To not understand the point of SATS?

[SweetSakura]

I'm lucky I guess, DS has tended to do very well on past papers etc so has been quite relaxed about them. But he has been bemused by the fact teachers /TAs have been going round giving a lot of help with answering the questions!
In two cases he said the TA definitely got it wrong as well. (his friend from another school, also very able was over and agreed with DS about the question and the correct answer )

Surely they are pointless if this happens in some schools (DS friend didn't see it happen in his school to be fair)

On the whole....they are pointless. It's for the league tables. Which in themselves are nonsense.
No benefit to the actual children.

DD is in Yr2 & doing her SATs atm (obviously not quite the same as the Yr6s). Her teacher is livid that they're having to do them & apparently they (gov't) aren't giving any leeway due to Covid/lockdowns etc.
Essentially they want to know how badly effected these children have been by the past 2 years of disruption. Which I imagine will then be used as a stick to beat schools & teachers with - but maybe I'm too cynical?

You need to contact the LA and inform them of maladministration.

For context, a school local to me were found guilty of this, the head resigned and all results were null and void.

SATs are a crap indicator and narrow the curriculum, however it’s not normal or common for schools to cheat. Teaching staff can’t even discuss question content until June.

DS is doing these at the moment, it's not how I remember it in the early 90s when we were just bundled into the hall one morning. I remember my teacher saying the head didn't like us all worrying about the "exam".
DS was in tears as he'd had a TA sitting with him, chivvying him on when he'd not finished the question he was already working on. I assumed the TA was there as he struggles with writing, but he found their presence/help just made it worse. There have been weeks of practice tests and all sorts, it sounds horrible for everyone.

It just seems mad that in reality the league tables then just represent how prepared school staff are to bend the rules

There should be no help at all. Adults can read questions in maths and spag and explain context like where to put the answer but nothing else. Sounds like maladministration and is very unfair on the schools doing things correctly.
The point if SAT is supposed to be to ensure childrn go up to secondary with a standard level of literacy and maths. They are all about school accountability, OFSTED use them to judge schools and can end up narrowing the curriculum becuase a school will get in to trouble if their results are poor.

Cheating really isn't normal, every school I've ever worked at has stuck rigidly to the rules and the people I trained with have the same experience.
You need to report the school if this is what happened today and not in the practise sessions.
Tas are allowed to read the questions without emphasis as long as they follow the rules in the paper(eg not reading formatted words or substituting words or rewording them) schools are very strict on this as they have to be. All staff are trained in what they can and can't do.
Today was maths, so a reader would've helped those who are gifted mathematicians yet struggle with reading enormously, although only the reasoning paper as the arithmetic one is so straight forward a reader only makes sense for pacing.
Readers really help many children achieve their true potential if used effectively, but what you describe is cheating, not reading.
And yes, sats are basically a stick to beat schools and teachers with and a tool to justify the micromanaging of teachers.
Most secondaries still assess year seven anyway, but as the sats are the first tests children come across I wouldn't want them being unprepared and being put off tests for life. Unfortunately, because they are used to measure the success of the school the teachers need to get the children to do well and some respond badly to the pressure.
It's not fair on the kids, the children or the parents who (falsely) base their assessment of a school on results.
But we're stuck with them until people start valuing teachers and teacher assessment.

Teachers are allowed to read questions in maths and in the grammar. They can explain some vocabulary used in the questions. This could well be what is being described as helping. The answers are not discussed until after this week as a child could take the test late.

They can explain some vocabulary used in the questions
Depends on the paper, explaining adjectives as describing words in the spag one for example would definitely be cheating.

Examples include telling them what parts to multiply with each other when working with fractions (my son explained it far more clearly) and telling a child that a quarter of 60 was 20 (my son found this hysterically funny!)

SATs are a way to generate data out of children to breed more data through secondary school based on false assumptions that children are equations not humans with lives.

This data is then used to beat teachers with because the targets are unrealistic. If the little humans don't perform adequately acording to the equations, then the jobs of teaching staff are on the line/ academy takeovers.

It's nothing to do with quality learning.

I've not done any revision with DS1 who has SENs because if he does too well now, he'll cop the consequences with unrealistic GCSE targets. Just because he's had SPAG drummed into him in y5 & 6, it doesn't mean that he'd match the corresponding target grade in MFL in 5 years time.

I don't object to a low-key standardised, comparable assessment, but it should be about supporting struggling schools, not a battle of political survival resulting in heavy coaching for 2 years.

Definitely cheating. Report.
It may be a rogue ta, it may be a schoolwide issue(the fact they were giving incorrect advice makes me think the ta was doing it rogue, any school cheating would at least want the HUGE risk to pay off.

I vaguely remember them being introduced in the mid 80s? I was at primary school and some sort of official exercise took place. Then afterwards (days or weeks later?) we were gathered in the school hall to be told that what took place was a complete flop and to forget it ever took place.

If that happened during the test today and not in revision sessions before hand them thatbis cheating and would be a serious problem for the school. I'd ypu report it the local authority would have to investigate. All pupils results would be voided and they would get 0. It will have a negative impact on the teachers and head as the investigation takes months and depending on outcome could cause people to loose their jobs

My suspension is that it wasn't a rogue TA. He heard chatter from friends in other classrooms of similar happening. But surely at least one of the teachers should have called the others out for doing this?

They seemed to have peeled the children off into ability groups as well to do the tests, with the most able children going first.... (My son's assesment but by year 6 they are all pretty aware of this)

I mean, OP's example strongly suggests maladministration, but some of the responses on here are plainly wrong. You are allowed to paraphrase the questions, and you can explain certain words - I believe the very example given in one of the papers I proctored this week, was that in the direction 'insert brackets into the following sentence . . . ' you can't tell them what 'brackets' means, but you can explain 'insert'.

That is not normal. But yes they’re pointless.

Yes you can Google access arrangements if you want to see what is allowed. You can rephrase instructions just not explain the assessed parts.

Agree that you can paraphrase questions hence saying you can explain some vocabulary. You can't explain subject specific words so you can't tell a child what a semi colon is or what it is for but you could tell them the question is asking them to place it in the right place. Most schools have two members of staff in each class to evidence that the rules are followed. What is also true is that if a child asks is this right you cannot tell them if it is right or wrong.

I am a year 6 teacher and feel very strongly that SATs should not have happened this year and certainly not this week. We have had to rush through the curriculum, especially in maths, which has been so unfair on children who need to catch up and spend a little longer on areas they missed during lockdown.

However staff cheating is not acceptable in any test and sends the wrong messages to children. The results are not even going to be published this year so I'm not sure why they would do this. There are very tight statutory regulations in administering the tests.

Often groups for SATS are ability groups as some kids might be entitled to extra time or have been taught in ability groups for year 6 so they stay with adults they know. They need to be spread out so are often in a variety of rooms around the school as well as classrooms. The instructions are clear abiut levels of support /help and do not include subject level info.

Definitely today, not practice sessions! DS is very switched on and will have just breezed through the papers which is why he had time to pay attention to what was going on around him

But surely one of the staff would have spoken up?!

To monitor the effectiveness of the school

Well it certainly sounds like a severe case of Chinese Whispers with bells on!
‘He said, she said’.

It’s rigidly controlled with spot checks, training and administration. You weren’t even there for goodness sake! Get back behind your curtain.

I can see another child describing my DD as "cheating".... she has had extra time and a scribe in one paper.