Sign petition here to scrap SATs

[Bramshott]

Here: petitions.pm.gov.uk/scrapsats

I know it's been mentioned on a lot of threads but I thought a separate thread might be useful.

I really feel strongly about this after hearing the schools minister spouting on the news yesterday "SATs are useful because they get children used to exams before they take GCSEs" - AT 7 FFS?!?

Exactly my thoughts- I mean ffs why do they need to practise for effing GCSEs for 10 years instead of learning stuff. (and let's not forget that a not small number taking KS1 sats are still 6)

I will never understand how they have managed to make people in this country believe that learning how to pass exams is more important that actually more important than learning wonderful, magical and astonishing ideas and facts, and developing children's minds to be flexible, instead of turning them into exam beasts. Exams ought to be an accurate representation of how much someone knows, not an end in themselves. As such, they should require about 2 hours preparation, not the entire academic year (more in some cases!) some schools devote to them.

Bumping for lunchtime. My impression is that we all feel strongly about this, so surely we can help her get more than 144 signatures or the government will be able to cling to their riduculous "but parents want SATs argument"!

Signed the petition

I hate the f**kng SATS watched panarama(sp) last night It makes my blood boil

Let kids be kids FGS

Signed, but it's a shame that academic isn't spelt correctly.

Signed the petition - did not watch the prog last night. Have a DS in year 6 and can see what pressure he is under, my DS1 in year 8 actually made himslef so ill with the stress and worry whne he did them he had to be sent home. What good did that do him - absolutely none!

I dont understand why they cant do continus assment and observations with profiles backed up with evidance like for the EYFS. If the SATS are supposed to give a reflection of how the schools are proforming (or did I miss something?!) why are teachers (and some parents) stressing children about them, when the results dont affect them.

I was in the school yard and heard a girl say "I wont have much of a easter holiday its an important year I have to revise for my SATS" What does that do for a childs holistic development?

Does anyone know what would happen if a group of parents in a school decided that they did not want their children to do these exams?

You would probarly get kicked out we asked our ds to not do SATS(long story).
The teacher felt it would do more harm than good so we asked the headmaster
We were told we had no choice he had to do them even
I know of 3 lots of parents that asked to keep their kids of school during SATS and they got told the same

Signed (i hope - can't remember my postcode right now)

I have signed it because I agree very strongly but it's not going to carry much weight if the organisers don't get their basic spelling right!

So if a group of parents got together as a group they'd have to expell everyone's children? This may seem a silly question, but I do think that there is a real issue here with our children being forced to do something that we think is fundamentally wrong. It seems like a bit of co-ordinated action from parents would force them to rethink the system - they can't expel everyone!
I realise this is just wishful thinking, but let me dream...

love2- the problem is that a lot of parents are really keen on them, and completely sold on the concept of making their kid shine in this bizarro way. People may say they don't like them, and wish they would be got rid of, but you bet your bottom they're down at WHSmith buying study guides in the next breath.

if you dont send your child all they can do is class it as unauthorised absence they cant be expelled. And what are those guides for?! those tests are to see how the school is preforming thats all.

if you dont send your child all they can do is class it as unauthorised absence they cant be expelled. And what are those guides for?! those tests are to see how the school is preforming thats all.

duchesse is right what people say and what people do can be two different things.

Our school would`nt think twice in kicking u out they have a waiting list as long as your arm.

bump

I am a TA in Primary, and have watched as my daughter in year 6 and her friends have had to spend the last month "practicing" SATS.
They have completed a huge wad of old papers and the pressure is immense.
On Friday, my normally happy go lucky daughter burst into tears at home all because of the build up to the SATS exams.
She struggles with maths and is dreading next week.
She has shown me two identical papers she has completed, over different weeks where she got exactlt the same marks.
What is the point of testing all the time if they don't go over the mistakes?
Some of the questions on the papers would be beyond the Cabinet Members, so how they expect 10 year olds to cope with them is beyond me.
I am thorougly disgusted with the pressure these young children are being put under.
I have told her to forget the SATS exams, and that when she gets to High School they will do their own assessment on her skills.
They don't use the Primary Sats results anyway because they are not publicly available until the following April!

Shame on the rotten government for this rotten to the core system and playing school against school and child against child off against each other!

Angry TA - the results are available to the child's next school long before they are published, as they are put on the child's computer record almost as soon as they are available to the primary school. So the secondary school can use them, and some do. A lot don't though, finding it better to use their own assessments once the children have settled down, so I agree that it's not a good argument for keeping SATs.

But sadly, it is true that a lot of parents do look at the league tables when choosing a school - it's one of the first questions we get asked when doing school tours. Of course, these are parents whose children haven't yet done SATs...

Thanks Rusty Bear. It's not the testing I object to, it's what the results are used for. Ie to make the school / govt look good. It is not a true reflection on a child's ability anyway is it? Learning to order never is!

The results may be available to the school long before they are published, but for parents looking at results on the internet, they will be looking at old data as the internet is not updated until the following April (not before September when the new intakes will be coming in).

But the intake for September of a particular year is actually decided before the SATs are taken that year - SATs start tomorrow, and we already have the list of new children starting in September - so parents would always have to rely on the previous year's results.

The league tables are normally published in the autumn term, in time for parents to study before they apply (the closing date varies, but in our borough it's by the end of January). It was only the fiasco of the 2008 marking/reporting that meant they weren't published until April this year - so this year, parents only had the 2007 results to go on, but that's not normally the case.