Taking child out during SATs week

[tickingstripe]

I have name changed because my description of the school might identify me.

I heard from a friend, a few months ago, that a child in my DS's class was being taken out of school during SATs week because his mum didn't agree with them. She has now done this and the boy has been off all week.

The year group sizes are a maximum of 15 each year so his absence will have a big impact on the school's league table position. At the moment it is at the top of the league tables with a 100% pass rate. But if it was just the league table position, I wouldn't be bothered about what she has done. What bothers me is:

I think she has done it just to make a point, and so it is for her benefit not her son's. Unlike a lot of schools, the school only does 2 weeks of SATs revision, so they have not made it stressful for the children. He sat the mocks last week, so I don't see how the real thing is any worse. He is now going to have the stress of coming back to school and the other kids thinking he has done something out of order (which they do think). The rest of the class has worked really hard and it seems unfair that 1 just didn't turn up.

The other children have bonded through doing the SATs and looking forward to the treats that follow. The school is taking them out on fun and exciting trips on 3 days in a row, and then taking them out for a meal on the 4th day, all as a reward for doing the SATs. Apparently the Head is to decide whether or not the child who didn't attend can go on all of the trips.

I feel she has undermined the school and the teacher, particularly as her son came from a Steiner school at age 8, and the school then had to teach him to read, write and do maths, and a lot of extra effort went into this.

So AIBU to care? It just seems unfair and disruptive to the other children, who had to sit the SATs and try their best, knowing someone else was treating it as optional.

I'm a teacher of secondary English, & I danced a bloody jig when KS3 SATs were finally consigned to the dustbin of history.

(Not because I'm crap, incidentally - it was my group's best English SATs in the school's history that got me my threshold a couple of years back...)

I think the mother was making an entirely valid decision.

However, it's not without impact on the school which has otherwise served her dc well - yes, it will mean the school no longer gets such apparently fabulous results. & yes, there will be people who are not unreasonably looking for one simple statistic when choosing a school, who will then assume the school is less good at teaching core subjects than another school with 100%.

I'd hope she accompanied her protest with an open letter of explanation to the Head, governors, & local press.

Raven, out of interest, what has your school replaced KS3 SATs with? As far as I can make out, all our local schools are still doing papers that are very similar to the old SATS papers.

"If the mother didn't want her dc to do SATs then why send him to a school that does them? "

Perhaps she had no other option. All state schools have to do sats as far as I'm aware.

Duchesse "In fact, many schools request parents to remove children who they know will perform poorly (usually due to absence or attitude as SN children can be disallowed) during SATs week (admittedly more at yr 9) level, so that their stats will not be affected."

Rarely have I seen such a load of of utterly misinformed bollocks prefaced by the words 'In fact'!

(As others have also pointed out, more politely than me. )

MillyR, we use APP ('Assessing Pupils' Progress'. It's on its way in - we're a bit ahead of some schools!

Basically, you assess a range of work against various 'assessment focuses' before coming to a grade. There are 7 AFs for reading & 7 for writing.

In practice, that means our schemes of work include roughly 6-8 'key pieces' a year, each covering about 3 AFs.

So for example my year 8s have just completed Macbeth essays which assess three 'reading' AFs - 1) detailed analysis of language 2) writer's purpose/effect on audience & 3) historical context (there's whacking great jargon heavy descriptors but you get the gist).

A 'writing' key piece might cover 1) producing an interesting, engaging story 2) linking paragraphs & 3) overall structure.

I was a bit at first, I must admit. It looks both unwieldy & subjective at first glance but in fact it's neither - I did a Parents' Evening the other night & was able to be really specific about strengths & areas of weakness for every student, by discussing (& showing them) their dc's portfolio of work.

Sorry for asking more questions, but I come from a position of complete ignorance, does this mean that in secondary school there will be no more national curriculum levels given? So children will no longer be assessed as being a 6b, 7c or whatever?

