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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

...to be pissed off that SATs test papers are being included in DS's homework already?

18 replies

LilyChantilly · 05/02/2018 21:22

SATs are still months off and his last 2 weeks of homework have included both reading/grammar/comprehension and maths test papers, with instructions to complete them in a set amount of time. This is on top of usual homework and I have heard (though not confirmed) that they will be coming home with these test papers all the way through to actual test time in May. With this second lot (longer and more difficult than first lot), DS has started suffering anxiety related stomach & chest pain, and insomnia. His teacher is usually amazing but she is very pushy with homework so this seems to be an extension of that. I am doing my best to reassure him but feel very angry that 4 months before the bloody tests take place he is already feeling under so much pressure!

I'm sorely tempted to say that I don't want him to sit the tests now when I get a chance to talk to his teacher but this is awkward as I work at the school (which in most other respects is absolutely lovely) in a non-teaching role and I am also going to apply for a TA job there when they advertise it in a few weeks. So I don't want to damage my chances of getting a job I would love or create bad feeling with DS's teacher but I also don't want him to have to take part in what seems to be a waste of his time and a huge cause of stress. Is it normal for schools to be so focused on Year 6 SATs so far in advance?

OP posts:

Biggles398 · 05/02/2018 21:50

My daughter has been doing the tests (but in school time) for the last couple of weeks. They did the same last year too (she's in a year 5 and 6 class)

thepatchworkcat · 05/02/2018 21:53

My school starts booster classes in October. The whole of year 6 is SATs focused I’m afraid. I don’t think you can opt for him not to do the tests, as far as I’m aware??...

Original poster

LilyChantilly · 05/02/2018 22:07

It just seems like such a waste of his last year in primary school! I know I can't officially 'opt out' of sending DS to school when the tests are happening but tempted to keep him off anyway. But I also know I probably won't. Just hate to see him so stressed when I know it's of so little value.

OP posts:

TeenTimesTwo · 05/02/2018 22:16

What would happen if you said he wasn't doing the homework?
Or only 1 paper every other week? You need to work on de-stressing him and if he needs to not do practice papers that's how it will have to be.

At this point they are only 3 months away, and some familiarisation with the papers will help. But not an excessive stressful amount.

Learning how to take tests is a skill in itself and useful for secondary when they have more assessments.

Did you choose the primary because of its good results?

thepatchworkcat · 05/02/2018 22:27

Keeping him off for the tests won’t help now though, they’d still make him do the prep wouldn’t they? You do have my sympathy. I don’t have any solutions really!

BrownTurkey · 05/02/2018 22:34

Ooh tricky. I would let them know about the anxiety symptoms and say that you are going to take mental health advice and cut down the homework load - specifically not do the test papers (you can quote me if you like ;) ) the only issue is he might get stressed not doing them iyswim? Feel he is getting behind (which he won't be). Can his Dad have the conversation with school?

Jessicabrassica · 05/02/2018 22:53

When she was in year 2, dd had spag homework every week from September plus one or two afternoons of practice papers from Christmas to May. It all felt remarkably low key though. It was just homework and what they did in the afternoons. No pressure, no big deal.

BarbarianMum · 05/02/2018 22:53

Just be glad that they've waited til Y6. Ds2 has just started bringing practice papers home and he's in Y5. His school hasn't done well in the SATs league tables in recent years and are now obsessed.

Myddognearlyatethedeliveryman · 05/02/2018 22:55

Dd has compulsory after school sats hour every Thursday. Tough if its not convenient for the family!

CappuccinoCake · 05/02/2018 22:56

I would not be doing an extra sats hour after school. It cannot be compulsory.

It is ridiculous what hoops schools are being made to jump through :(

TillyMint81 · 06/02/2018 00:05

My 11 year old has been doing mock gcse papers in high school. Seems to be a way of introducing them to the layout.

tillytrotter1 · 06/02/2018 00:11

Yet were there no league tables parents would be up in arms generally, no way of comparing schools etc. The fact that locally everyone has always known which were the better schools since time immemorial is irrelevant, SATs are an inevitable part of school life and schools are judged on them, jobs are at stake. You can't blame the schools for trying to put on as good a show as they can.

