AIBU to think the SATs / 11+ pressure is nuts?

[MizzyDazzy]

My daughter is in year 4 and I think her school is quite high pressure. They have always done constant test papers and have now started converting the scores to standardised SATs marks and telling the kids where they are and if they are working towards, expected or greater depth.

This is clearly quite openly talked about in the classroom and my daughter is very aware of where she and everyone else is.

This has caused her to come home in tears the last few weeks over her scores. She’s dyslexic and hasn’t always found academics easy.

She got a solid expected in maths and just missed out in spag (got it for grammar but was dragged down by her spelling, which is her major issue with the dyslexia). They annoyingly didn’t tell the kids their English comp scores but hers was greater
depth.

I think she’s doing really well, particularly when I know it hasn’t been easy for her, but she is in floods of tears as she has some of the lowest scores in the class. I do believe she is one of the bottom as most of the children will go on to get greater depth in their SATs and most are already being tutored quite heavily for 11+. She is also in a number of intervention groups.

AIBU to think she’s done well and her school is just bonkers? Or are most kids across the country doing much better than this? For context her scores are, 107 maths, 98 spag (105 on grammar) and 132 English comp.

The parents WhatsApp’s is going crazy over the scores and breakout groups for 11+ “support” depending on what schools you will be targeting and this definitely spills into the classroom. She sat next to a girl who was saying she must have one of the worst scores as she had dropped 4 marks on a paper!

We don’t actually live in an 11+ area but boarder 2 with 2 of the top grammars in our doorstep that don’t have catchments. So people need almost full marks to get in to these schools and I think they’ve lost all sense of perspective.

I just find this all absolutely ridiculous and hate that I feel trapped in it. My daughter isn’t going to take the 11+ and SATs really are not that important. I’m debating taking my daughter out of the school because the pressure is just so stupid and clearly going to get worse. But she is very happy with her friends there and generally at school so moving her feels risky in a way. Plus I assume all schools in this area will be the same…

So if we leave her in the school how can I support her and help her feel confident / proud of what she has achieved? And stop this constant comparison?

Is it fair to use this and work out the percentage mark she got against what the percentage raw score would be if it was out of these totals? So 36 out of 40 in the english comp would equate to 90%, which out of 50 in the English reading here would be 45 marks or 116? Or have I misunderstood?

Some state schools (particularly those with a head who is very league table and getting children into grammar focused) are very good at skittering around the grey, particularly if there is parent support for it. They don't openly coach or do the practice papers but you can manipulate the set work and extension work to look very similar to some of the questions asked.

I don't think the school is prepping them for the 11+, it's prepping them for SATs and the parents are prepping for 11+. There is tons of talk about 11+ in my kids year 1 class, never mind my daughter's year 4. Her year it is all about how many hours tutoring you're doing. I just avoid speaking to anybody tbh!

Maybe the difference is we are not a grammar area so you have to actively put your kids in for these tests and if they do really well in the neighbouring areas grammar tests you can still get in (70% of last years year 6s went to grammar despite us not being a grammar area).

A few kids will get in to the two local grammars that don't have a catchment and are open to anybody anywhere in the country for their own tests, so not like the Bucks 11+ for example where you 'pass' and then get into one of the grammars. The school closest to me has two rounds of tests, circa 1,300 kids apply, the top 400 applicants are shortlisted for the second test for about 100 spaces.

It is a state school. They're not coaching for 11+ but SATs - it's the parents tutoring for 11+. Do you mean they are only allowed to do one practice test paper a year or one practice 11+ paper? My daughter does a test every week so I would be surprised!

My friend was telling me because she thought it was so awful.

But this is why results should be shared generally, it's upsetting for children who normally do well if someone is mean when they don't and devastating for children who struggle and whose friends are celebrating having found something easy or even when their friends are disappointed with their mark but it is significantly more. Comparison is the theif of joy.

Thanks, yes this does sound like my children's school.

I had a meeting with her form tutor and send lead after her diagnosis and they were talking about what allowances she could have in her 11+ exams. I looked at them like they had lost their marbles and said "I don't think that's relevant for my daughter" and they asked why. Not sure they knew how to respond when I said clearly I wouldn't be putting a struggling child through that!

I meant to write why results shouldn't be shared, not should!

