owing to SATS week next week, not to let my 10 year old dd go to a sleepover this weekend?

[SlartyBartFast]

i know she will be sooo knackered.
dh agrees with me.
anyone else?

My dss always completely crash a day later if they have a very late night, so I would actually be reluctant for ds1 to go to a sleepover this weekend.

We and school are not pressuring him, but he wants to get the highest grades he can. In some ways it's the first opportunity he has to prove himself.

These grades go on their records transferred to secondary, and my secondary use them a lot to set targets and so on. CVA figures are based on achievements at KS2 SATs, so - like them or not (and I don't) - they really are important.

Having said all that ds1 is going to a party on Saturday afternoon and otherwise we're having a very chilled-out weekend.

I would say go as long as she is back for a reasonable sleep on Sunday. At this point either she knows it or she doesn't. Might as well start them relaxed and refreshed.

They are only important right at the start of secondary to put them in sets.They then do their own assessments and quickly change them if necessary.They really are not important roisin (speaking as someone who has gone through each stage 3 times over). They matter to the school for the league table.If your DS is normally a high level and has a bad day the secondary school will soon realise.

Let her go

next week is going to be stressfull let her go and be what she is a kid who really does`nt need the pressure of theses stupied SATS

My DS is doing SATs next week and he is getting uptight about them (thanks to the school)
He is going for a sleepover tomorrow.

He will go bed early on Sunday

oh I dislike term time sleepovers so much. Holidya ones aren't that much better. But I wouldn't spoil my dd's enjoyment for the sake of an exam. I wouldn't want her to worry that the exam was that important. (Although we don't have sats in scotland)

AbbeyA - I work at a secondary school, and I know very well the way that our school uses the SATs data, for target setting and for measuring progress. I would not want my children to go to a secondary school with 'wrong' SATs results because they had underperformed significantly because of a factor that was avoidable.

It is of course best to go with the expected results but targets are changed if they are not suitable and they certainly move sets. Teacher assessment is far more important then SATs result. If a DC is put in a top set and can't cope with the work they are put down. My DS was put in the 3rd Maths set at secondary-he was put up to the second set pretty sharply as he out performed everyone and he then went up to the top set, getting A at A'level. The SATs result is a guidance. If it turns out to be a wrong assessment the target has to be changed. The GCSE is the first exam that matters to the DC, at that stage no one ever asks what they got in the SATs.

i would let her go.
but then i dont like SATS. and would gladly keep my dd off school the week they do them

Obviously if you have a high achieving DC then it does matter to them and they will want to achieve their expected level. However at this stage they either know it or they don't so they may as well relax and enjoy the weekend. If they are going to forget how to find an equivalent fraction or that they need to write in paragraphs or how to make an electric circuit etc etc etc in the course of the weekend then they are not functioning at that level. They need to keep calm, relax and have an early night on Sunday.

DS1 I would have let go.

DS2 I wouldn't, because he would be horrendous on Monday morning after a sleepover/late night, and whilst I don't like SATs, I think it is important that the children are fit for school, whatever activity they are undertaking in school.

DS3 - possibly.

I wouldn't allow a sleepover in term time, except possibly on a Friday or Saturday night. I'm pretty unkeen even then, as children who haven't slept all night are generally in a foul mood with all around them.

I agree with your op slartybartfast (mother of 11 year old for whom a "sleep"over means not getting any sleep)

surely better all round to give dcs a nice weekend without stressing them about pesky SATs - so,yes to sleepover !

My DS and most of the boys were on scout camp the weekend before sats week. No sleep for 2 nights but they were all fine.

Speaking as a secondary teacher, I have a healthy contempt for SATs. Pointless & pernicious. They instill complete exam fatigue by the time kids get to take exams that actually measure their performance rather than merely assessing how much cramming their teacher has done at the expense of their actual education.

& as others have said, secondary will make their own assessments.

Let her go!

oh god there is so much more to life than SATs! Let her go, let her be a 10yo, there are far more important things to worry abotu later in life

I am glad that you said that ravenAK, it has been my experience that secondary schools make their own assessments and that the SATs level is a starting point.
I know that lower down Year 3 teachers have to reassess in September.

yes ravenAK - you talk sense !

IME at 3 different secondary schools, SATs are never the deciding factor in setting by ability. For one thing, the English SATs results are far too late - most schools will have done their new classlists for Y7 by the time the results arrive. It's set mostly on teacher assessment and then some on tests they might sit on their 'taster' day when the Y6s visit their new school in the July before they start.

SATs are shite

Why thank you.

(I got my 'threshold' pay rise quite recently because my Year 9s did extremely well in their SATs that year. My colleague - excellent teacher, p/t due to family commitments, saddled therefore in her threshold year with half a timetable of bottom set Year 9s shared with a non subject specialist - damn near didn't as a direct result of not getting equally 'brilliant' results.)

SATs suck. They are bad news for teachers & a waste of time for children.

Don't agree with op - why do SATS matter to you? They're just statistics to show how good the school is.

Agree with you, Slarty. The point is not that SATs are important, but the experience of going into an exam as well prepared as you can be, and ready to do your best. Putting a child in for an exam at a disadvantage, whether in being overtired or any other way, is a bad idea in my opinion.

But the child could go in overtired as not slept well night before cos of worrying about theses SATS

A little boy in ds class got so upset at school today he had to go home he was terrified the SATs were today not next week.

Yes Sanctuary, I agree it's a bad idea to overplay the importance of these exams to kids, and let them get into a state about it. But that doesn't mean you should go the other way and send them to school unfit to face the day, let alone an exam paper.

No I do agree you prepare the child the best you can.
But my Ds is having a sleepover tomorrow at his friends they both start SATS on Monday .
They have been bogged down with so much homework the last couple of weeks to prepare for the SATS.I feel he needs abreak hes only 7
Tonight he went to bed early as late night tomorrow and on Sunday he will go to bed early