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?!

When I saw the post title, I thought that it concerned GCSEs or A Levels. Over their time
at school, children and young people sit many many tests and exams, but parents aren’t always told the results. They are a snap shot in time but are not are reliable measure of ability, especially a child in KS1.

Surely this is an urban myth?!

I think you need to trust the professionalism of the teacher, especially when your child is so young. There are many ways for parents to try and direct what happens at school - who their child is sitting next to, how sanctions are applied for misdemeanours, what information is given or not given to parents in the case of a dispute with another child, the tone of voice used by a teacher when speaking to their child, the part their child is allocated in a school play, interventions over rules the child objects to.

As a former longstanding school governor, I've listened to all of these. Almost always, the response is that the parent needs to have faith in the school, and communicate that to the child. It's very frustrating for teachers, who work incredibly hard, to have parents telling them how they should be doing their job. If you don't trust your child's school to do the best by your child, you shouldn't be sending them there.

In Y9, my DD took issue with her form teacher making pupils remove their coats in Winter during registration. I told her that it was how the school did things, so that pupils wouldn't be cold when they went outside. I also told her that I thought the rule was a bit OTT but that the school would be chaotic if pupils were to pick and choose which rules tofollow and which to ignore.

The tests your child has just done are to assess where she is at the end of Key Stage 1. Schools tend to administer them internally since the KS1 complsory SAT was abolished. The results will inform your child's end of year report and parents' evenings in KS2, where the results will be placed in context. Raw scores would not be meaningful or useful, and they certainly won't help you support your child at home over the Summer holiday.

Do you not have parents evening or end of term reports? These should be where you discuss strengths/ weaknesses and what if anything needs support at home.

Whilst you might feelm its wishy washy the results you were given "working towards, expected greater depth etc... is the terminology used on the SATS at the end of year 6.

I think lots of primary schools now use it as a way to express how children are doing.

Tests are limited towards expressing how a child is actually doing and don't give a while picture. The report written for my year 6 to be sent to his new secondary tells them far more about his strengths and weaknesses than his SATS results will.

If you are concerned about your child's learning ask for a meeting about the concerns don't demand end of year assessment results that in isolation may tell you very little.

Nope - I wish it was. Firsthand experience unfortunately!

Imagine how much time it would take for the teachers to explain the scores etc, and what each child got wrong. You’ll have parents evening soon- you’ll be able to talk it through then.

It’s odd that a teacher is asking your child to produce some work and then using that to assess what has been learned? Kindly, you are being unreasonable and sound a little bit overbearing. Assuming you are not a teacher yourself, the test papers themselves will be of little to no use and, to help your child progress, you would be best to allow them to play and enjoy their summer holiday. Encouraging reading/ reading to them, having conversations with them, taking them on walks or to interesting places will also help develop language skills; fostering a wide general knowledge will not only be an enjoyable way to help your child learn but is the best thing you can do as a parent to ensure educational success.

Have a think why they didn’t tell parents …

They do not want parents trying to get 7 year olds ‘revising’ for tests, or comparing their DCs’ results afterwards. I knew several
parents whose first response to receiving Y6 SATs results was to try to find out what other kids scored.

I think the idea of just blindly trusting the school and not taking any interest in your own child’s education is odd and such a strange thing for a governor to advocate for.

We are hugely supportive of the school as parents and we think they’re doing an excellent job. I come from a family of teachers so I know how hard the job is and how much grief they get from parents.

i couldn’t care less frankly who she sits next to the carpet or what part she’s given in the school play. I believe children need to learn to fit in with a group and learn that they are not any better or more special than anyone else. I think school has an important role to play in that. Equally, I believe that learning is a partnership between school life and home life and that there should be communication between the two.

Because parent A says ok you got 45 % and thats good, but how could you do better? Which I hope would be the case

Parent B says 45% thats rubbish and I want 60% next time. B is putting too much pressure on a 7 year old and may ruin her to to take exams

Parent C asks the school what was the median score for that exam. Why didn't she get an extra mark for nice writing because C is THAT Parent

So given you get feedback, parents evenings and the opportunity to speak to teachers why are you bothered about these exams?

Which in reality are part of her learning...learning how to do exams and that they are nothing to worry about

You come from a family of teachers and yet you’re asking about the importance of exams in KS1? Just ask one of your family members to look through her workbooks if you need a pointer.

dude, they are like 7 years old, chill out.

if you want to help them, get them some books to read over the summer and take them to the museum

lol yeah put in a subject access request. You might get the info you want (unless they apply an exemption and withhold it) but you will forever be “that” parent.

It was my mum that suggested the school should share the exam papers/results and she taught KS1 🤣

You and then all the rest of them!
Read the end of term report, pipe down and enjoy the summer holiday. Plenty of time for scrutinizing exam papers when she is doing her GCSEs

I have not said that parents should blindly trust their child's school, rather that the starting point should be to respect the professionalism of teaching staff, with intervention held in reserve in case things go awry.

Neither is it the case that I think a parent shouldn't take any interest in their child's education. IfcI thought that, I wouldn't have sung times tables in th car with my DD or taught her to conjugate French verbs systematically because school didn't teach that. I would like many parents to take more of an interest in appropriate ways eg is homework being prioritised, how much screen time is allowed.

