Am I being unreasonable to think the teacher might be cheating in SATs

[mummybean84]

Our DS is currently sitting his SATs. He came home the first day and said the teacher when reading out the spelling list was pronouncing the silent letters, as an example saying something like “spell Thumb…. Th um b” and with words with double letters “spell Letter Let ter” (These are just examples not the actual words). And was confusing them by saying the words funny to hint at the spelling. Then in the English exam was walking around saying “theres something missing at the end of that sentence and you won’t get a point” when there was no full stop. He also told a pupil they had a maths answer wrong yesterday looking over their shoulder so they went back and checked the sum. Is this just normal is SATs? Or would you count it as cheating?

I should probably add this is the KS2 SATS in year 6

It happens. My son told me he had quite a bit of help during his SATS - called in during lunchtime to amend some answers!

It is cheating, but it definitely happens. My eldest is in year 10 now, but I remember her saying similar when she took the SATS except it was the deputy head in her case.

Cheating and something many probably feel under pressure to do since results will show a drop following covid. I would be tempted to have a quiet word with head without asking her or him to take any action, just “thought you might want to know what I’m hearing.” The head may be aware/encouraging this approach - unfortunately SATS results are a key tool in school PR and keeping full class sizes. Hopefully your head will be shocked and take appropriate action.

Pointless name change fail, op.

You’ve lost me? Do you mean it won’t help with anonymity?

Yes it’s cheating.

Happens all the time, my DDs are 21 now and the deputy head sat with those who were struggling and told them the answers.

one Of our teachers was reading out the mental arithmetic exam question and going “Is the answer A , B, C 500 or D? 🤣 also teachers pointing at wrong answers as they passed by

Cheating. My DD is also sitting KS2 SATs and she said that one of her classmates tried to ask a question, and was told that nobody could help and the child had to just do their best. DD would have told me (with righteous indignation!) if spellings had been read out in a 'leading' way as well.

Hopefully someone will respond who can advise you what to do about it. I have a feeling that if you report it formally, that school's results will be declared void, which would obviously be bad for those children, including your own. However, if you do nothing they will probably do the same next year, and as their cheating will have a positive impact on their results compared with other schools (and pupils' over-inflated results might put them under pressure in secondary), if I were in your position I would feel I had to report it.

I don't think a 'quiet word' with the Head would be a good idea though, as it's too late for any change in their process this year (as the last test is being held today) and it might turn tricky/nasty without any actual outcome. In any case, in my DD's school, the Head has been present in all the SATs - you might want to ask your DC to find out if senior management was present at theirs.

Sats mean fuck all anyway for the student and everything for the school. I couldn't get het up about this. Leave them be and get the kids to get them all over and done with.

Yes it's cheating. I've worked in 5-6 schools whilst SATS being undertaken and no school I've worked in would have dreamt of doing this. You need to have a word (bit late now as they're finished but it needs to be noted)

And for those saying SATS mean F all for the pupil - sadly that's not true.

Just goes to show what a pointless waste of time SATs are. The system needs changing. I worked for a headteacher who actually took papers home and amended them. She was fired, but it still happens. SATs don't give a true assessment at all.

What do SATs mean for pupils @CoastalWave ?

This happened when my daughter did her SATs by the headteacher.

Cheating but not uncommon. This is how the UK is now, and it's shameful.

What do they mean for the student?

If you mean sets in secondary then that is bullshit in the main, the majority of schools do CATs or don't set them straight away.

If you mean progress 8 scores, again they mean nothing for the student and everything for the secondary school.

My son is currently sitting his SATS and they’ve all been told to do their best with no additional help. It is cheating and the teacher is clearly breaking the rules, all this is doing is affecting children that are potentially struggling and may not get the support they need in secondary, I’d report this without a doubt. It’s the children that it will impact the most.

If they do this with the SATs, it's easy to see what happened to the GCSE and A level results.

This happens and it's very unfair on the schools that do things properly. Remember this if you look at SATs results when you're comparing schools.

Yes, that's cheating. Please, please do complain to the school, in writing, and copy in the STA.

I know no-one wants to be that person but stuff like this harms everybodies education. he isn't helping the kids, he's harming their learning.

P.S. I've been in a similar position, as a teacher and the colleague who cheated in a more extreme way no longer works in education and is happier for it. This bloke either needs to learn a hard lesson or do another job.

It's the right outcome for everyone.

Definitely happens - a head teacher at a school near us was sacked a and subsequently banned from teaching for 'boosting' SAT's papers to maintain the schools 'ourtstanding' rating. He tried to blame other staff when it was investigated. Many years ago as a student I was one of a room full of people who checked results for an exam board - basically making sure all marks had been correctly transferred to the front sheet, percentages correctly calculated etc. I personally came accross 4 sets of papers where it looked pretty obvious that someone had corrected/added to the students work. Potentially the whole set of papers would have been cancelled.

I couldn’t get worked up over this, Sats are a waste of time anyway!

Wow. Yes, obviously cheating. Not happening in dds school as far as I know.

Yes it's cheating.

It won't benefit the children to be made to seem more capable than they are, and it falsely makes the school look good. I'd report it.