I don't want my son to sit his yr 6 SATS!

[mamauk]

Has anyone else taken their child out from school specifically to avoid the SATS? Is this 'allowed', I mean I am thinking my child's education is mine alone to decide...... and that I do not need 'permission' to do this?

My son was home educated until last year and decided to try school so as to have more opportunity to socialise on a more frequent basis.

My concerns:

~I feel this year, since Christmas, the emphasis of teaching in his class has been 'teaching to test'. Utterly geared towards these SATS tests. Thus the curriculum as a whole feels narrowed and limited and not a broad spectrum of learning one would hope in a year 6 setting. The teaching has been limited and narrowed down to Maths and English taking up lots of time.

~ I feel a more enjoyable and productive few months might have been had if this emphasis had not been on the SATS.

~ I feel this approach and high levels of anxiety (by teachers) has started to poison my son's feeling towards education. As mentioned previously, as a home educated child he believed he could/would/was good at anything he tried, and has been utterly squashed by the current teaching and constant assessment. he comes home telling me how much has has gotten 'wrong' . His self image is suffering. His self confidence and self esteem too, obviously. he seems sort of hesitant when talking, as if he might be getting something wrong! it is horrifying to see.

~Just reading this I am sort of wondering why the hell I allowed him to go to school! I feel now perhaps I should have taken further steps to simply increase outside social time when at home (we already did lots of groups and activities, my son is just super sociable).

~It all seems like such a wasted year, especially when ongoing teacher assessment happens anyway, as a matter of course.

~Can I contact the school and tell then he will not be coming in that week? What will they do? I don't feel I need 'permission'. But am wondering what might be the consequences.....? Anyone know?

The school already said that the results have no effect on subject streaming in High School, it's just a matter of league tables.

Opinions please!

thanks,

Claire

I remember revising for the 11 plus too - certainly more pressurising than the SATS.

My son has just brought home a few practice papers. He is top of the class for english and struggles and has extra help for maths. We know that and we are not making it into a big deal.
If the teachers are 'stressing out' that is wrong. But at our school the teachers are not putting the kids through any additional pressure at all.

If your son just answers what he can and relaxes, and accepts that he isn't going to get every single thing right, he will be fine.

'My oldest son wanted to try out school and it seemed to me like an experiment or something, ' - strange view!

Well said TheOriginalSteamingNit

Also when ds was doing his Sats, one of the other mothers was complaining they hadn't done any history that term. My DS had bought home a project on Mott and Bailey castles they had done the week before

They did breakfast revision sessions, but they weren't compulsory but nearly all the children turned up and were happy to do so.

I do wonder if your children are as autonomous as you claim op. you clearly dislike mainstream school. Your son decides he wants to give school a try so you choose the most full on year of primary to send him him to school for the very first time.

Have you spoken to the head about their approach to SATs? Did you do so before you enrolled him?

I do think that sometimes parents overlay what they personally think of SATs onto their children's reactions and behaviour.

On of dds friends mothers was telling me how upset the friend was when she was 'shouted at' by a teacher for only getting a 5c and so had a stress-induced stomach ache which meant she had to be off for four days. How ridiculous, too much pressure, etc.

In dds version, quite a few of the group hadn't really tried with the homework and the teacher was displeased, but there was no shouting and friend gave no sense of being upset. Nor has dd felt any pressure or 'stress' in the exact same situation. Of course all children are different and respond differently etc. but I know dd and I know friend, and I know parents who are often quite quick to opt for the stress-to-be-relieved-by-duvet-day option/interpretation, and children who know this very well!

My oldest son is in year 5. He is just now discovering the competitive edge to school for the first time. Having spent three years in Norway, where everybody is equal in the extreme, and where the class should aim to follow the lead of the less able pupil, everybody progressing at the same speed, where there are no levels or no sublevels, and where doing well is seen as failure, from a peer point of view. It is hard.

For the first time he is discovering that getting it right matters. The answer is either right or wrong, and there is no "nearly there, a very good try darling, the answer was almost correct. " He is discovering that children are judged on their merits, by their teachers, and by doing it well they progress.

It is my job as a mum to equip him with the ability to deal with this. Not to scoop him away and protect him from this. What would this achieve?

It is not scary realizing where the gap in your child's learning is, it is an opportunity to fix it. It is a fantastic opportunity to look with a level head on his results and achievements and celebrate what he got right, and address what he didnt.

