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?!

I'm assuming that as parents have responsibility for their their children, a Subject Data Access Request would deliver the information. A sledgehammer to crack a nut but fundamentally parents are entotled to this information in relation to the assessment and progress of their children. The only reason I can see for witholding it, is to be opaque about the standardsnof and consistency around teaching. It measures the teachers' performance as much as the childrens'.

Get a day in what?! You sound like “one of those” parents and an utter nightmare.

So. Think this through. You want the teacher to spend time in a partnership with you detailing, alongside all their usual ways of communication - parents evening, the 5 books sent home etc etc - the results of an internal test. Say they had 30 minutes today and the plan was to use that 30 minutes to teach the children algebra. Now you want them to spend ten of those minutes sorting something extra out just for you. Let’s say 2 other, equally entitled, parents ask for the something different they want to muscle in on for their child. Thirty minutes are now gone. Sorry 30 children, we’re not learning algebra today, we’re dealing with bespoke parental requests.
As a teacher, I can tell you, it goes on and on and on.
please - just let teachers get on with their jobs instead of constantly wasting their time.

Unless you have serious concerns about your child at a school please don’t ask for a SAR so you can access a test result.

You don't need to see the SATS results.
If you are concerned, or want to support your child then you can ask the school.
For example, you could ask what maths scheme they use and see if there are any text books you can buy. Or, ask if the curriculum for next year is set so you can see what they'll be doing in English.
As an ex school governor you're worrying way too much. Schools don't disclose too much because of the way some parents perceive and react to 'failure'. We had instances of children being hit by the parent for not getting "exceeds" on all categories on the SATS.

Same age ds. His end of year tests were shared with us but not him. I know on a good day he’d have got more right, but I also know his maths and spelling are strong and his reading comprehension is really poor so all the test did was reinforce what I already know.

If you don’t know where your dc is find things hard then either you aren’t concentrating on shadowing his homework or you aren’t having the right conversations with his teacher.

I also know that tests at age 7 won’t tell me much about his future performance. My dd was similar to my ds and now she’s targeting straight 9s at gcse.

Of course some kids are super bright and well trained to do testing at age 7+ but state school kids aren’t prepared to be tested so often they don’t perform well at this age

Let the school guide you they know what they are doing!!

I can answer this. I expect there is quite a few teachers answering as some have already broken up. Teachers are leaving their careers in droves atm. One of the reasons is the lack of respect, the constant questioning from parents asking you to justify why you’ve done what you’ve done. No other professions have to put up with this.

If you are that bothered, rather than just being a PITA, set her some tests at home and see how she gets on.

They probably don't want them to become a massive thing. Something kids stress over and parents start helping them revise for. They want them to be relatively low key. SATs became a negative thing sometimes because of that. Especially when they are only seven.

I thought this thread was going to be about actual GCSE or A level exams 😂.

If you want to do something at home to identify gaps, buy a y2 CGP workbook and see what she can/can’t do over the summer.

Perhaps you should should consider private school? They will be more likely to cater to your specific requests.

Your child is already exceeding expectations in the core areas. IME for the others subject, schools tend not to give work that would be marked at 'greater depth' and therefore can't be awarded such. Even if your child was performing Beethoven symphanies, if it's not covered, it couldn't be awarded.

I think you really need to ask yourself why you are so pushy? Your child is excelling in the main areas. For the others, why not take them to museums related to history topics, galleries to see the artwork of the artisits theyvecovered in real life, watch programmes or visit places covered by geography, take them to different styles of concerts for music?

Why not? i mean sure they’ll think she’s a pain in the arse, but it’s a statutory right.

In my work any request for information is treated as a SAR or FOI request (as appropriate). As a public body we can’t just say no. People have rights to information about them / their children you can’t just say no unless a statutory exemption applies.

This is strange. Schools don’t share exam papers usually as they want to use them again the next year and they don’t want them to be shared by nosey parents/tutors. Your mum would know this as an ex teacher.

Private schools don’t usually share papers. They may sit down at a meeting a let you look through, but you won’t be able to take them away.

Can you not see why a school wouldn’t want to share? It’s so they don’t have to remake the test papers year on year and it’s easier to track/ compare data.

Yes I can see. But you can’t just not share because you don’t want to. That’s not how the law works.

They may be able to apply a statutory exemption and ultimately the ICO will decide (should the requester complain about it) whether they have correctly applied that exemption. But organisations can’t withhold info just because they don’t want to release it.

I think the original question reflects the rush, rush, rush mindset of our education system.

The Latin derivation of the word is about leading out, about nourishing. This is not what we now have. We have a rigid system that sets targets, encourages competition, focuses on exams, values academic skills above practical or artistic, puts young people under stress, makes them feel failures, pushes them towards exam success and ignores their individuality and own speed of development, sidelines the reality of childhood as a time for exploration and enthusiasms - this is not leading out or nurturing - it is inward looking and stressful.

I see so many young people who reach the GCSE stage and are anxious and stressed and beginning to wonder what the hell this is all about.

We have our whole lives to learn stuff - I retrained at 50!

I think we should do all we can to reject this rigidity in the system and encourage and nurture a bit of chilling out; of learning to care; of capitalising on a child's natural curiosity rather than nailing it down to what the system says they should be interested in.

And for goodness sake - holidays from school are just that - holidays! - to be enjoyed and a chance to relax outside of the straightjacket of the education system, which forces teachers to focus on targets and tests rather than what they would really like to be doing .... using their professional skills to nurture every child's talents.

If you don’t know that your dd finds fractions difficult and time easy then you could download a paper and ask dd to sit one at home. It won’t be the same as doing it at school but would that satisfy your curiosity? Your DD could probably tell you she likes questions about time but not fractions or whatever which would help you decide what topics to study at home.

You are taking things too seriously by calling these exams. Your dd (and her school) will have been assessed since reception to see if she’s making progress each term. Schools only send you the results legally required because it’s extra work for them. Imagine the school spend 5 mins per child inputting scores - that’s 150 minutes for a class of 30 and which staff member has that time? More if people like you want a chat or breakdown of results.

You have 11 long school years to go OP. You really need to relax a little or you will be a wreck by the time she gets to high school!!

Submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) to your child's school in writing via email or letter.
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, the organisation must provide your child's personal data - such as attendance records, reports, emails, and safeguarding notes within one calendar month of receiving the request and your ID.
For internal classroom tests or older KS1 SATs, schools do not automatically publish scores to parents in end-of-year reports, but they must disclose the raw/scaled scores or teacher assessment marks under a SAR once the request is officially processed, unless it falls into the official unannounced exam window for official exams. While the actual test papers (your child's written answers) are exempt from disclosure, the final scores, marks, and grades are personal data and must be provided under a Subject Access Request (SAR).
The only valid reason a school can delay releasing internal marks is if they have not yet been finalised or officially recorded. Once they are processed, they must be shared with you.

People need to understand more about data access rights.

So if OP demanded the test results but the actual paper is exempt what is she actually going to gain from that? The test paper will make up part of the end of year grading

They will be year 2 SATS papers and they are supposed to be used along with teacher assessment rather than as stand alone. However, my mainstream child takes lots of internals tests and we get the papers for all of them once marked so that we can see what they need to work on. It’s not high stakes and it’s helpful. I think your school is being unnecessarily secretive. My only assumption is they have had issues with parents previously getting very het up rather than seeing it as a snapshot assessment to be considered with the rest of their work.
Ask to go and speak to them.

I have every sympathy with teachers and the difficulties they face in the profession.
But people often forget that under UK law it is parents that are legally responsible for ensuring their child receives and efficient, full time education - which must be suitable to the child's age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs they may have.