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

These people you talk about are hard to come by, there's already a national shortage of teachers etc, if you took away the dishonest (or kind) depending on how you see it, or HUMANS that make mistakes! There wouldn't be many left. This is not an issue.

No it’s not.

Any teacher can ammend the target grade at any point in their secondary school life. The sats results are a loose starting point for year 7.

The head teacher wasn’t doing it to help your child.

SATs are about school performance. He did it to make the school look better. And by doing so, is preventing real improvement from taking place.

He’s also setting an awful example to the children.

I would absolutely complain.

My dd school years ago had this all children recieved no marks at all. All staff were sacked and now 5 years later they are still.supervised. now keep your mouth shut unless you want your child to receive no marks

I said this happens. Didn't I?

Most secondaries do baseline testing in y7 because we know SATs scores are totally unreliable and bear very little relation to the child’s actual ability.

Don’t report the head. A lot of primary schools fiddle the SATs one way or another. If he/she is a good head, you’ll be doing more harm than good.

So I have just 'checked my facts', despite knowing them inside out already as a Year 6 teacher who has just completed my fifth SATs (although I've never had to write a paper on them...) and here they are:

3. Demonstrating correct test administration
We recommend inviting a governor, a trusted member of the school community or a staff member from a nearby secondary school, who is not otherwise involved in administering the tests, to observe their administration.
Observers should expect to see the complete administration of the test or tests they are observing. They should check:

• all test administrators are familiar with the procedures, including what is and is not permitted during the administration of all tests
• test packs are stored securely in a locked cupboard and have remained unopened until, at most, one hour before the test taking place on the published test date, unless the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) has approved an early opening application
• pupils are suitably seated and supervised, and classroom displays have been removed or covered, as appropriate
• the school is administering the tests in the order published in the test timetable, and access arrangements are being used correctly
• test scripts are collected from the test room immediately after the test and packaged securely in a locked cupboard until they are dispatched for marking
• any unused test papers are accounted for and stored securely until Friday 23 May

Absolutely no mention of needing more than one adult in a room.

No parents or relatives OF CHILDREN can be readers or scribes- if you read what I wrote again, you'll see I said we used parents and spouses of TEACHERS (and not as readers or scribes, just as one-to-ones for children entitled to rest breaks).

What course are you doing, out of interest? And have you ever been involved in administering the actual SATs? Because your post is giving serious mansplaining vibes.

So you've never seen what I'm describing. I've never seen what you're describing. Neither of the situations either of us have described are maladministration. The guidance makes absolutely no mention of how many adults should be in a room.

ETA: Obviously there should be at least one adult per room!

There’s a lack of understanding of SATs and predicted grades.

It’s best to think of them as a cohort measure. Statistically they are a good predictor of GCSEs, which is not to say individual children don’t move around grades and that is the whole point. They are used to measure quality of education, so it’s hoped children would outperform.

Until last academic year there were KS1 SATs, so primary schools have 2 data points. Have they managed to improve performance, worsen or stay the same?

Likewise if the secondary school receives a Y7 cohort all predicted 5’s and they all got 6’s at GCSE, that secondary is deemed to have a good progress score (quality of education).

At an individual pupil and school level, they may be one indicator of setting. It is silly to think children would be streamed in Y7 and remain in the same set throughout if they are under/over performing. Again - it is in the secondary school interest to maximise performance so this won’t happen.

The HT is inflating the performance of their school. What’s most likely to happen is borderline children (those either not meeting age related expectations or those working at greater depth) were targeted for an intervention.

The reality is that if you do report it you are going to put your child and the TA you know who was there into very difficult positions. They will be key "witnesses" who will be dragged into this

Should Heads cheat? No, of course not.

Is it worth the agro given your child will be moving on soon and it probably won't make a huge difference to his score anyway? I would say No.

If your child felt "mortified" being helped by the Head, imagine how they will feel to be questioned about what went on & being placed in the centre of a possible scandal.

Of course cheating happens in SAT - a set of tests used to check up on schools and to create league tables but which aren't conducted like public exams are always going to be exploited by desperate, under pressure Heads.
No doubt it will be far worse than this in other schools.

One of my sons did better in his English SATS by a couple of marks and got a level 5. He was chuffed.

For his entire secondary school career he was told he was failing because he didn't get the grades his SATS "predicted". (As if English SATS can predict your grade in Art.)

By Y9 he was utterly sick of it and by Y11 completely disengaged. Those predictions, based on a good performance in one test when he was 10, hung over his whole time in secondary. Every term he was given a report telling him he was wasn't enough.

It is strictly against the SATs policies though. Staff can't indicate if anything is right or wrong at any point in the tests.

Very concerned that you are a headteacher- your post shows a breathtaking lack of integrity and understanding about the purpose of SATs.

I'm glad my children aren't in your school!

Contact the STA and report it. Do it anonymously if you want to. It's disgusting that the pupils and staff will have worked so hard and this just discredits everything they've done. It needs reporting.

This.

SATs have no bearing on the children's future, the Secondary schools will most likely test them again. My grandchildren's school did because they know how unreliable the primary results are. SATs are there to test and rank the schools, no other reason, and the Head is trying to get ahead of other schools in the area. It doesn't help the children at all.

On the other hand my grandson was virtually written off at primary school and told he was 'good at sport'. It badly affected his self-esteem but when he went to secondary he was re-tested with an open mind and put in the top sets with support for his dyslexia.

The whole system should be scrapped. I'm a retired teacher btw and my daughter was also a teacher at the time.

Teachers can alter internal target grades but cannot alter the Progress 8 target grade which all secondary schools are judged on nationally and, in part, are based on SATs scores

Students with artificially high target grades can face extra pressure from secondary to try to raise their GCSE through extra interventions etc. At the end of the day the secondary schools are judged on ‘value added’ based on KS2 starting points, so if cheating has made this starting point too high secondary schools will have to act accordingly to avoid looking like pupils haven’t made enough progress

Not saying I agree with it but definitely does happen

I’ve been teaching y6 (and am also SLT) for over 15 years and am lucky to work in a school where we follow the rules! I do put 2 adults in every room but I do this to protect my staff should there be an allegation of maladministration made. This is clear in the test administration guidance as a recommendation not a rule:

Headteachers will need to consider the staff resource required to administer the tests. We recommend having at least 2 test administrators in each test room, so the headteacher can have confidence in the integrity of test administration.

Our SATS results are important to us as a school (not the individual children) we do take them seriously but they aren’t so important that we would risk jobs by cheating.

My DD only “passed” her SATS along with some others, due to this type of “help”

SATS are pointless, it doesn’t matter.

I don't think this is that uncommon tbh

However maybe if she hadn't 'passed' (I guess you mean scored 100 or above) maybe her secondary school would have targeted her for more/earlier help.

They do matter.

And teaching children that cheating is OK, is not OK.

What does matter is the school increased the number of children achieving age related expectations (passing) by doing this.

That could mean any of the following:

• there’s poor quality of education at the school being hidden
• your child should have had more intervention strategies to support them or there is an additional need not being raised which will take longer to address in secondary
• the department for education thinks children are performing better and doesn’t invest funding adequately etc.

It was doesn’t done in that way.

It was a “you might want to have a look at that again” way.

My DD is in the bottom set, will always be in the bottom set.

It was in her best interests to “pass” as the detrimental effect “failing” would have on her for years ahead would have been quite severe.

SATS do not matter.

You move sets at secondary school every term if necessary.

Completely incorrect.

My other DD “failed” her SATs. Same school.