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?

The fact your DS is telling you this shows he feels it is out of the ordinary and probably knows it us wrong. Even if SAT'S mean 'nothing' for the children, I think your sons feelings should be validated.

As a teacher who was made ill with stress of SAT'S (under a Head who wouldn't have countenanced cheating for 1 second) I can't believe the 'who cares' attitudes of some on this thread. Correcting answers is out and out cheating and should be reported. Doing so in a room full of savvy 11 year olds is mind blowing and speaks to the culture of the school. I'd go to the governors myself.

They aren't a waste of time.

There is a need for objective accountability in teaching.

I do sympathise with teachers. At the root of the problem is government failing to recognise a) not all children have the capacity, academically, to make equal rates of progress b) there are many many factors affecting a child's progress that are not within a teachers control.

However that doesnt mean we can't try and asses how well children progress, objectively. Over time you should see trends, a teacher who moves round more than one school/yeargroup etc and never manages to have pupils making decent progress, needs support to improve. Teachers who achieve excellent progress regardless of intake should be encouraged to share their best practices and help others improve, & should be rewarded for their achievement.

This 100% although it does make some school look better than others. SATs should be scrapped.

My grandson, now in year 8, didn't do SATs because of lockdown. Has it affected him negatively in any way - no it hasn't.

I mean the cheating aspect makes some schools look better than others. Schools with a deprived intake could be working really hard for the children's benefit but still come low down in League Tables. It's all a nonsense.

In my DDs school my DD was sent to the head to take her SATS with three others. The head looked over their answers and told her to have 'another look' at some of the questions she'd obviously got wrong. That head wanted the best SATs results in the borough - he was a knob!

Also everyone says SATs mean nothing but in my daughters case she was streamed straight away in senior school on the basis of her SATs results and her estimated GCSE grades were also based on them - they do have an impact.

It’s cheating.
Serious offence. The teacher could be struck off.

It is cheating, but it was always inevitable when the government decided to bring in a high stakes testing culture based on a one size fits all model. So I don't actually care a great deal. Change the system to something that makes sense, don't froth about this.

And if she was in the wrong set she would be moved. Also estimated results mean nothing. Its the actual results. If your daughter had a bad day at the sats and got a 9 at gcse that's all good! Why do you think an estimated result would affect her? It's not her actual result. It is used for the progress 8 scores for the schools that's all.

It's not that straightforward at all. Several children in the hall will have different allowances, for many we are allowed to give different levels of assistance, rephrasing the questions, explaining words, help with the context and instructions. With the spelling test however they shouldn't overemphasise any part of the word. Unless yu are very sure the school is cheating I'd keep my nose out. At the end of the day we are putting 10 year olds under a ridiculous amount of pressure where many will end up with results that make them feel like a failure compared to their friends just so we can judge schools, they should be scrapped all together.

It's not that straightforward at all. Several children in the hall will have different allowances, for many we are allowed to give different levels of assistance, rephrasing the questions, explaining words, help with the context and instructions.

What OP describes doesn't sound remotely like special access arrangements.

It is absolutely cheating, it would never be tolerated in the school where I worked and should absolutely be reported! I'm a bit shocked that people think it doesn't matter.

www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-report-maladministration-at-key-stage-1-and-key-stage-2

Apart from anything else, it's going to leave those children with the impression that it is acceptable to cheat in exams.

Who cares? If the teacher is trying to help a few children improve their SATS scores I can't see the problem. I have never understood why people worry about SATS as they are fairly meaningless for the children as they are intended as a measure of how a class or school is performing rather than the individual.

I mean, they’re only 10/11 years old and SATs ultimately aren’t important so I can’t get worked up about this at all. Cheat away.

I feel really mean now. I never helped kids during SATs didn’t even give hints for spelling.😳Sorry to any kids I taught in Year 6, I obviously followed the instructions too literally.

Absolute rubbish, teacher move around year groups and therefore this sort of accountability is impossible, in year 6 we don't even really teach anything it's just all revision of how well its been taught in the previous year. Teachers are assessed on their pupils progress, the sats results in nearly all schools are used in this way so it wouldn't highlight any individual teacher failing these would show through your tracking, classroom observation, teacher assessment and paperwork which is linked to your capability. Sats are simply a government rod to beat schools with and force academisation

It absolutely does have an impact on the students later down the line. GCSE target grades are shared with students from Y9. Imagine how a child will feel consistently being told they aren’t meeting their targets throughout secondary school all because some adult in Y6 wanted to cheat the system and make the school/themselves look good.

Also, as a teacher of a core subject at secondary school, this kicks the can down the road for us. So we’re the ones having to explain why Johnny didn’t get a grade 9 when he got a level 6 (or 120) in his SATS (when he told us his teacher sat down and rubbed out wrong answers on his paper so he could try again!)

This is definitely cheating and shouldn't happen. As a school governor, I've often been into schools to observe SATS as an independent(ish) observer so that the school can say they have done things properly and had some scrutiny. The sorts of things you describe are detailed as not being allowed.
I would suggest you contact the Head and Governors and let them know what you've been told.

It's happened a my child's school too - I am in a quandary as to what to do - if you report can you do so anonymously? I'm really shocked that my child's school would do this.

A child at a school I know didn’t turn up for KS2 stats, turned out his mother, a HT in a neighbouring borough had somehow managed to add him onto her cohort ( he was assessed at level 5 across the board) . It became known as these things always do, the local advisors got involved and she lost her job. I know of at least three other head teachers who did similar things, all nice people, all currently not working as HTs, the pressure on them not to slip down the league is horrific and for some it is too much.

if you report can you do so anonymously?

The teacher shouldn't find out who reported them but if you want it to be a credible allegation then you need to put a name to it.

Excellent points.

She's gone all the way through and got her GCSE results and they did make a difference. Her senior school used a traffic light system on her reports, if she was achieving on the same trajectory as her SATs then she'd be given a green, nearly their amber and underachieving a red. She was moved around in sets but those traffic lights went all the way through and were the basis of the achievement trajectory she was supposed to follow.

I'm a yr6 Teacher & that's blatant cheating & is absolutely not permitted. Trouble is, the official moderators can't be in every test, in every school, so it undoubtedly goes on, up & down the country.

My teenage son’s target grade for English was a 3-4 (D-C) on his most recent mock paper, he was just a few marks of a grade 7 6-7 (B-A), in my opinion, they are grade markers but don’t always have a bearing on your overall GCSE grades.