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Original poster

to not want my six year old to be thinking about SATS?

26 replies

DrSeuss · 22/04/2018 08:51

Her homework this week is a past paper. In Y2. Not even a "it's a SATS paper but lets pretend it's just some fun questions for homework." It's marked clearly as a SATS paper. She is now talking about the upcoming tests and saying that she hopes they won't coincide with her birthday.

I was a teacher, now I'm a TA. I totally understand why the teacher is doing this, it's a simple case of self preservation for her and the school. But I still hate it. :(

OP posts:
Dljlr · 22/04/2018 09:07

My mum was a head teacher. She always told me and my sister that sats are a test of the school, not of us, and not to worry about them. Good advice. Just let your DD know that.

freegazelle · 22/04/2018 09:27

homework at 6? Sad

Original poster
DrSeuss · 22/04/2018 09:33

Homework since Reception. That's not my problem.

OP posts:
TeenTimesTwo · 22/04/2018 09:35

For y2 I would go into clear downplaying:
"Yes, later in the term you have to do some special work which is called SATs. it is so people can see how well the school is teaching you. This work at home is just so you see how it will be laid out. If it happens to be on your birthday then it will be fun to do something different that day".

DD2 did them before they were so formal. All they were told is they were doing some special work. We and the school never mentioned 'SATs' and I'm not sure to this day (she is now 13) she knows she sat them.

sarararararah · 22/04/2018 09:36

I’m a Y2 teacher. No way will I be sending home a SATs paper. We haven’t even mentioned them. We won’t be either.

Exhaustedpidgeon · 22/04/2018 09:37

My DS is in Y2. I mentioned SATs yesterday and he didn’t even know what I was talking about. Yes they are doing lots of practice at the moment but it’s in workbooklet form not past papers! I told him it’s a test of the teacher too.

roseyposeyshmosey · 22/04/2018 09:39

dds teacher held a meeting for parents last week about them. she's downplaying them to the kids but has sent home one sheet of paper this week with test style questions.

she's encouraged us to downplay them too and I did feel a lot better after the meeting as I was worried about my dd.

surely they can come up with a better way of testing the teachers without putting 6yr olds through these?

justabunchofbunting · 22/04/2018 09:39

It is really sad and ive actually been considering home schooling because of this. I didnt even have all these tests when I was at achool but have suffered with anxiety all my life due to the ones I did have! Which makes me really worried about the effect of these extra ones on my children.
Luckily my sons school seems a very relaxed place. Its very small and they dont seem to be putting too much focus on these tests. My sons not old enough to be sitting one yet but he will be soon so I am keeping an eye on it all.

I think the best you can do is be very relaxed about it at home. Just encourage if they seem naturally enthusiastic and happy to be doing them. And if they seem anxious then completely down play them.

No one should be anxious at 6 about bloody exams its disgusting and damaging.

But I think the attitude at home does wonders. Encourage them to engage with what they seem enthusiastic about, and to do their best. But stress that in the grand scheme of things they really need not worry and its no long term indicator of their intelligence or worth.

Mousefunky · 22/04/2018 09:43

They play them down massively to an extent they don’t have a clue they’re called SATS. My DS did them last year and he just thought he was filling in work booklets. They also spread them across a few days so they didn’t have to sit and do an entire booklet in one shot. I still don’t agree with them but I think the teachers are handling them best they can.

Year 6 SATS were horrendous. I remember the pressure put upon us. We got a fun week afterwards where we visited lots of places and went to the cinema but the actual pressure on us prior to them was awful. I don’t think primary school children should be put through it.

freegazelle · 22/04/2018 09:46

jesus, a lot has changed in 20 years!

DandelionAndBedrock · 22/04/2018 09:48

It's all very well saying teachers don't mention them in class, but we find we have to talk about them (to downplay them, obviously) because the children have siblings and cousins who feed them horror stories about y6 sats and then say things like "you know you have sats soon, too?". Then the playground rumour mill kicks in and you need to do serious damage control. I suppose it depends on your class.

saison4 · 22/04/2018 09:49

one of mine is in y2. thankfully school don't stress too much about Sats and don't feed it as such down the DC (they just know they will have some minor tests). We don't talk about it at home at all DD. I totally disagree with the whole Sats things and I made it clear to DD that we won't be stressing about it at all. School is one thing when it comes to building up the Sats stress but home also plays a role. Just chill out about it and pass this on to your DD instead of stressing about it all!

