School refusing access to exam results

[Rainbowstarssunlight]

My daughter is just about to finish year 2. A few weeks ago, she started coming home from school saying that they were doing exams. This went on for about two weeks and she told us that for four out of the five days they were doing exams and then having a rest on the fifth day. Obviously, I don’t know if this is true as kids can be unreliable when it comes to time!

I have asked the School for the results of these exams. I’ve been told that they are for internal monitoring only and not to be shared with parents.

I feel a little bit miffed about this. She seemed to spend a considerable time doing them without the School informing us and I don’t really see what the point was if we can’t use the results to help to support her learning at home.

I’ve always had a good relationship with the school and don’t want to upset the apple cart but I do feel that they’re being a little bit unreasonable. Do you agree or is it me?!

It’s only year 2 you should know what they can do or not do at this point yourself

I would just let her have a relaxing holiday then. Lots of reading. Do they do the library challenge near you (is that still a thing?) and wait until next term and see how she gets on. You can then ask if she is being challenged Doesn’t seem as if you need to worry about anything. I assume you can see progress through the year

If you have not yet broken up maybe ask about the ‘second TA’ comment

They do often do that in Finland, at least when my DD was in primary, it does help deepen understanding when you try to explain to someone else how to do it (though if a child is very secure at something I dunno how much more helpful that'll be). But DS appears to get stretching work rather than being expected to help peers (except for when he had to literally be a second TA and operate as a translator for a child who didn't speak Finnish)

If she's getting all ticks in her exercise books then it sounds like there aren't any areas she's struggling in at the moment so just do normal things you'd do to support learning like playing boardgames and card games and visiting the library.

If she was struggling they’d tell you so it seems like she’s where she needs to be

Presumably you’re entitled to see the marked pieces under the terms in the General Data Protection Act?

I’m in Ireland so totally different here and far more open. We can chat to teachers at the gate if we want to query something. It’s no big deal. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@KrazyKatty exam/assessment papers are exempt under SAR, including internal ones

OP could request results formally

They probably just chuck the papers out as soon as they've entered the data.

That's exactly what it's like where I teach (in England).

Telling OP to chill and making assumptions about her parenting is odd and does not come from a great place. OP, I would say this, I hear the advocating for your child in your posts and wanting to have a greater understanding of her academic journey. People say, oh she's 7. Well I feel SATs at 10/11 are a lot as are the GCSEs and A levels. The educational system in UK is designed around testing and puts a lot of stress on kids. I'm a pragmatist and it is what it is. OP, I will say it's natural to want to know where your child is showing gaps in learning. Some of the responses (when distilled) speak to the issue that some of these gaps can't really be addressed yet because in year 2 they are still absorbing how to process information, how to engage with school, and other big life things like being part of a cohort and community. My child is off to secondary and received her SATs results recently, and many will say those are useless and only useful for the schools stats. I am not going to debate that. However, I will say, I did find the lack of feedback from school (and its a great school) but there was a very generic doing very well for all of primary. In the process of looking at the KS2 SATs, it was super valuable because we were able to see concrete places where there were super easy fixes - for example forgetting about order of operations, or not placing a line under the addition question because her teacher said it had to be done with a ruler or not at all - so she would just have a bunch of numbers all lined up and floating around so easy calculations became jumbled. At the end of the day - I approached these exams as a chance to understand her learning process better, consolidate her learning, and teach her how to take and enjoy taking these exams. All children are different - no paths are the same. There are leaps in learning - as long as you are not trying to pressure the child at a pace beyond what's comfortable - and nothing you have said indicates that - then I would say there will be a lack of info (our experience) coming from the school. I supplemented her education - built on what school taught because I wanted to ensure she had a strong foundation, particularly in maths (I did not have one myself and it was a source of stress). In year 2 that would not have been possible as she was still too young and I looked at my role as more of a forensic analyst - see what was there and where I could contribute to her growth and giving her a strong foundation. I'm not telling anyone else how to do it, or debating the value of testing. But, I do get where you're coming from and also understand the frustration which is more of a general needing more feedback. Pedagogy is great patch work of different styles and methods and all this to say - don't look at the school for detailed clues about your child's journey. Accepting that will take away some headaches - also grain of salt on MN. I don't have a roadmap - just my experience. So far, we've had excellent results in testing broadly, but more specifically she feels really confident and likes the journey. We all know they are more than numbers, and we are all doing our best with our unique kids. All the best to all.

You are being unreasonable. Wait till you get to secondary school and they have tests every few weeks. Anything you need to know will be in their school reports, don’t panic,