Protest against SATS?

[Bluelagoonlover]

My daughter in year 6 is getting really stressed about SATS. She's also stressed about not doing SATS and being the odd one out. Anyone else in a similar situation and thinking about peaceful protest / objecting?

I think it could reinforce to her that there's something to be scared of which could he a problem when she takes exams in Year 7 onwards.

It's a test for the school but they put to much pressure on the kids. My sons school cheated anyway. He has SEN and sat with his helper in a smaller class with just a few others. She (amazing and lovely woman btw) would point at a question and shake her head, basically telling him he'd put the wrong answer so he'd look again. Wouldn't surprise me if she was told to do this.

Yeah, but it is a big deal innit

Testing is an integral part of our education system so trying to find ways to reassure your dd and help her to feel less stressed would be helpful now and going forwards.

In Wales we have mandatory national testing for pupils in Years 2 to 9 schools in The assessments are for numeracy - procedural, numeracy - reasoning and reading / comprehension.

Because they’re done every year they don’t seem to be anywhere near such a big deal as they’re made out to be in England.

What do you expect the teacher to do about something that is government mandated?

I agree, it is a concern, but in house assessment is usually a lot less stressful than SATS

I don't expect the teacher to do anything. And Im sure I won't go to jail.

I don't expect the teacher to do anything

No, it really isn't. Are you making a big deal of it at home? Are her friends making a big deal of it? In my experience (x2) the girls enjoyed whipping themselves up into a frenzy about it and the boys just got on with it. The teachers were calm and professional, and some parents got a bit anxious.

Perhaps your daughter is picking up on your anxiety.

This.
That's what I told my own daughter. That's what I tell the kids I teach.
The bigger a thing made of it, the bigger a thing it gets.

I couldn't care less how she does

I'm not anxious at all

So why are you going to speak to the teacher then?

Not never moved, that would indeed be daft. But if they're in a set for several subjects it takes time to get data from each of them, often relies on teachers coming to me to say 'hey, they'd do better at a faster/slower pace' and then I have to find space for that to happen. I'll look at data myself but that's half a term/a term where they've been in the wrong set for them. It's doable if it's only a few kids (like in your examples) but if there are lots without previous data it gets tricky to move lots of students around and then parents and students complain there's a lack of consistency. It's not laziness, its logistically challenging and does happen but more slowly than is helpful for the students compared to if they were in the right set in the first place.

I agree with this. I'm in my sixties and when I was at infant and junior school we took formal tests twice every year. When it came to the 11 plus, no-one was bothered by it because it was just another test. It prepared us well for secondary school where again we were tested twice each year in every subject.

Experiencing some stress is good for children. It’s part of life. Think of it as like a vaccine - a small amount of stress now, prepares them to respond better to stress in the future.

Because she is stressed about it and I love her and want the best for her.

Seems to me that protesting it, removing her from them etc makes them a much bigger deal than just encouraging her to try her best but emphasising that this is all that’s expected of her. People don’t generally protest about things which aren’t particularly significant - so if you do, you’re the one making them out to be really important.

I think unfortunately sats are needed. As certainly at dc school without it they do not push kids at all. Even with it as a target they helped some kids more than others , focussing on the ones getting exceeding. Plus they were wrong completely with their predicted score. In terms of english dc got 113 at 7 on ks1 but only just got 110 at ks2 as she works slowly and it was a very tricky test.
Re setting at secondary dc moved up missing the data and moved up sets when they received the resukts. Possibly dc would have moved up anyway but not so many sets.

Anyway secondary as you will know if you have older dc is fullllll of tests. Dc1 is having one for maths/sci/geo/history/mfl every term so maybe 36 tests a year!

What would be the purpose of writing to the school, out of interest? The school have to enter children into the SATs; they can't just opt out. I promise you, the Head and Year 6 teachers are stressed about it too!

Good point.

What's the relevance of talking to the teacher about that?!

Exactly the same. I think they just put unnecessary pressure on young kids, and some never quite caught up after missing so much through COVID.
Her mental health is so much more important than a SATs score.

To give them a heads up out of courtesy. I find it incredible that vaccination is voluntary, but sats are sold as being mandatory, it's totally ridiculous.

A heads up about what?
Are you being deliberately obtuse?