Key Sage 2 SATs. What will happen if my child is absent for all of them??

[Goober]

I have 3 DCs.
DS1 who is 15.

DD who is 14.

DS2 who is 11.

We have been trying to book a holiday to go visit my brother and his wife in America. The holiday in May is the only time my brother and sister in law are off work and going to North Carolina from New Jersey for their holiday in their beach house. First, tried to book May 2011, but DS1 will be doing hid GCSEs so can't book that.

Spoke to my brother who said, ok, come in November for thanksgiving. Tried to book that, but DS1 will be doing his mock exams and can't be missed.

So spoke to brother again, said come this May. Spoke to high school, in principal they will allow this holiday. Must be finalised by form etc. Spoke to DS2s school. It is during SAT week.

Am gutted.

If he missed them can't he re-sit them?

From what I understand schools take a very dim view of missing SATs as it doesnt look good on their figures. The results dont really impact your child. Secodaries dont seem to set according to year 6 SAT's results, prefering to retest on entry. I guess though the year 6 SATs are a bit of a modern right of passage and a first experiance of sitting exams under test conditions and good work ethic. Dont take time of at important times. Your sons year 6 teacher should be able to give you what level he is at though without the tests

No he can't resit

The school almost certainly wont allow him to miss these

Assume you're going out for more than a week - is it possible to go either side of SATs week?

Your son will not be able to resit the tests. He will receive zero officially as all children have to be given a mark. Our secondary does not retest on entry but do go more by teacher assessment so should not have an impact on secondary streaming. The school will probably not authorise it but if this is his only unauthorised absence it should not be a problem.

I would not take him during SATs, mostly because I would not want to set a precedent, however it will not have a huge impact on his future schooling.

The only thing that will happen is that his NC levels for maths, english and science will be teacher assessed based on his performance throughout the year (and will probably be a more accurate reflection of his abilities), you will probably get a nasty letter from DS2's school which you can ignore safe in the knowledge that he will learn more during his time in the US than he would at school shut in a hot sweaty classroom doing meaningless exams which will be abandoned in a few years anyway.

IMO.

Go and have fun

SATS are not important, so take him out. The school only want him there as it skews their results. What would they do if he was hospitalised or infectious for that week?

Lots of private schools don't do SATS anyway and the world doesn't end.