Unless you plan for your child to not enter secondary education at all, you cant put your, and his head, in the sand any longer. You need to face up to what level he is actually at, and close the gaps in his education.
If he is far behind, and if he has not learnt to deal with getting it wrong, it is about time he learns it now. And you need to look at where you have been going wrong, if indeed there are gaps. There might not be. He might do splendidly, and you might find that you have spent the last 7 years doing a fantastic job.

I think you are scared because you are worried that your skills as a home edder are now being tested. Dont think like that. You have worked to the best of your abilities (I hope). If it turns out he is not doing well, it will reflect on you, but also on his school. And you can spend summer on getting him ready for secondary by closing the gaps in his learning, if this is what you want.

Thinking back to the pre-sats era, I do think my dc are getting a better primary education than I did, or DP did. In my quite good state primary, it was totally up to the individual teacher what you learned or whether you learned anything. Some years I had a keen teacher and we did lots of interesting things. Other years we had dried up old sticks who were just counting the years til retirement. The worst of those, I spent a year just reading. Which was fine for me as a keen reader but I don't think anyone else was learning much that year. And meanwhile DP, at a small village school, maintains he spent 3 years with the same teacher "making books".

So though I'm not a fan of SATs, I'm glad there is some pressure on teachers to teach something and that there is monitoring of their competence. Compared to the hit-or-miss 70s experience.

My dc have been learning new things in yr 6, the current yr 6 dd and my previous one. Yes there is too much focus on the SATS, and quite a bit of test papers in class, but they have also been learning lots of new maths, art, science, new sports, history, etc. It isn't a whole year spent revising, not by a long way.

My ds will only answer questions relating to what he has learnt at school. He hasn't learn't much at all....He is L5 in all since year 5.

mamauk Mon 07-May-12 13:36:25
"What I mean is he believed he was capable of anything. As in a child who looks at someone running fast and believes yes, one day they too could do that. The sort of happy belief that one feels as a child, when the world seems full of possibility ... remember that?"

Where I think you go wrong is in not realising that this is the natural and healthy attitude of a very young child and he is not going to stay a young child for very much longer. He is going to hit pre-puberty, then puberty, he will soon be at an age where the choices he makes will actually influence his chances of accessing all the possibilities of the world. This has nothing to do with HE versus school, but everything to do with the fact that you need to get into the habit of accepting that he is growing up and of talking to him more as an adult. In the long run, it is not true that every choice he makes will be equally valid for everything he might want later: he may still decide to make those choices and you may back him up, but he needs to be able to have an adult discussion about pros and cons.

And if he is to cope with higher education, then learning to fail, learning to get things wrong, is very helpful.

You are allowed to think the way you do, OP. But IMO:

• A child needs to know the parents supports the school he is in and are positive about it. You want your DC to be happy? This is part of their happiness.
• Your DS needs to know whether he really is the best at everything or just at some things or maybe average at most things. Otherwise, it will be a lot harder later. To know yourself in relation to others is important, the basis of a working society.

Another one who hasn't seen first-hand evidence of SATS pressure in schools. They do have a lot of tests - particularly in hte spring term - but also have lots of support and certainly do plenty of project work, history, geography etc. It's just they don't tell you about it

Ime it's the parents who get stressed. They become obsessed with idea that DC should get top levels/be better than everybody else and sometimes even hire tutors . It certainly doesn't come from the school

OP, I'm admittedly very pro-school education but if your child goes to school then you have to support the school and not undermine it. And reiterate everything that's been said here about learning how to cope with failure

And what percentage of English schools have you been in during the pre-sats period, GrungeBob?

I can assure you that in our case, including my friend whose boy was in tears, not it is NOT the parents.

I am sure there are schools which do not put children under pressure. I am sure there are schools where they continue doing project work. Ours isn't one, and it isn;t DS not telling me - the SCHOOL have told me.

Not all the facts fit anyone's pet theory at any one time.

I think doing a paper under test conditions every single day for several weeks (since Feb half term here) is OTT, pressurising and boring, for 10 year olds. Some are asked to come in at 8am, to special booster classes, too.

Remember what these tests were introduced to do.

I'm speaking from my personal experience Blu like everyone else on here. I just feel the need to counter this 'but all schools do is put kids under pressure and do nothing but SATS' because round here that's not the case. The schools aren't necessarily pushy but some parents are.

A 45 minute test paper, sitting at your desk in your form room is hardly high pressure!

I'm speaking from my personal experience too. The only school I know of that puts pressure on kids is the one in my area is the school that "everyone" want to send their kids to.

Speaking from personal experience, twice and soon to be third the only school I know that puts pressure on DCs is the ofsted rated outstanding school, that people will catchment rent to try and get into.
My DCs school did 1 practice paper per day and 3 45 minute tests. There were optional booster classes if anyone wanted to attend.

