SATs - aibu to opt out, withdraw child from testing?

[MrsOprah]

I did my SATs 20 years ago. Think they were a fairly new concept in the 90s(?) They were fine, scored well, no pressure really was bright child and did extended papers too.
Was described as a way to know where to level kids, results were used by secondary school to decided if you'd be in top-mid-low set for maths, sci, eng.
Obv longer term it has no affect on earnings potential, not put on cv or uni application, so minor benefits had as the test taker.

Nowadays, they seem to be a HUGE deal. Masses of pressure, painted as important! All for schools benefit. Not for kids well being. On that basis, WIBU to ask/decline for my child to sit the tests?

years ago dd was feeling the pressure over sats. I let the head and her class teacher know that if I felt there was too much pressure I would withdraw dd for that week for her mental health and suggest to the parents of the other most able kids that they should do the same (thus screwing their results)

Sats in England seem to have got worse and worse. So long as parents are prepared to tolerate them and teachers are prepared to administer them it won't change.

Given most people think they're utterly shit, why can't we do something about it? I would dearly love to see a boycott. By parents and teachers and kids. My feel proud that my son's class had a petition going (for all the good it did them) as they had more balls than any of the parents who moan at the school gate and then do nothing. I want a revolution, I really do. I was wondering what would happen if tomorrow all the kids downed tools and refused to write a word. Wouldn't that be something?

Did you look at Ofsted gradings when choosing a school?
Without a decent % of children achieving expected levels, a school will be deemed RI or inadequate.
This pressure may come from schools but is caused by parents and the government pitting schools against each other.

Do it. Pull them out. They are damaging and pointless. Lots of campaigns going to get rid of them with lots of good info. Letkidsbekids is a good start if you want to have a look.

Teachers have been saying for decades that Sats are rubbish but nobody listens or cares.

They were boycotted by some head teachers as part of industrial action 7 maybe 8 years ago (?) Very little impact and the schools in question were accused of putting politics/personal belief /whatever before the needs of children.

You're right - it was 2010.

A third of schools took part - up to half in inner cities. There was v little parental support. (Quite a bit on MN though.)

Thanks, just reading through replies.
Can you really not withdraw your child from testing??!! :O :O

My Year 2 DD is extremely stressed over SATS. To the point she’s crying in the middle of the night about them. So are others in her class. She’s 7. 7 and crying over tests.

Nuka That's awful! My y2 child doesn't even know she's doing / done SATs, why would a school do it any other way?

No, you can't. The school can tell your child, "Sit there, do this test." It's the same as any other assessment; it is not at your discretion.

What confuses me is why you would have your child in school for the whole academic year under all the SATS pressure, then try to withdraw at the end. What's the point?

MrsOprah No you really can't and I agree with pp that the bigger issue is the run up to the tests.

My DS(11) is in Y6 and doing SATS this week, last week he did mocks.

We’ve bought him no revision books, briefly discussed that all we ask is that he tries his Best Buy if at any point he feels worried/dressed then he’s to come and tell us. We refuse to put pressure on him and have him worrying about it.

One family have taken their DS out of school in protest, but I don’t know their reasons exactly.

I think there is enough worry and stress in life without piling it on them at 11 years old.

Best Buy = best, but

Nuka in year 2 they really shouldn't be aware they are doing them so that would concern me a great deal.

few follow ups - my child is academically capable, naturally over achieves in english. maths needs some work, but is good atm.

the point isnt to withdraw everytime there's an assessment. ie secondary school assessments mean something long term, gcses, alevels are used by uni and employers. sats arent, we're piling them on kids for the school's league table benefits. Our primary focus should be our children, not the school.

@soapbox if the MP said you can withdraw then you'd have more options than you listed. ie. withdrawing but staying in school and not getting fined.

however, many many excellent points and replies. ie. its a year/term long process, withdrawing for sats week might not be the answer.

We had the SATs a couple of years ago, first year of the new ones. We planned a treat for every day after school - ice cream, the park and stuff that was fun but not expensive - and made it as relaxing as possibly.
My son said it was the best week ever

He did no preparation at home and didn't do the SATs books that the school sent home and we kept it as low key as possible, he knew it was just a performance measure for the school.

I'd be wary of pulling your child out as they do use them at secondary school for setting and GCSE predictions. No idea how accurate it is overall but my daughter's GCSE results were accurately predicted based on her SATs.

Which MP said you can take them in but not have them sit the test?

Even that parent group that actively promotes boycotting them, take their children out for the day to do 'fun educational activities' and promote children being online and in contact with other children so they can't sit them when they get back to school.

I'm going to say a word in favour of SATS (please, nobody recommend the MN firing squad).

They are not for the benefit of the school. They are for the benefit of the children. If there was no external testing at KS2, there would be no objective way of judging the real effectiveness of a school's teaching of the fundamentals. Would you want to send your child to a school based purely on an Ofsted rating? I wouldn't.

The SATS are the method by which schools are held to account for effective teaching and learning.

I'm not saying they're not problematic, but to say they are 'for the benefit of the school' is absurd.

Peng I know SATs are supposed to be a measure of the quality of teaching and learning but they really don't do that in any demonstrable way.

The only use as far as I'm concerned is getting a measure of the school ethos by gaging their attitude towards them. Often though that attitude is not one a parent would get to see.

(@soapbox I'll ask school today, see what they say. mostly as a curiosity Q. Perhaps our school is more flexible than yours. ie. Atm Kids withdrawn at parents discretion, for certain agenda items, don't have to be taken out of school here. eg religious studies, swimming etc)

soapboxqueen

I don't agree that they don't measure the quality of teaching and learning at all. I would expect to see a correlation between Value Added and high quality teaching, even accounting for how much coaching goes on.

I do agree that the practices we see - restricted curricula, excessive papers sent home, extra lessons - are harmful and skew rather than enhance the picture offered.

In my opinion, schools should be heavily penalised by Ofsted for doing anything other than their usual teaching of Y6 students.

@peng no firing squad. welcome balanced ideas and opinions :)

Not all schools obsess about and devote the whole of Y6 to SATS. They were fairly low key at my DC's school and neither of them nor any of their friends got remotely stressed about them.

Whilst accepting that not all parents have a genuine school choice, it is possible for at least some parents to opt not to send their DC to SATS factories.

However, the primary education school threads are full of parents wanting to avoid the school with "not so good as the other local schools" SATS results by hook or by crook. I always wonder if these are the same parents moaning about SATS overload in Y6.

Why would you make your child do a year's load of work towards SATS and then not do the actual exams?

You say your child is academically capable, so they'll probably do well, and that'll show them that exams really aren't anything to worry about - if you work hard throughout the year, then you'll do fine.

That's a lesson that will stand him/her in good stead throughout secondary school, as they have end of year exams in all subjects there, shock horror.

You'd be depriving him of the feeling of reward for his work throughout the year, and teaching him a lesson that if something is going to be a bit stressful, it's ok to sit it out rather than face it head on.

Your kid can handle it. Just take them for a nice treat each evening, don't do too much extra work at home, and you don't even have to tell them their results of you don't want them to know.

*if