AIBU to at least consider pulling DS out of STATS

[JemimaPyjamas]

Firstly, I am posting here for traffic.

Secondly, of course I am going to discuss this with his teacher but I can’t at the moment as it’s the holidays!

DS is 11 in June and doing well at school (excellent in English, ok in Maths although he doesn’t find it easy or enjoy it like other subjects.) He’s become wound up and stressed and, long story short, it’s the prospect of STATS week.

The homework has ramped up as it’s now basically ‘revision’ and, briefly touching on it on parents evening his (excellent) teacher did say that ‘it’s for the school rather than the kids’ and they try and keep it ‘low key’ although I think that’s more on the actual week than to the build up.

A teacher friend in the secondary he’s going to in Sept said the children are assessed again there, I get the impression more informally, to determine what sets they go in and I am now wondering what the point of STATS, from the children’s perspective, actually is.

In the night I couldn’t sleep and found that some have taken their kids out and done other (constructive) things and I would be interested in hearing other views as I’m currently worried and also a bit clueless - I may be totally missing the point over why they are essential!

I don’t want to add loads more as typing on my phone (will be on my laptop in a bit) but we’ve tried some things to relax him about it but not loads so suggestions there are very welcome too. I’ve never taken him out before either. He’s not normally a stressy kid but I think he feels really pressured to the point where logic doesn’t work as well.

You will do your son no good if you make a Big Deal about this. Do as much or as little homework as he wants. Treat SATs week like any other. We can't avoid many things in life that were obliged to do, so it's best to get on with it without a fuss.

School will not agree so you will find yourself with unauthorised absence. There is a window in which they could get him to sit them alone if he is not in on the day of the tests. You could keep him off on one day to find him doing it a few days later.
He will still do all the work building up to the exams.

I think you don't need to do this. It is unnecessary and you are feeding his worry by reacting like this. Just tell him that all he needs to do is his best and that he does not need to worry. Ultimately doing tests is part of school life. Dealing with worry is an important part of building resilience. I think the current wave of children dealing with anxiety and school refusal may be in part because we tend to try and manage life to remove anything difficult from our kids. Yes we need yo help our kids be happy but dealing with life's ups and downs is part of growing up.

Truly, tests are a fact of life. And learning to deal with pressure and build up to them. He’s 11 not 5 and is able to learn this concept. I don’t mean this in a harsh way but more just to advise you reiterate that they don’t matter, try his best and they aren’t determining his university entrance so he mustn’t worry. It’s a nice gentle intro to testing and he will experience more of that as time goes on in senior school.

You need to stress to your child that the SATs tests are to test the school/teachers on how well the children have learned over the course of their time at the school. It's not in any way to test the children and they won't get into trouble if their marks aren't good. It's simply a way of showing if the school as a whole is working well at teaching the children. The scores are compared to how the children did in their Year 2 SATs, so it can be seen if the school has succeeded in teaching or if they haven't done so well.

Some secondaries use the SATs scores to predict how well the pupils will do at GCSE, which is daft imo as how good they are at maths or literacy has no bearing on how good they will be at biology or food tech. But they will also do their own tests anyway for a clearer picture.

I would really emphasise that a lot of parents and the children get worked up about the tests but it's silly to. I wouldn't take him out for the tests as it will help get him used to sitting them.

Don't pull him out of SATS, but maybe reduce the homework he is doing.
He's done all the hard work by now and doing SATs week is a bit of a rite of passage and the kids feel achievement once done.
Plus they are used for official target tracking (as that is what the school is measured on) in secondary. If bright but he under achieves at secondary they will notice/care less if he hasn't done Sats.

Taking him out won’t solve things. He’ll probably feel equally anxious that he’s not there to do it. You’d have to take him out for two weeks as if he came back the week after then he would still sit the SATs. He would miss lots of the the nice year 6 stuff afterwards.
He’s going to be in this situation again really soon at secondary as many school have formal assessments each year.
Can you use this as a leaning exercise? - get him to do a bit of prep, make light of them yourself, tell him to do his best but it’s not the end of the world.
In terms of the point of SATs my kids school has based all target GCsE grades on the SATS results. So my Dd who did well in SATs has higher targets and has been pushed more compared to my son who did averagely and is targeted to get average GCSEs.

Some secondaries use the SATs scores to predict how well the pupils will do at GCSE

This is the government system- Porgress 8 is measured from SATs to GCSE.

You cant really, he will just have to sit them when he returns to school, but YANBU to want to

just stop the homework , and all that stuff, and tell him the tests dont matter, cos they dont.

Good sats grades are of no advantage at all in secondary school

You’ll be doing him no favours at all in the long run. What next, pull out of mocks?

Are you passing your anxieties on to him?

It's much better for him to face his fear for unimportant tests, like SATs, than you help him avoid it and he refuses to attend a GCSE.

It's also good that he learns that everything he does isn't just for his benefit. His results will help the school focus on areas that help the students behind him, much as his predecessors did for him.

I think you run the risk of doing a lot more harm than good, by pulling him out.