FWIW I have never heard of a parent hiring a tutor for SATS

It's all a bit of proportion now isn't it, it's just SATS. If your DH is in year 6, they have to take them, we all know this, we expect them to practice for the test but not for it to turn into an epic drama, it is what it is.

I stand by my opinion that if the OP is so against "right or wrong" answers she picked the wrong year to stop HE, as she clearly knows this is a SATS year, and anyone who tells their dc "if you don't feel like doing it, leave the paper blank" is ridiculous IMHO, hardly the best life lesson is it?

I think doing tests every single day for weeks, and when this is backed up by instruction in how to pass the test, rather than continued education IS pressure because it emphasises all the time that doing well in the test is of utmost importance, above actually doing their work well or learning things.
Anyway, whatever it is that they are doing is being felt as pressure - DS is normally a calm, brave child, and his mate is confident and not 'high maintenance'. Both are definitley feeling the pressure, worrying, crying.

It is a school that is highly sought after, and until the last few months I have had nothing but praise for them. At the moment it feels like a SATS factory.

Well 3 parents in my dd's year hired tutors for SATS, I don't know of anyone in ds's year so that could have been a one-off. A lot of the kids had tutoring earlier in the year for private school exams though - now there was certainly pressure there.

I agree FarSideOfFuckingBalloons (brilliant name!) that the 'if you don't feel like doing it leave it blank' is a poor attitude. My dd takes GCSEs in next few weeks - would be great if she had that approach, eh? Or how about at work - 'no I won't follow up that customer as I don't feel like doing it'

2 kids in DS's class were tutored for the nearest super-selectives, but surely tutoring for SATS is way OTT?

Exactly, I didnt feel like getting up and going to work today but I did, my ds1 rarely feels like doing German homework but he has to do it.
My DCs do chores, they prob don't always want to do them but sadly for them they do not get an option, because I'm quite happy to say I DO tell my DCs what to do, as I am the adult and they live by my rules.

I'm shocked that people hire tutors for yr6 SATS though.

Blu,surely you were aware of the SATS before now and that they would have to revise?
Yr7 is around the corner, they are tested on a regular basis, one of the first things they do at the start of yr7 are CAT exams, and it goes on from there. They have tests every half term on every subject. The yr6 SATS help them prepare for the test/exam environment IMHO

I agree SATs tutoring was OTT. I think these dc's were all on the level 4/5 borderline, so it was to get them to 3 x level 5 prior to secondary school. Which is ridiculous because the first thing they do at secondary on entry is set CAT tests which I assume would pick out inconsistencies like this - there seems to be a desire to be in the top set for everything. Personally I don't care which set my dc's are in so long as it's the right one for them. Struggling at the bottom of a top set isn't a good place to be imo.

Yes, I was aware.

I have NO problem with the idea of pressure, or pushing children to achieve their best. But I do find all this constant testing not very useful and that the way DS's school cram and routine endless test papers engenders boredom with the work and anxiety and stress over results.

I work in educational projects - I don't think this is the best of 'education'.

And how early, exactly, should this preparation for endless exams start? When I was at school, mock GCSEs was soon enough.

My dd was very upset this morning as she had not been able to complete the sats paper she was given for homework.

I rang the school and I told them that I was aware that yr5 sats were not compulsory and that i did not want my dd to think that they were the be all and end all. The teacher said if she felt pressured then she would not give her anymore papers to bring home this week but she would still be expected to practice in school. Dd tells me that at the end of today, the teacher told the year 5's that if they wanted to practice at home they could, but that none of them would be expected to do it.

The teacher also said she had no choice in whether they practiced the papers, and that she was following school policy.

So at our little school, the school is pressuring the teachers and the teachers are pressuring the kids and some children can't handle it.

GrungeBob - your ppint about being in the right set is exactly one of my reasons for being disappointed in the school for this level of SATS crammming - whether the school does it, or parents do it, is it really in the best interests of the child?

It's possible that intensive preparation in DS's school may well be because it is a school where a significant proportion of pupils will not get any support at home.

Blu, you think a few months before GCSE is adequate time to start learning about revision, coping with pressure of exams etc??

They will go into yr7 and straight into CAT testing, they are tested in every subject 6-8 times a year to ensure they have a good grasp of subject matter, if you think testing is a bad thing until age 15 we will agree that we have very different opinions.

My dd is starting her GCSE next year, I'm glad she has had the last 4 years to adjust to exam conditions tbh