KS2 Sats

[triumph]

What are the consequences to my daughter if she missed the sats in may,
The headmistress would not give me a straight answer when i pressed her if it affected her education?

why might your daughter miss the tests?
it won't necessarily 'affect' her education. The secondary school she attends will have the teacher assessment level as a basis for grouping children (if appropriate) in Y7. IME children who were away for SATs tests seemed to feel as if they had missed out, there may also be some explicit preparation before the tests, which your dd may feel is irrelevant. Also IME some children actually looked forward to the tests as an opportunity to show what they can do and get 'official' recognition for it. The school may feel frustrated as, depending on the number of children in Y6, just one abscence may have a great impact on the school's overall scores which could reflect on them badly when the league tables are published. this in turn can affect teachers and children's morale

We have booked a family holiday for some time now which has involved quite a bit of organising,involving two of our daughters one who has a family of her own, when we asked for the newly created absent forms we had a letter telling all parents that we were not allowed to remove our children during May due to sats, it is a small village school with less than 10 children in Y6,
If the emphasis is on the school to show well in the sats overall and not care about the pressure that it will put my daughter under to do well for them, then i will seriously consider my situation before hand, as it seems to be not for her sake at all.

They don't want you to remove your child because it will look bad on the league tables. I suspect they will fight you (not literally) but it will make them go down the league tables, teachers lose their bonues etc etc. You bad mother you

I think small schools don't appear in the league tables, for what that's worth. I suppose they get all the LEA comparisons etc though. But then what if a child is off sick those 2 weeks?

They should have sent that letter out in September.

I agree they should have sent the letters out at the start of Autumn term, not the second week of Feb.
I'm interseted in the teacher assesment at the secondary school and will have to find out some more info on this subject.
Thank you all i dont feel so guilty now

My dd did SATS last year. At a parents Q&A evening someone asked what benefits SATS gave to a child. The reply was none whatsoever. They felt it's an advantage only for the school, not the individual child. Thankfully we're now back in Scotland where they don't have SATS.

Small schools (under 12 pupils in the year I think) do not show on the league tables. However, if that was in our school we would not get an absence request authorised - so if we still insisted on taking a child out at that time it would show on their records as unauthorised absence - which could be read as truancy. This fact, however, is in our parents handbook and relevant Yr 2 and Yr 6 are advised at the start of the Autumn term preceeding their SATS.
Personally, I wouldn't take a child out of school during SATS.

Triumph - no consequneces to your daughter, but some for the school....already covered.
Our head will not authorise absense for hols during SATs week......

Unauthorised absence is a mark against the school though, isn't it? Percentages have to be shown in the prospectus? (And show up elsewhere too?)

Presumably triumph wasn't told at the start of Y6? We don't have a parents' handbook (there is just a prospectus, when they start in Reception). I am now on child 4 so am well aware of the SATs timetable but I don't remember being told at the start of the year (doesn't mean we weren't told, just that I don't remember - we get sooooo many letters home).

I feel like suedonim though - SATs performances are only really important for the school, and I wish we didn't have them.

I wish it too!!!!