However, some parents stray over the line from supporting their child to telling the school how to do its job, which is what you are doing with your child's KS1 test results: You - 'May I have my child's test results?' School - 'No. We use the results internally but we don't share them with parents. But we indicate how your child is doing on their end-of-year report.' You, on MN - 'I'm the parent. I want the test results.' MN, mostly - 'This is normal for KS1 tests. They wouldn't help you help your child.' You - 'I think I should have them.'

This is one of my biggest bug bears throughout my childhood education. The eldest is doing exams now and we asked again and again and again throughout primary and secondary how they were doing and received a ‘fine’ every time. Never - ever - received any test scores until prelims for Nat5 (like GCSEs) then found they were failing several subject that were apparently ‘fine’ and had to rapidly get various tutors and change course choices for highers and change my child’s career aspirations. Parents have a right to know this stuff throughout schooling. A responsible parent should be asking.

Read with your daughter at home.
Play cards.
You could even teach her chess.
Sing some songs together.
Give your daughter ten focused minutes every day where you will do something together that is not electronically based.

These are ways you can spend your energy supporting her.

If the school says the test results are for internal assessment only - that is that. Different schools do it different ways.

Personally I am in agreement with them. It causes unnecessary stress, comparison and doesn’t really help overall. If, the tests showed up something unusual, they would contact you.

Where have I told the school how to do its job? I’ve politely made a request, they’ve refused. That’s it. I am feeling a little disgruntled about it but the school doesn’t even know that!

Im surprised by the reaction generally tbh. For making one simple request various posters have said I’m overbearing, being pushy, need to relax, am going to have a horrible time at secondary etc. That does seem like a bit of an overreaction even for AIBU!

To be completely honest, this is my fear since seeing it happen to a friends son. He was the type of child who just blended in to the crowd and his parents had always got the ‘he’s fine’ response when trying to engage with the school. It only came to light in year 6 how behind he actually was. I don’t think my DD is struggling but she is also the type to blend in to the group.

The report will tell you if she is:
Not working at age related expectations
Meeting expectations
Working at greater depth.

However i do think modern school reports are so euphemistic as to be meaningless. They are positive about everything

By coming to MN to say you think you should have the test results when the school has, to use your rather muscular choice of words 'refused access to exam results', you have told us here that the school should be giving you the results ie you are telling us that the school should be doing something different. My reference to parents telling the school how to do its job is not directed at you in particular. It's a general comment. The current heatwaves have led to lots of interventions of this kind, with some parents objecting to arrangements about water, clothing, time spent outside etc etc.

If your child's school were to heed your request and give you the results, the class teacher would need to get permission to give you the results because the policy at this school is not to; the school would need to consider whether all patents should therefore be given the results; if all patents were given the results in advance of parents' evening, the school would have to field requests for explanations and and queries that would come from parents sharing their child's result with other parents. It's not as simple as you asking for something and being allowed to have it because you are a parent.

I agree with this. Schools now paint everything so positively a lot of parents honestly dont know their child is a bit behind or not where they need to be!

School might say 'they are doing well be achieved the expectations' but if a score of 50 is the threshold for meeting expectations and your chikd scored 51, thats a very different situation to if your child score 64 and the threshold for achieving 'greater depth or exceeds' was 65. The 64 and the 51 both get told yes doing fine meeting expectations but clearly one is much more secure in their learning than the other and it isnt unreasonable for a parent to ask for this information, its their child!!

Former KS1 teacher here.

The tests will have been part of the teacher’s end of year assessment but most of that assessment will come from knowing the children over a year. It may well be that child A messed up both fractions questions on the paper but teacher knows they had a bad day and there’s lots of evidence of independent work in their books to show they can do fractions so their assessment is that they can do those fractions. However teacher might have found that the child struggled in class with multiplying by ten. TA did a bit of extra work with child in class and is pretty sure they got it and low and behold the child smashed those questions in the test so all good, they’ve got that too. It’s one extra bit of information at this stage - 7 year olds are too unpredictable in tests to make that your sole
source of assessment. I’m personally of the view that it should be all teacher assessment at their age.

You having the test papers tells you very little because you haven’t got all the other information surrounding your child’s in-class learning. I’ve never known a school send home KS1 papers to parents. Especially not with the intention of parents looking at the tests and deciding what their children need to work on at home. I don’t think they can reliably tell you that information. There are too many variables with 7 year olds.

The working towards/expected/exceeding assessment that you deem wishy washy is how primary children are assessed against the curriculum. You don’t have a breakdown of how they are doing in every single area of maths for example …your child’s written report should speak into areas where they excel and areas still to work on but not in massive detail. That would simply be unsustainable.

If you’re genuinely worried that your daughter is falling behind or going unnoticed, make an appt with the class teacher once she’s back at school and ask specific questions. It’s in no one’s best interest to sweep that under the carpet.

I’ve never seen an exact score for a primary school test, in any year. All reports were either exceeds expectations / met expectations / not yet achieving expectations (or something, can’t remember exactly how it is worded). And almost all children get “met expectations” because you have to be a whole year or more above to get scored as “exceeds expectations” or a whole year or more below to get “not yet achieved”. (This is not UK.)

I would imagine that they don’t tell you in advance so that there is no pressure on the children. It’s just a snapshot of where they are at now, it’s not something that needs to be prepared for or studied for.

It’s Year 2. Your child will be burned out by the end of primary school if you take this kind of an approach.