Rewards for completing SATs

[SATsSitsrewards]

Did your child get a reward for doing their SATs? Not for how well they did, but for doing them? The results will be out later this month at our school but I don’t know if other schools get them at the same time.
Dc came home yesterday and told me two people had been taken to Center Parcs as a reward, and one had been bought a laptop. Another child was told they’d get £100 if they did well on the tests even though they’d already passed the entrance exam to one of the local private schools.

Dc has just been diagnosed with autism and ADHD and we went out to our local pizza place at the end of the week in acknowledgment of it being a tough week and time recently.

Are holidays, laptops and cash the usual reward for sitting the tests or do people usually wait until they get the results? Or are rewards not really a thing?

I think they got a donut.
Don't get dragged into competitive parenting.

Definitely not!

Here in Wales the kids in state schools have national testing every year from years 3-9. They take some GCSEs in year 10, the rest in year 11, AS levels in year 12 and A levels in year 13.

Supporting them at home as appropriate (age wise) and making sure that they know to do their best is plenty.

edited for poor spelling!

I took each of mine for a day out to London, one was for the theatre and the other an exhibition plus meal.

I wanted to mark the occasion as the schools make them such a stressful time, my youngest is ADHD so was particularly worried, very much in line with how I parent, hard work = high reward, it was how I was raised and I’ve done pretty well…and tbh any excuse to get to do a 1:1 activity and reward their hard work is a bonus for me!

We’re doing Disney World when eldest has finished GCSEs! Although we’d be doing a family holiday anyway of course lol.

Not a reward but a let's plan something nice at the weekend after trying your best. Not a fan of sats, as a teacher and parent. Whole topic to talk about there, so many issues as to why they're not conducive to or positive 😒

Laptop is going to be useful for high school though I don’t think that’s too ‘out there’ as a y6 gift tbh, it’s a pretty necessary item these days but wrapped up as a nice gift 🤷‍♀️

We went out for lunch on the Saturday after Sats (which we were gong to do anyway) and let him chose a new Warhammer kit which we’d have probably given him over half term as a project anyway. And praised the effort. He felt rewarded and we just brought forward a few half term treats.

My son will be doing them next year. I'll tell him it is testing the school, not him and to not worry about it.

Very low key.

Agreed. We get a takeaway or go out for dinner when I’ve finished a new work qualification or similar 🤣

I took DS to the cinema

Nothing for SATs here apart from the class had a little class party on the Friday afternoon I believe.

We did take each of our boys out for a celebratory family meal after they did the entrance exams for their secondary school. We did it after getting the results, but would have gone whether they got in or not because we billed it as celebrating knowing what school they would be going to as effort and bravery for taking the entrance exams deserves to be celebrated regardless of achievement (although thankfully they did both get in).

I think what you did was completely proportionate. The other stuff is more what I would consider suitable for GCSEs or A levels.

But to all those saying SATs are irrelevant this is not strictly true. They do follow your kids through school at least until GCSE, either to determine sets and to predict GCSEs. Secondary schools definitely look at them to see where your child falls in a cohort.

We’ve given gifts after SATs and right up to university. We've always given them before results to acknowledge effort.

After SATs, one of our children got a games console, one got a drawing tablet and we also had a takeaway on the evening that they finished.

I didn’t get a laptop but I did get DS a treat.

Just to put things in perspective. If people put piles and piles of shit on the sofa for Easter, then I can’t see how the concept of a little treat after SATS is a bad thing at all in comparison.

Many years ago I let my DD choose 3 new reading books after she worked hard to do well in her SATs.

This !

I like to celebrate lots of events big and small.

Yes. Whilst I wouldn’t do anything different in relation to SATs, the ‘not important/only a measure of the school’ has unfortunately not been the case for my child. This is as the secondary school used them to set a minimum expected grade. This is set at the start of year 7 and is never adjusted. It is used to identify underperforming children for intervention to boost their grade to predicted or above. Every parents evening is fabulous for us as the teachers are so impressed my
child is two grades above predicted but the predictions were so low to begin with (was undiagnosed adhd during sats) that’s no reassurance. Yes, in theory their final grade is up to them but they will not be identified for additional help in the same way pupils who scored highly in SATs but are performing below their minimum expected grade, will be.

just editing to add that the SATs are used to set minimum grades in ALL subjects, PE, Art, languages… the whole gamut, most of which aren’t even taught at primary let alone assessed in SATs

Didn't do anything for SATs - both dds liked doing them more than normal lessons and didn't do any work for them apart from going to school. Might have gone out for a meal to celebrate end of exams or something (I can't really remember) but definitely didn't offer any rewards for grades, or rewards in general.

We have a payment schedule for SATs and in secondary school end of year exams.

the maximum payout for SATs is £400 if they score top marks across all four assessments (Science is evaluated by the Teacher).

We want to reward them for taking the time to revise, and to ensure that they feel rewarded for their efforts.

We will be paying for GCSE & A-level results too!

My eldest Daughter converted her SATs money into Euros for her holiday, and this year my youngest daughter is eagerly awaiting her results next month.

We feel that this is a more positive way to motivate them rather than nagging them!

Nope
the school put on a picnic for them
I got dc a takeaway pizza!

I do think end of GCSEs merit some kind of treat/reward but SATS not really

I took my son to the local Turkish on the Friday after SATs week. He was happy with that. What you mentioned other people are doing seems like nonsense to me.

one of my son’s friends have been promised a play station if he gets greater depth in all of his SATS! Both my children do well academically but I don’t reward them for what grades they get I give them small reward for trying their best. My son was happy with some v bucks for Fortnite.

My brother passed the 11plus in 1963 and I passed it in 1964. Not bad for two council estate kids . My parents bought us a record player between us as a reward . That’s the only reward we ever had for educational achievements 😂😂😂.
As a previous poster says, the SATS are about the school not the pupils .

We went for dinner out and got DD1
a Lego set she wanted for her SATs. We didn’t care what results she got as long as she tried her best.

Have you had a child go through SATs recently? Maybe our schools were different, but they absolutely made them a big deal (tbh they were a big deal when I did them in the 90s! I remember it all clearly!) They talked about them constantly since year 5, they had extra revision sessions, they had the kids go in early, given breakfast, a party at the end. I don’t know why parents try to minimise it. The kids are prepared for months, it’s their first exams, the results are still a measurement and often used by secondary schools.

If nothing else, it’s their first taste of how the British educational system will define them, as much as I don’t agree with it, their entire education will be summed up by some exams at 16, so for me as a parent I took SATs as an important opportunity to lay the ground work for exams, some revision, build respect for them and absolutely the joy of a reward at the end!