No, the NC levels are still there, but instead of one test = level, it's more that you start with a teacher judgment that Johnny is somewhere around a level 5, maybe a 6, say. Then for each of his portfolio pieces you decide which level he's on for 3 different skils.

(We do it by highlighting on a sheet with level 5/6 descriptors on - next key piece, you dig out the sheet, different colour highlighter - over the year for a child with a 6A target you'd hope to be highlighting all the L6 skills & moving on to a level 6/7 sheet)

At any given point, you can look at the sheet & say 'His work is showing evidence of all the skills at level 5; he's hitting level 6 on some of them; so overall, he's a 6C'

Teachers assess using those NC levels anyway, MillyR - we don't need tests to confirm what we already know!

Feenie, yes, I understand most assessment is done by teachers not tests, but I thought the national curriculum might be being changed at KS3 as it is in primary. I just worry a lot about the English skills of DS, so I like to know what he is meant to know so that hopefully I can help him!

Nah, NC levels exist with or without SAT tests!

Duchesse -how can it benefit a school to have weaker candidates not sitting SATS.If they are not present it is counted as a 'fail' I suspect for exactly that reason ie-they may be discouraged from attending or their papers get mysteriously 'lost'otherwise
.
I truly think SATS could be an awful trial for children who are struggling but academic children I think generally quite enjoy them.
To play devils advocate I do think an external,objective and quantifiable measure of individual teachers' and schools' effectiveness is needed , which SATS provides

Our primary school is doing APP too, RavenAK. As a parent asna s a governor I was very sceptical, but it works really well. After a bit of initial kerfuffle the teachers like it too.

I inadvertently tested it by turning up at my ds's parent's evening a day early. His teacher was completely unphased - just pulled out his file and could talk sensibly about his progress with evidence to back up what she said.

you cannot quantify what someone has learnt.

Attempts to do so reduce learning (and therefore teaching) to knowing stuff that can be counted.

The way to assess a school is to see how well it performs at being a school. That is not an objective standard, and nor should it be.

Would not bother whether hc sat their SATS or not, would be even less bothered what other parents did. Amazed that children need a treat afterwards as a reward, (nothing against trips, but never thought rewards should be given for sats/exams etc).

OP why do you care?
good on the mother for making a stand and having the courage of her convictions
wish more people were like that, instead of bowing down and doing what they are told

RavenAK: is APP a lot more work for you than old KS3 SATs were?

APP is more work for teachers, in that we didn't mark the SATs. However, SATs could (if not careful) totally dominate teaching in Yr 9, whereas APP is designed to assess the learning that pupils have done in class, rather than the teaching being geared to the test. APP also gives a pattern of progress over time in a way that SATs do not.

However, our school insisted on us doing the SATs this year anyway (AND marking them) even though we do APP which gives a far better indication of where individual pupils are AND clearly defines strengths and weaknesses to inform future teaching.

skiddoodle-Of course you can't quantify all learning but there are some things which kids need to be able to do ,which can be quantified.
For example mathematical operations,knowing how to use punctuation ,basic scientific principles.TBH I think level 4 on KS2 SATS is a pretty low bar and a s

Really? Have you actually seen what a level 4 piece of writing looks like, for example? It's a pretty high standard, imo.

I can't speak for Science or Maths but as an English teacher I would say L4 is about spot on for the average eleven year old (if there is any such thing as an average!).

lljkk: no, not now I've got my head around it!

It helps me see the wood from the trees iykwim - if I know that I'm preparing students for a piece of work which will assess their 'textual cohesion' I make damn sure I do some work with them on paragraphs, connectives, referring back at the end to the points they raised at the start...

& by the end of it I'm pretty confident what level I'm looking at & why. & if their textual cohesion or whatever the AFs were is still a bit shaky (eg. bottom set year 8's Macbeth essays - not much evidence of historical context) I know what I need to cover again/differently.

It's more about working smarter than harder, I find.