for GCSE and i love this as feel they do much better without them.

^agreed. Best to do as well as you can whether you agree with SATS in principle or not. IME it's constant testing from year 7 onwards anyway.

Agreed with Khara that is!

None of the schools ds and friends go to (about 5 schools) paid much attention to sats. Ds is in year 7 and up til Christmas all classes were mixed ability. They are just starting to stream for some subjects based on the first term and some tests. Nothing to do with sats

What happened to just encouraging your children and telling them to do their best.
They also blossom at different ages with varying subjects.
They can't predict targets let alone results from KS2 it's just a lazy system, I don't blame the poor teachers who have no choice in the system.

Other parents judge schools on SATS. The ones who aren’t there yet.

We had a meeting this evening at the school about SATS. The teachers were very clear that the SATS were important for the school rather than pupils and did everything they could to try and take the pressure off the kids.

I have talked to my eleven year old and we are looking at making this a test run. It doesn't matter if he gets it wrong. What we do is have a look at what is working and what isn't in the run up for the tests and take it as a practice for what works when it comes up to tests later on and GCSEs.

My primary school education was abysmal. I mean, barely taught basic literacy and numeracy, so that in the Yr 6 equivalent I was covering stuff that ds covered in Yr 1. I wish I was exaggerating. Fortunately my parents taught me to read, use numbers and gave me access to books, otherwise I would have been truly stuffed. Testing would have exposed the faults and perhaps given me and my classmates a fairer shout, but not testing like it is now. There has to be a sensible way of keeping standards without putting the kids and their teachers through this.

Sarahjconnor: sounds similar to our situation. The grammar DS is going tonhas a very broad intake and lots of kids from private prep schools. Whom I've just realised prob won't have done SATS. How did you go about removing your child from the SATS and what reason did you give?

Ohforfox: so true. I've come across anxious posts on local FB pages from prospective parents. Told them that a lower scoring school may well be a happier and healthier place and to take it with a pinch of salt, along with Ofsted reports

Testing a 7yr old is silly. I suspect my DD will be I’ll that day....