SATS cheating - by the Head!

[Dilemmaramma]

In my DC’s final SATS exam yesterday, the headteacher was overseeing and they picked up DC’s paper, DURING the exam, flicked through it, then rubbed out one of the answers and told DC to try again. They also pointed out another wrong answer and indicated DC should re-do that question.

This is clear cut cheating, right?

YABU - don’t report it, the whole year group could get their SATS voided and they’ll be devastated
YANBU - this is appalling and the Head needs to be investigated

Not acceptable and needs reporting, simple as that. It's cheating by the head and it is serious.

I find it fascinating, and rather telling, that people are trying to convince the op not to report.

I think it's time for independent invigilation of SATS. (Or we just scrap them)

Report it.

That is definitely not true.

There are tons of "testing rooms" when the SATs take place so that children who need a reader or one-to-one can be alone with them and not distracted by others. The spouses and parents of teachers often come in to be the readers and one-to-ones because there just aren't enough members of staff. There definitely aren't enough members of staff or willing volunteers for each room (we used 12 this week, to give you an idea) to have more than one adult in them!

Cheating isn't "inconsequential". It's a monstrous example to set children. And these Headteachers are making themselves look good at the expense of honest ones

Predicted results will be changed by their own tests my kids secondary schools repeated sat testing after they had started plus there is a lot of set movements in year 7=8

I’d report it.

Another secondary school teacher here who’s had experience of children with high KS2 prior attainment scores that definitely don’t reflect their ability, and a few instances of children telling of ‘help’ from TA/teacher/scribe etc. Obviously you can’t believe everything teenagers say but I can definitely believe it happens!

FWIW in my school SATs scores are taken into account with setting and predicted grades too

You can report but it will be your dc's word against the Head and the TA's.what will probably happen is that they will probably be moderated next year.

Not during SATS. Strict administration rules means at least two adults, all with administration training must be present at all times. Good practice is to have a governor overseeing too. Schools often have volunteer parents attending.

Even the SATS papers are moved, counted, packaged with two adults present at all times.
If the storage cupboard is opened at any point this also has to be logged and double signed.

It really is a huge system.

Sats are ridiculous. They tested my August born child and predicted she would have a 50% chance of getting 5 GCSEs 🙄
She got 12 GCSEs and 4 A levels all excellent grades .
She then did an honours degree course in Primary teaching with QT Status .
Gaining a first .
So l wouldn't take them to task OP for erasing and prompting. It's all nonsense and sounds like the head teacher knows it too .

I'm astonished by the responses on here. I think most people on here would agree that SATs are well past their sell by date. I'm not sure that gives Primary Heads carte blanche to walk round an exam room changing answers. Would these posters be quite so laissez faire abour Head teachers changing GCSE or, gasp, A Level answers?
Of course they wouldn't, report, report, report.

Love it when MNers try to outdo each other in virtue-signalling. Bravo!

Really?

Some people just have high moral standards.

My job depends on me always acting with integrity. I would have assumed teachers would hold themselves to the same standards, but judging by this thread a lot of teachers see nothing wrong with cheating. Fascinating.

I've just 'done' (as a Y6 teacher) my fifth set of SATs. Not once, in any of those years, has any of the rooms had more than one adult in it.

We've always just had one adult (e.g. deputy head) wandering around and checking on each room at random.

ETA: Where do you work where you have enough spare adults to do this?!

Let someone else report it. You were not there, in the room, were you?

Knowing something is nonsense, is one thing. Setting a poor example by cheating quite another.

In any event, it doesn't stack up. At my daughter's school the head is obsessed with SATS and has had them doing before school or after school revision sessions for months. She's had them revising every spare moment when they weren't in an exam this week. Far from thinking SATS are stupid she has a huge fixation with them, to the detriment of children's wellbeing

Are you sure the head didn’t ask them to rub it out as maybe it wasn’t clear? In our training we were told to make sure that mistakes were rubbed out clearly as it might still be visible? Was the head saying rub out something that had been crossed out but wasn’t clear?

utterly unreasonable! You do realise that the actual SATS test are just a fraction of the measurement of progress across primary school? Yes he shouldn’t have done it but it really wouldn’t make that much of a difference as teachers have to select a ‘best fit’ assessment result based on ongoing assessment all year with the actual exams being just a back up.

If you report it they will lose their job.
I wouldn’t be arsed - it’s SATs not GCSE’s.

No, the head rubbed out the whole answer themselves

You're a Head Teacher and you condone cheating in exams?? Doesn't say a lot for the independent sector

I would urge caution in doing what you see as the right thing.
My daughter struggled badly with her SATS.
She had always suffered from anxiety and this was compounded by me being seriously ill in hospital for 3 weeks around that period, obviously this contributed to her achieving poor results.
Unfortunately her secondary school did indeed use her results to determine class sets and predict GCSE grades, she was predicted to fail every single exam and was placed in the lowest two groups for everything.
During her time at the school, despite the obvious improvement in her work in comparison to her SATS, I believe she was held back as a calming influence and as a student helper to others in the class who should have been getting support but weren't.
This was obviously denied time and again.
My daughter was the first year to sit the new style GCSEs and did a test exam in Science for the foundation tier, her result placed her in the top 15% in the country. She was still held back in the lowest set, she achieved a 5.4, the highest she could have achieved with the foundation paper was a 5.5.
She was let down massively and if I was in your position, I would be saying absolutely nothing.

This is why sats are pointless. They matter more as a reflection of the school than a benefit to your child. If they are in the wrong set in secondary they will just move them after getting to know the child, we don’t use them at all because we know this happens. It will be more common that you realise. We have some students come with really high target grades that can barely read, when we ask about sats they frequently say “my teacher wrote down for me to copy”. This is from more than one feeder primary.

Primary SLT here who hates SATS.

My hatred of SATS does not mean I condone this behaviour. Report.

For those of you not aware, this happens regularly. The HT of my previous school was seconded by county to be head at another local school following SATS cheating. In that case, the DD of the chair of governors asked her dad if Mr X should have been rubbing out people's answers and telling them to try again.

The CoG had no choice but to report his headteacher.