To diliberately go on holiday when my son is supposed to sit his key stage 1 SATS

[Reallytired]

We have just had a letter asking us not to go on holiday the week starting 11 May as key stage 1 children will be doing SAT assessment tasks (or tests!)

I am tempted to take my son out of school on purpose. I don't care if I get fined, its worth it! I would love my son to get no result so that its impossible for my SIL or in laws to ask what he got in his key stage 1 SATS.

I am due to have a baby 25th April and I don't think my son will be able to justice to his ablities in these tests. It is going to be hard for him having his life turned upside down.

I was thinking that a holiday to the Isle of Wight might be nice, assuming that I am discharged from the mid wife at that point.

i suppose it didn't help that his school was going to alot of changes but at the time it was like another thing he was failing at. not helpful and i am usually very optimistic

I think you're projecting and sending out a shocking message to your dc. Ironically a lot of kids actually enjoy these tests. And how will your child feel at being the only one taken out of school. I think the school/ you are handling it very badly if your child is becoming stressed about SATS. Ours don't even know they're doing them.

you want to sabotage sons SATS to get at relatives?dont use a child as leverage in your petty issues

grow up

YABU...education is important,you are sending a very poor message

YABU
As others have said, at KS1 your child shouldn't even know that they are doing the tests. If this is not the case it isn't being handled well.

You say you don't want to antagonise the teacher in one post and that you don't care how much you piss her off in another. Lovely.
Yes, she will get over it, but you will create lots of extra work for her. Do you want your child to be labelled the one of the pain in the arse parents who removed him for SATs week?

Just let him get on with it and don't make it into a big deal. It sounds as though this is more to do with you than him.

no, yanbu
you wouldn't get fined.
KS1 sats are the work of the DEVIL imo.
there is NO educational benefit to testing seven year olds like this.
anyone who thinks that seven year olds don't pick on the pressure from the school is deluding themselves imo.
(I am an English teacher btw. I also feel the same about KS2 and 3 tests. and they WILL be abolished too. itis just a matter of time)

There shouldn't be any pressure though, harpsi. The assessment will have been built up from September, as in every year. It's no different, apart from a test which looks like every normal classroom activity they've ever done.

Apart from this school, that is. I cannot believe there are still schools who have a KS1 SAT week. Their LEA would shoot them.

all they achieve is to stress out the parent as far as i can tell.

Honestly harpsi, my ds had no idea about his KS1 SATs, and we parents didn't know when they were being assessed either.

on a totally different note - what if you baby is late? its not that unusual to be a couple of weeks late and you would be going away with a baby of a few days old.or what if you end up with a CS and have to cancel your holiday?

personally i think that a holiday with a new born isn't worth the hassle

Don't the "best" schools not even tell the kids they're being "tested"? Then no nerves, etc, just the kids' raw skills / knowledge / talent/ intellect / whatever it is that is being assessed.

YABU though. Who cares what your SIL thinks? If your niece/nephew is the same as your DC you will have this "competition" throughout life so you'd better get used to it now, you won't always be able to run away.

And you'll have a new baby.

YABVU!

Seriously, neither of my DSs (now 10 and in Y6, 7 and in Y3) had any idea about KS1 SATs. In fact when DS2 read his report last year he asked what the numbers on the front were. There was absolutely no pressure from the school and the children didn't know they were 'important'; in any case, as so many other people have said, teacher assessment forms the basis of the level given now, so the test itself is not very significant.

Now Y6 is another matter and DS1 and his friends seem to do little but prepare for KS2 SATS - which, when lots of them are already getting in the high 90s for the maths, doesn't leave them much time to learn anything new .

Schools can't bloody win can they? It's either "Oh, little Tarquin just isn't being challenged enough - he's very bright, you know, he needs to be stretched" or "Little Jocasta is so sensitive I can't possibly let her sit at a table with her friends and do a piece of writing for 30 minutes because that's a test and it will stress her too much" !

YABU for the reasons that you described. SATS now form a tiny part of the overall end of year level. Teachers do not base the levels purely on the test - that does not happen anymore in schools. The new way is that the teacher constantly assesses over the year and then uses all of the evidence (including the test) to make an overall judgement. Whether a child is present for SATS or not, or does poorly or over-shoots, a level will still be given. Taking your child out of school will have no effect whatsoever except for the school to think that you are a complete pain. He will prob do them on his return and you can't avoid school forever. Good schools don't even tell the children that they are having SATS. In my experience it is generally the parents who cause anxieties for their children by going on about tests within earshot. It doesn't actually matter how they perform anyway - we love our kids whatever don't we?

YABU.
I told my DD1 it was just so the school could see how much the children had learnt so far. She thought that was entirely resonable.
I didnt make a fuss.
The school dont teach to the test.
It is all very calm.
The chlidren are continuously tested so it isnt an issue.
The only children I know of who got stressed, where the children of parents who got themselves worked up about it.
I was a parent helper that year and quite frankly I was shocked and dismayed at the state some parents get into about their precious children.

DD is totally stressed out this year (year 2). We believe this to be purely down to the constant repetitive nature of the constant 'informal' assessment for SATS. Oh, and the VERY high stress levels of the teacher being measured by them!
As far as I can see, DD has learn't absolutely nothing this year and for children who tire of sitting and concentrating for long periods there is nothing worse.
To make matters worse, I feel that anyone who has reached level 2 is just forgotten about repeating the same things over and over while all the teachers attention is targetted at those who are yet to reach the 'required' level.
If only it was just one week of exams while spending the rest of the year working at their own level!
And what about non-core subjects? Oh yes, I forgot they're not important!
If I could I would avoid the WHOLE YEAR- not just a week in May!

I consider taking my older two travelling for a few months around the time of KS2 sats - if they haven't been abolished by then, which looks likely.

But that's just because I hear it's a very boring few months for them, and it all seems a total waste of time, not because I'm bothered about what results they get.

Just don't open the results envelope. or don't tell the nosy relatives. My dds have no idea what their KS1 sats results were and noone ever asks me about it either. If you don't make a big deal of it, then it needn't be a big deal.

With a new baby I'd view school as free childcare though and cling onto how useful that will be.

KS1 SATs passed virtually unnoticed in our school. (KS2 was a quite different matter ). I wouldn't do it TBH. Not fair on the school really. Unless you have evidence that they are piling the pressure on the children.

I've been in class for KS1 Sats, and the kids don't even know whats going on. And taking him out of school is just childish and disruptive for him. And illegal if you don't have permission. grow up a bit.