SATs aren't fit for purpose.
The pressures on head teachers and therefore teachers, to pull ever-improving SATs results out of the bag, have always been immense, even now, despite coming straight out of a pandemic. I've sat in so many meetings with local authority advisers and school improvement officers (all schools, irrespective of grading, have them) where head teachers have been baldly told to 'sort it', if realistically predicted expected combined results are not looking as good as LA adviser or SIO would like. There is always implied pressure to build on previous success, and not to 'coast', 'be caught napping' or 'rest on one's laurels'. It's so silly, as this becomes completely arbitrary. If heads stand their ground and hold firm that a particular cohort will not perform as well as advisers would like, what is on the table is further pressure on leadership, staff and pupils through increased scrutiny masquerading as support, not actual funding or bodies on the ground.
My current school has always barely scraped through, yet most of our pupils start Reception with little or no English, a huge % of Pupil Premium, chaotic lives, high numbers of pupil absence and EW referrals, a higher than average instance of SEN, higher than average involvement of outside agencies in families' lives, many looked after children and pupils from refugee families. We are SO proud of our pupils' achievements. Our teachers bust a gut every day for both our pupils and their families, and the children's progress over time is incredible. But the SATs don't reflect this. Since Christmas, Y6 teachers in our cluster of similar schools have been offering out of hours Zoom tuition and SATs revision on evenings and weekends for groups and individual pupils, after school SATs revision clubs 5 days per week, half term and holiday SATs revision clubs, you name it. A huge amount of pressure and additional workload for no remuneration. It's just expected.
Meanwhile, at my DCs' leafy suburban primary, the pressures are different but equally intense. As there are no apparent barriers to continuously improved results, the stakes are incredibly high and the HT and staff are compelled to evidence ever increasing examples of GD.
Nobody wins, but please don't think that cheating in SATs arises as a result of preening head teachers trying to 'look good'. These are bullied, harassed professional leaders who feel at the end of their tethers and are desperate to shield their hardworking staff and pupils from the stress and unmanageable workload that accompanies a demoralising local authority intervention.