Allyg1185 · 22/04/2018 09:51

I'm in Scotland and I'm not for one minute saying Curriculum for Excellence doesn't have its faults because it does but I feel sorry for English kids and all the pressure they seem to be under.

My ds (6) is in p2 and gets a wee bit of homework a week. At the moment hes been getting a sheet of time. 9 clock faces and got to add the hands or read the hands, digital to analogue etc others have been making a sentence with a certain word in it. Usually 4 sentences and a reading book. This is doable while still allowing him to be a child and come home and play not worry about school work

arethereanyleftatall · 22/04/2018 09:53

That's a shame. At our school, the children don't know they're doing tests at all, no pressure whatsoever, which is lovely.

Katyb1310 · 22/04/2018 09:54

In my DD's school they didn't tell the children or the parents when they were happening. They didn't want anyone getting stressed or any parents putting pressure on. Some days my DD came home and said they'd done some "special work" but that was all we knew about it and I think that's the best way.

arethereanyleftatall · 22/04/2018 10:00

The media always talk about 'poor 6 yr olds being under pressure.' My own actual experience is that I don't know a single year 2 child who knows they're doing exams at all, no stress required. It just seems to be parents, like a few above, scaremongering.

If you've decided to be all dramatic about it with your old child, firstly by introducing it, then secondly by banging on to them not to worry; please don't mention it to other children.
When my eldest was in y2, she was oblivious, until another parent said to her 'how are you finding your sats tests?' Grrr.

arethereanyleftatall · 22/04/2018 10:00

*own not old

Nectarines · 22/04/2018 10:01

At the end of KS1, teachers have to submit data. The judgements made on a child’s level of attainment are made through teacher assessment.

Teacher assessment takes into account all of the children’s class work and a range of evidence. One piece of that evidence is the test papers.

If a child has performed uncharacteristically poorly in the test, it just means that the teacher will have to use other evidence to show their attainment.

I moderate KS1 teacher assessment for the local authority and the tests are only a small part of the evidence base we consider so they are absolutely not worth worrying about.

sothisisspring · 22/04/2018 10:05

I am beyond annoyed about the set up of the SATS papers - particularly how a child with bad spelling will fail the maths paper even if they are good at maths! But anyway. My sons's school doesn't use words test or SATS to the kids and tells parents not to. They try and keep the kids fairly oblivious which is good. Although they tried to do that with the phonics test and DS still knew he had failed a practise test so it doesn't always work.

Exhaustedpidgeon · 22/04/2018 10:47

@arethereanyleftatall I put my foot in it mentioning it to DS. We are getting so much info out of school about the SATs at the moment I assumed they’d also been mentioned to the kids. Oops! So my best back track was to shrug it off with it’s just a test of the teachers!! I won’t be making that mistake again.

arethereanyleftatall · 22/04/2018 12:47

That's interesting pigeon. Our school is totally different. The first we heard was where they asked us to a 5 min meeting before pick/up. They said 'we're doing sats on x date, don't worry about it, we're not telling children, nothing to do at home, just same stuff we do every day'. And that was it. Perfect!

Exhaustedpidgeon · 22/04/2018 16:01

We’ve had no meetings at all. Just stuff in their books including, this term, weekly practice booklets

Alexindisguise · 22/04/2018 16:07

My y2 ds says that school isn't fun anymore as they keep having to sit in rooms by themselves to practice answering questions Sad. He has also developed a tic, which may well be related.

I have a meeting with the head this week.

Witchend · 22/04/2018 16:27

To offer a different prospective:

DS is year 6. He tells me Sats week is going to be the best week of the year. That's despite having a week residential too. He loved doing sats in year 2 too.
He loved the mock sats week too.

He doesn't really care about the results which helps.

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