Greensleeves · 06/02/2018 00:19

YANBU it's a fucking sickness. I was fed up with it when my kids were in Y5 and Y6 and I'm fed up with it now. DS1 is in Y10 and it is nothing but exam technique, exam technique, exam technique. Formulaic, repetitive exercises, poring over markschemes, how to screw 3 marks out of a 3 mark question. The actual teaching has been sketchy at best, the teachers are so spooked about exam results and the changed format that the kids are having to make up their subject knowledge on their own time or with parents tutoring them, because virtually the whole of Y10 and Y11 is exam technique. It's crazy.

FudgeMallowDelight · 06/02/2018 09:53

Dd is doing practice Sats week this week and doing exams in the hall. They had practice Sats week last term too. It doesn't bother me as dd doesn't mind and will be used to it by the real thing. They do termly exams at the secondary school, so i guess it's an introduction to that. They do regular homework in year 6 which i guess will make sure they are drilled in the 3Rs begore high school.
Overall i feel they've had a rich primary school experience with clubs/ opportunities in music/sport/trips/topic days/visitors/responsibilities etc.
I won't be doing sats practice at home other than dd doing her homework as school is doing enough and you don't want them to end up with completely unrealistic targets at high school they can never achieve because they've been hothoused at primary

Original poster

LilyChantilly · 06/02/2018 12:48

Thanks for all the replies everyone, and apologies for late reply (only just had a chance to get back on here). In response to one question, DS goes to the small school in the village we live in so results didn't come into it. The school had and has a good local reputation. In some ways it's a relief to hear that what our school is doing with regards to SATs prep is not unusual and that there are schools which are far more driven. But of course that in itself is depressing. The tests almost seem designed to destroy any enthusiasm for reading, writing and maths, even in those children who have a strong interest in those subjects already. DS is very good in literacy subjects and started out with a high level of confidence in his ability to do well in the SATs tests in those subjects but the nature of some of the questions has seriously dented his confidence. Maths is not his strong subject, although when he is calm and relaxed he can do very well. The test papers so far have made him anxious and upset and have eroded his belief in his ability so have put him off the subject even more!

Anyway, as some have suggested, I will arrange a meeting with his teacher and say that I don't want him to bring any test papers home. With the prep they are doing at school, and with the regular homework he brings back, I believe this will be enough. The test needs to demonstrate his actual ability, not a false result based on months of intensive coaching. I do want to help the school and I don't want to upset his teacher, but I have to put my DS first.

OP posts:

Twofishfingers · 06/02/2018 12:52

my view is that they will be in secondary school next year and they have to be able to manage all sorts of feelings. There's a lot more expectation in secondary school. Sats are small beer compared to sec. school.

You need to work out a way to support him manage his anxiety now, by for example doing a small amount of work each night, skipping questions that he knows the answers to already, working only on the ones he struggles with and help him through it.

It will get worst so better start now.

niccyb · 06/02/2018 22:57

Unfortunately most schools do this. They usually start after the Christmas holidays. I think that the government targets that the schools have to meet are what drives them to start so early.
The problem is, that the high schools will put them into sets depending on the SATS tests. My daughters high school advised they did their own assessments but it turned out that was only a small bearing and the SATS results were the main contributors to which set grading.
I agree however that it does put pressure on a child and doesn’t seem fair. My own daughter became quite upset and stressed, her work began to suffer as a result.
In the end I told her it didn’t matter what she got and she actually did ok but probably would have done much better without all the pressure from the school.

Flapdoodles · 06/02/2018 23:11

DS has been bringing home Maths and Reading SATS papers since the later half of Year 5 (alternate weeks then) and now in Year 6 one of each, each week. At the school SATS meeting we were informed that they do this to give the children confidence; that the wording of questions all get repeated at some point and therefore by the children doing as many SATS papers as possible, on the actual test they are unlikely to have a type of question they have not seen before.

As a previous poster suggested, could you/someone sit with him while he answers the questions he knows and you help with the others. I believe the more familiar the child becomes with the layout/wording, the less stressful the actual SATS will be.

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