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

I had a student who came with a Level 5c for English but he could not read. When we contacted the primary school the head’s response was ‘I wonder how we let that one through.’

Ok for Gods sake, they helped your kid with a couple of questions, so what

I don’t know why they risked doing that as they could get in trouble but I would definitely ignore

Why wouldn't you report it? It's completely unethical behaviour by the head and there should be zero tolerance for this behaviour. If this was a young person cheating in their GCSEs they'd be reported, why on earth should it be ignored when it's a person in a position of responsibility and authority? Appalling behaviour from an education professional.

This happens regularly at primary level testing…it’s not at all unusual.

This was apparently common knowledge between staff and parents, and known to happen at one local primary. Working at the high school, I can tell you it didn't do those poor kids any good. They were told they were constantly under target throughout their 5 years of high school. As staff we often rolled our eyes at the targets of students from that primary. All started off in set 1 when they came in and set based on their SATs. By mid way through yr7, we had moved many down.

That primary still has the same head. Their results are still higher than other local primaries. So much so that the head has 'taken over' or rather formed alliances with other primaries nearby to pull their results up. Of course the local parents love it. Amazing results.

It's so 'known' that I don't understand how it hasn't been in the media etc. The kids used to talk about it openly. To be fair, I haven't heard them saying this in the last few years. Probably because COVID stopped the SATs 🙄 for a while.

I don't understand why SATs aren't as regulated in terms of how they are carried out, like other public exams. As a student teacher, 25 years ago, I sat in the SATs exam. I appreciate we are talking about young kids. But I remember being shocked at how relaxed it was. My own daughter didn't finish her SATs paper because there was no visible clock in the room and they didn't give time call outs 🙄. No way would that be allowed in a GCSE exam hall! My DDS school is also local to the one I mention. Her school has much lower results. Students from there often go the other way in terms of sets. I decided early on I'd rather my DC underperformed in SATs and were told they are always above target in their secondary years. So much better for self esteem!

SATs are a waste of everyone's time. Especially if some schools are taking the piss. Scrap them or do them properly with external invigilators. I can't believe teachers and the head are allowed into exam rooms for external public exams when it is their jobs and pay rises on the line. It's obvious it's open to abuse.

Yep. I was just going to post the same.

I mean it’s highly unlikely a head teacher would risk their job to help a child cheat. Were there any other teachers in the room? Is there a chance your child is lying? They would need to proof it and unless there were other witnesses or CCTV then ultimately it’s their word against the teacher. If the teacher did do this they are not going to admit it are they?

I personally would make an appointment to see the Head and discuss this.
Yes it seems to be cheating on the face of it but you need to investigate it further within the school.

I think this probably happens in a lot of schools to some level.

My DD can be very anxious and hates maths with a passion, although always tries her best and is well behaved. I knew she was going to sit her SATs in the classroom setting rather than the hall so she wouldn’t find it so daunting.

However she said she had a teaching assistant sat with her throughout the tests to help read the questions. She said she knew when she’d got one wrong because they told her to look at it again. They also gave her a thumbs up if she had it right.

Do I think it’s cheating? Yes.
Will I be reporting it? No because I don’t believe they make any difference at this age.

I asked her secondary school if they use the results to set groups and they said no because they don’t find them a true representation of children’s abilities. They instead use the first term in year 7 to do assessments before deciding which groups they go in to.

This is a pretty big drip feed!

So you've contacted your friend the TA to tell her that you suspect the HT (so your friends Boss) of cheating? And she has told you to "write to the school"? What does that even mean, write to who at the school??

I'm very surprised the TA was willing to discuss it with you at all to be honest.

If this is true you've put her in an extremely difficult position by contacting her about it directly rather than reporting your concerns through official channels.

But their targets are based on SATs. Progress 8 and target setting is based on prior data.

Either do SATs properly with external invigilators or stop the farce!

It happens in a lot of schools unfortunately, high schools already know this and make the kids do assessments during year 7 to check the knowledge levels

That's really reckless behaviour from the head, doing that in front of other kids.

I wouldn't be surprised if they've gone home and told their parents about it.

Do you know who the kids were/their parents?

Might be worth a chat with them.

I'd be pissed if this had happened at DS's primary.

Secondary teachers were polled on this:

My two were at very different primary schools, one was wholly sats results driven whilst the other didn't do extra coaching/apply extra pressure. When children from the fist group moved to senior school they were put in top groups which soon showed they weren't able to keep up with the rest of the class and were moved down one or two groups. Not good for any child so I would definitely call the school or governors out on this.

Or instead of playing amateur detective and spreading potentially career-ending rumours among the other parents, OP could report her concerns through official channels so they can be properly investigated by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

OP, whilst I agree with the sentiment of your post -
that this is wrong, shouldn’t happen etc, I would prioritise just moving on with life. Put this behind you. Do you really want your child interviewed as part of an investigation or would you prefer to just congratulate him/her for getting through the exams?

You mean ‘too high a price’. Also, this has nothing to do with compassion for a child (this is a laughable reading of the situation!!) and everything to do with league tables. Neither do you know the head ‘is otherwise good’.

HTs who cheat like this also put any other adult who becomes aware of the cheating in a very difficult position.

It is completely wrong and should never ever happen. I’ve never seen or heard of this happening in all my years of educating.

That said, you are going to open a huge shit show for the whole school and all those year six pupils if you report it.

Just leave it. This kind of jiggery pokery is likely widespread.

Yes, having a chat with parents she likely knows about something their kids have likely told them already is pure scandal 🙄

As an ex teacher, I'm firmly of the opinion that if any careers were to be ended over this, they'd be both self-caused and deserved.

I did mean to high a price. You are right.
Are you an english teacher 😂
I wish I could tell you where I worked but it would be outing and I could probably lose my job for misspelling an adjective phrase😂
Fair point but it doesn't seem like cheating to me, but then I am not a teacher or an exam board person and I like to think the head was doing it out of kindness to help a stressed student. I accept I could be wrong and if it is to bump scores up for personal gain then obviously this is unacceptable.
I stand by my previous comment that I do think this should be dealt with by speaking directly to the head as a first port of call.

I would leave it. It’s only SATs, is it that big of a deal? My kids school doesn’t do SATs so I could be wrong but surely the secondary schools would just use common sense and re jig their sets/ do their own assessments rather than use a SAT result from primary to inform their set for the whole of secondary?! The head will prob deny it and it’ll be stressful for your child in the last term of primary which I wouldn’t want for mine. Just move on is my advice.