That's crazy for year 1! I have another in year 2, and have been asked a few times by those parents which school we are thinking of for DD1, she is well known due to her sporting ability and volunteering supporting the younger classes both in and outside school, so there is a level of interest in her I think, but it's pleasant and in no way pushy.

Even the talk around my year 5 daughter year has been quite general 'can anyone recommend a good tutor' and recently talking about which schools the current year 6 got into and frustration that our village has been moved out of the catchment for a decent comp. No one even asks who is doing tutoring let alone how much. It's a pretty middle class area, mainly professional parents, semidetached 3 beds are circa 800k etc. But most are quite chilled about the whole process 'if it's right for them they will pass and if it's not that's fine too sort of attitude'. DD1 is feeling the pressure - I think she puts it on herself, I don't think she could or should handle anymore from the parent/school commuinity.

1 practice 11+ paper

But testing every week seems OTT. My year 5 has 1 week of testing a term (not the whole week, maybe 5 hours total spread across the week). This is the review cohort progress and look for gaps to address, rather than an individual evaluation

I guess most of the year 1 class only moved for schools... But my husband is always complaining that it is only like this in our part of the country and we should just move! Maybe he is right!

Or maybe it's me and I am just preceiving things wrongly and people are just making small talk...

Then again in one of the first interactions I ever had with a parent at the school was just after the children had been sent home with their first ever reading book. The mum looked at my daughter's book in disgust and said "oh wow how is she only on pink?". I didn't even know anything about reading levels!

This is awful by the school but sadly I think not uncommon in schools that are high performing on paper.

Demographics have always played a large role in the performance of a school but with the rapid decline in primary places, schools are having to work increasingly hard to maintain their USP and be the "first choice" for parents.

With a school that sells itself on its academic performance, they'll be desperate to maintain that and that will lead them towards (a) increasing test-focused hothousing and teaching to the test and (b) consciously or unconsciously making the school a less welcoming and enjoyable place for less able students in the hope that their parents will move them.

So I think you're going to see more of this from some schools as they become less "exclusive" because there are fewer kids, and so they need to find other ways to maintain their position if they're known as the local school that is academically strong and delivers the best test results.

Very true, it is the only school locally that has no spaces. If a child leaves the space is instantly filled. And there are four forms per year.

Ignore it all. What a load of shit. Your poor daughter.

Scores up on the wall for all to see is shocking in this day and age!

I'm surprised they can get away with it - what about inclusion and SEN children who, for whatever reason, might appear at the bottom of the list?
Can't believe a state school is doing this!

That’s awful and definitely not normal.
I’d be looking for a new school for her, this isn’t the right environment for your DD (or any child tbh!)

the 'pressure' is as much as the parent makes it.
Model behaviour for your kid. I always told mine that everything was fine as long as he gave it a good go.

All schools are. Most don’t inform the pupils.

What behaviour do I model for the 6.5hrs she’s school?

Sounds reasonable and not at all unusual.

Oh wow, DS1s school had only just started mentioning SATs occasionally now and he is in year 5.
It's also high achieving (we recently had ofsted).

I'm sure they do get assessed on stuff but they don't make a big deal of it (or possibly DS1 is just oblivious)

Even if my daughter didn’t get upset about the scoring, the school sends messages home telling you the papers are being sent home and to go through any wrong answers with your child so I would still know.

I don’t think doing the papers is unusual, but telling the kids in the classroom as you hand the papers back if they are WT, Exp or GD so everyone can hear seems a bit off to me.

School has always used those terms with parents but not with the kids directly before. I think it makes the whole thing quite pressuring.

It sounds ridiculous. I’d be seriously questioning whether you want your child to stay in such a toxic environment.
As a side note, not that it really matters, she’s doing fine. SATs scaled scores only go to 120 though so I’m not sure what metric they are using to get to 132 in reading.

The 132 wasn’t a metric given by the school to be fair, that was the one test they didn’t score, so I worked it out from this table shared by a fellow mum.

Amazingly the class teacher just messaged me - on Saturday and the first day of Easter holidays! - to say she’s worried the tests upset my daughter, despite her making good progress, and she’s rethinking how she gives out scores! I hadn’t even raised with her that I wasn’t happy about it, although I had mentioned my daughter was upset about her spelling test. Now I’m wondering if the teacher is reading this thread. Ha ha

Let's hope she is reading it and she can start to change the unhealthy culture in that school!!