I get it. My DD did her SATs las year and I felt the school put an unnecessary amount of pressure on her for a result which meant something to them but was ultimately meaningless to her as secondaries do their own baseline testing. However, I would never have contemplated pulling her out. We reassured her and told her to just do her best and played it down at home but ultimately I think it is good for children to be pushed outside their comfort zone sometimes and to feel some levels of anxiety as this is what builds their resilience. You don't want to set a precedent of every time your child feels anxious or stressed about something you will excuse them from it. What about in secondary school when they have to do assessments every half term in all of their subjects? Also, my DD did well and it was nice to celebrate that with her and her feel a real sense of achievement. They also did activities after the SATs at school which were fun and a reward for their hardwork. As I stated with, I do get it and my DD got really anxious but she did it and felt good afterwards.

It would be better if you used this as an opportunity to encourage emotional resilience rather teaching him to run away from stressful situations.

Are you planning to do the same when he’s stressed about GCSEs?

There’s no denying this is a stressful time for Y6 children but it’s something they all go through together and they come out the other side together. On the whole children have a lovely time during SATs week because teachers plan nice things for them to do around the tests and then before they know it, it’s all over and they’re practicing for their leavers show or whatever.

Your son will benefit from going through the SATs and realising for himself that he could cope with it. If you pull him out you are effectively telling him that he isn’t strong enough to cope with everything that all his peers are coping with and that is likely to increase his anxiety next time he has to face exams.

Each to their own. We still have the equivalent of the 11 plus where we live to get to state grammar schools. I pulled ds put of the process after he cried for 2 months. It wasn't worth it.

Normally parents who remove their children from Sat's have children with considerable learning difficulties and that is understandable.

If you have a child who has worked hard to prepare and is likely to get average or above why wouldn't you give them the opportunity to succeed? It is also important for progress 8, the tests Secondary schools do when students start in year 7 have less bearing than Sat's. As for not knowing if a child at 11 is going to be good at Food tech or Biology at 15 of course it gives you an idea, a student who attains 115+ in Eng and Maths in year 6 is likely to find most subjects easy whereas someone who receives 95 and below will struggle, someone with lower English grades compared to maths can flag up possible dyslexia etc so it is important.

It's like if they are in a sport team and have to train really hard for an upcoming final and saying "Nah, it's a bit stressful" and then their team goes on to win but they weren't there.

If he goes to uni and finds the exam prep difficult would you be happy for him to drop out?

Just let him do the week and plan something nice the weekend after to reward their resilience.

I went with a very relaxed approach. I understood that the school was piling on the pressure so we kept it low key at home. Just keep saying that all his friends are doing them too, do some work with him but do not push it. I made it clear to ds teacher that I was not going to do revision but we would do a reasonable amount of homework. He does need to get used to being tested i am afraid. I never discussed stats results with him, just well done whatever he got.

So you want to raise him up to be a snowflake. Sorry, but there is no other word. What’s he going to do in the wreak world when he grows up? Pull out of everything that makes him uneasy? Honestly, the next generation is doomed if this is how they are being raised.

Please don’t do this. When he goes to secondary he’s going to be tested again and again. He has to learn to cope with them. It’s better to practise now when it doesn’t matter.

You need to teach him resilience….you are doing him no favours if you pull him out.

I didn't agree with SATS when my daughter did them. I spoke to the teachers and they said it's nothing to do with high school and which sets they get in because they do their own tests the first couple of weeks of high school. SATS are more for looking at how the teachers have taught etc. I didn't stop my daughter doing them but I did say to her and her teacher these don't mean anything to her so try your best, answer what you can and we weren't not bothered about the results. She was panicking so much so that is how we handled it. She has come on leaps & bounds in high school and we never spoke about SATS again.

No don't pull him out, it'll cause much more anxiety and whether you try and be discreet all the other kids will know and will be asking him why. I would though ramp down the pressure at home, do homework but don't do any extra. Talk through what is bothering him and I always said it is just a measure of what you know, there isn't a fight or wrong grade you will not be compared (and do not share results or compare , just say, oh yes did really well)
It is good practice for the extra resilience he will need in y7 and beyond

Mine were anxious. I told them it didn't matter if they got 0% or 100%. I pointed out it was completely meaningless to them personally and in the future nobody is going to ask them at a job interview or uni interview, what did you get in your Year 6 SATS?

I told them to go in and try to do their best, but mainly to use it as experience as to how to study for an exam and how to work in exam conditions.

Would that help if he goes into it knowing the result doesn't matter?

Sats have no bearing on anything he will achieve in future, it's purely to measure the school. No one will care what he scored. It's not used for sets in secondary or to determine what GCSEs he will do

Don't pull him out. But do tell him the test is for the school, it's not measuring him. It's good for children to practice test conditions especially when the result doesn't matter.

And it doesn't matter. Try and take the pressure off him.

I agree with the posters above, you will just be creating a future of problems later down the line as you are embedding a flight response to any stressful situation.

Also many schools use SATS scores and something called FFT to predict GCSE outcomes and they MAY use this to set and determine pathways at secondary.

I have used this video with my secondary students to educate them on stress and also watched it with my 9 year old who was worry about the year 4 timetables test.

My children go to a private school and do formal exams at the end of every term. Always have done, right from Reception. They sometimes get a bit worried about it but generally take it in their stride now as they are used to it. They will have to face tests in secondary and GCSE - you won’t be doing him any favours by avoiding it. It’s an ideal time to teach coping techniques.