To make SEN kids do SAT’s?

[D3vonmaid]

My DD is in year 6 and doing SAT’s this week, she has learning difficulties and gets extra time but the whole thing is making her stressed, anxious and generally feel like sh1t about herself, as she can’t finish the papers in time. AIBU to think that kids with SEN shouldn’t have to sit these tests? It’s destroying her confidence and stressing her out. Plus as far as I can tell, it’s a massive waste of time for schools. What, exactly, is the benefit? To schools, pupils or teachers? None that I can see, but with considerable downsides all round.

Unfortunately it has been made very hard to have a child dis-applied from the tests. We used to have one or two each year but I think it was discovered that some schools were not letting any child sit the exam if they weren’t going to get a L3 (this was back when Gove said that L4 was the average and therefore every child should be getting it!)
So the procedures were tightened up.

Many non SEN kids have the exact same issues.

Some pupils with SEND can access the tests. It should really be decided on an individual basis in the best interest of each child (whether or not SATS are in any child’s best interest is another story).
I’m sorry that your child is upset by them. Lots of children can’t finish, even if no SEND.

On the plus side it’s a safe, easy test experience which handled right (by the school) gives some kids an opportunity to feel a degree of manageable pressure with confidence.

Are SATs for the benefit of children or schools?

I think it's a good experience for them and gets them used to being tested at Secondary school. Yes the results are pointless but the more they practice the better they will become at sitting exams.

YANBU
Education policy is trying to do two contradictory things:

1. Have a slightly pressured results driven system where teachers are held to account for failing children AND
2. Have completed integration of SEN into mainstream.

As a SEN Mum....honestly pick one. Because the current environment is crushing our kids.

Well, my DD who has SeN was sitting them and she wasn’t so stressed. She didn’t get required score of course, far from it but she’s got experience.

I think it can be a positive - it has become a Y6 rite of passage and in some ways good for SEN kids to feel they are same as their peers.

It is pointless for testing purposes so you can spin results any way you want with your child. Be very clear on the it's an experience results don't matter message.

I also have SEN DD and we are in middle of GCSEs with extra time, readers, scribes, laptops etc. Because of her difficulties and pandemic disruption she has only taken her first tests since Y6 SATs this year - it would be a hell of a lot easier had she been doing them consistently throughout school.

Schools …..but only if most children perform well

So withdraw your child from the process?

Sorry YABU , All kids with SEN can't not just sit tests. What happens when in Secondary when they are tested at least once a term and have big tests on all content once a year. Yes accommodations should be made, for example your Dc is likely to get extra time but SATS are literally the lowest stakes test she will ever sit , she needs to learn and grow from them

YABU. Exams are stressful and this is just good preparation.

Plenty of children with SEN are capable of sitting the SATs and if your dd should have been disqualified from them the school would have said.

I can’t imagine your dd would feel happy about being denied the treats that come after SATs.

It depends on the needs of the child.

DS2 is doing his with extra time which allows him to complete the papers as his dyslexia and slow writing speed hinder him getting through the whole papers in the standard time allowence. It's a specific difficulty and he is intellectually capable of doing well, there's just more content than he can get through in the standard time allowence.

His classmate who needs a 1:1 support and heavily differentiated work is on holiday this week. It wouldn't be fair on him socially or intellectually to force him to do them.

SEN is a vast range of ability and capability. It should be on a case by case basis.

My sen daughter is also sitting hers. She’s stressed. She’s tired. We have melt downs at home. BUT if she didn’t do them I know individually she would have been so much worse for not being included I have just made very clear to her all she has to do is her best. If all she does is put her name on her paper so be it. She wants to be in main stream and treat the same that’s fine for one week I’ll deal with the fall out… I’m sure there to make sure schools are preforming and delivering leassons properly

I think that all children take SATS
at school and the only reason that they wouldn't have to are if they are performing below their KS level. I work with a y6 child who cannot complete tasks that are at their KS level and so they have been exempted from the SATS. As far as I am aware, SATs scores reflect mainly on the school as a measure of progress pupils are making. they are sometimes see by secondary schools for streaming and GCSE predictors but secondary schools move children about all the time to make sure they are in the correct set for their ability (or that's been my experience with my own children's anyway).
there are a lot of tests in children's education- it's good to get them used to sitting them - but should be done from a place of encouragement and not pressure.

Neither. For government and Ofsted.

My son who did sats last year did not grow or learn from them in any way

they are a total waste of time - not just the exams but the vast amounts of time taken away from teaching actual learning during Year 6. Rote practice of pointless grammer - total load of crap.

Neither really

Personally I don’t think any children should be doing SATs.

but if they are done then I think in most cases children should be given the opportunity to give it a go.

I'm not a fan of SATs as they just dominated Y6. We were always told they were to see how the school was doing.

But now my DD is in Y7 I find that they are used to create a 'flight path' for predicted grades at GCSE and from that to work out targets for them in Y7.

My DD had Long Covid and had missed a lot of Maths during SATs so her results weren't really representative. But all her targets will now been based on them up to GCSE!

YABU

You can't shield your DD from the difficulties of life forever, you know? Sometimes she has to do things that make her nervous. Exams are one of them.

Thanks for all the perspectives. My older DD didn’t sit SAT’s due to COVID, and said she viewed it as a rite of passage that she missed out on, so I guess the “all in it together” feeling is good for them. She’s looking forward to the end of the week treats at least. I’m still not
convinced there is any value in SAT’s for the child or even for the school though.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with having an end of KS 2 assessment week.

The tests are, for the most, part fair.

The issue is the unrealistic expectations that are placed on schools. This means that schools have little option but to drive the kids hard and cram for the tests.

Nowadays it seems it is all about 'data' and nothing to do with the teacher knowing how the DC are doing.

I think the worst thing about the SATs especially the English was there was so much nonsense in it that DC had to be taught to the test as they'd not been taught it during their time at Primary school. And then these tests are used to give them a target for every subject at high school! It's just all very random.