Child nervous when taking SATS - how to help moving forward. Advice appreciated from parents & teacher please?

[soph252]

Hi there,

Just as a back ground - my ds has just finished yr2. He has always loved school and done well - yr 1 results were Maths 2c, Reading 2c and writing 1a, but apparently very close to a 2c. He is in top groups for reading and maths and recieves further extension lessons for these. He has never been the most confident of children and sometimes described as a bit nervy. Although this year has grown in confidence greatly, he always tries his hardest, but is sometimes unsure of himself and likes to be sure he knows he is doing things right.

The issue though and what I was hoping for some help with is that this year he was on course to get a 3b for maths, 3c for reading and borderline 2a/3c for writing. His results were 3c maths, 2a reading and 2a writing. According to his teacher he struggled in his SATS putting undue pressure on himself and panicking rather that using them as an opportunity to show what he is capable of. He got a lot of the easier questions wrong. Now my concern is that he wasn't aware he was doing SATS as such, just told by his teacher they were booklets to show what he has learnt, so it isn't like we put pressure on him. She is concerned that moving forward this will be an issue and he will constantly do badly in these tests. She is confident that the levels she says he is at are correct, but the SATS do not reflect this.

What can I do to help him with this and ensure this is not the case. In the coming years if he continues to do this will his mark/ level always be put down?

I really hope I can help him with this as 1 - I don't want him to worry and panic and 2 - I am concerned he won't achieve what he is capable of and this too will have a knock on effect to his confidence.

Or perhaps there isn't an awful lot I can do apart from continue to try and build his confidence and be happy that he is doing his best.

Sorry so long - I hope some of you can offer some advice though for him and me in how to best deal with this.

Thanks for reading - any ideas?

He's 7. He shouldn't even be aware he is being tested. He shouldn't be being tested at all poor little sod. Chill a bit.

That's my point - these were never discussed at home and the school told all of the children these were just little booklets to show the teacher what they had learnt this year, so he wasn't made aware they were tests.

Let's face it though children are quite astute and being sat apart and having to work in silence etc he obviously picked up on all of this and that is what made him nervous.

I agree and would love it if they weren't tested like this, but unfortunately they are! I was just looking for advice on how to help him chill a bit. I am more than happy with his progress, so am chilled in that respect, but am concerned about the impact this will have on him. I want to make sure next year he doesn't panic or worry and that his confidence continues to grow.

I'm a teacher and have a lot of experience with teaching Year 2 and SATs. I think your son's teacher has been very ambitious in predicting 3Bs. In fact, if I remember correctly, level 3 is not split into a/b/c for Year 2 SATs - they are just awarded 'Level 3'. This was a couple of years ago though, so it may have changed.

I've never predicted a 3B for a pupil in Year 2, and I have taught some VERY able pupils. Given that 2B is average, a child who achieves 2A is slightly above average and 3C is well above average anyway. I think 3B is overly ambitious and just makes you as a parent feel disappointed in your son's results, rather than - as you should be - feeling very proud and delighted that he is doing so well.

Personally, I wouldn't do anything about the way he tackled the SATs this year, you may end up making him nervous of any exam situation which is counter-productive. I would just work on skills like reading questions carefully, thinking about what it is asking you to do and trying to keep calm.

Well done to your little boy - he's a very bright young man - would love to have him in my class

I wouldn't panic. If your Juniors is anything like DCs they do a lot to prepare them for SATs over the next four years, I don't mean intense practice etc., which they don't do; but lots of doing "little booklets" sat in different patterns, even during years 5 and 6 lots of doing mental Maths from the teacher reading the questions, and then from listening to a CD. It does make the whole thing less scarey.
Some children react very very badly to any kind of pressure, even "you have 30 minutes to write a paragraph". The best thingis lots of practise, when it's easy/ not too hard to build confidence and familiarity with the testing setting.

But also age and maturity alter things a lot. My very nervous DD who used to have screaming fits when having to do Maths problems against time, last weekend voluntarily did a Music exam without more than normal amount of nerves.

littlecupcake has just pretty much covered it all :)
They shouldn't be that aware that they are being tested. It's all quite low key, and a good portion of teacher assessment. As Lcc says, there are no sublevels if they're awarded a 3. G&T children included. But as you say, there's a big difference between what he's potentially working at and his SAT scores. have you seen the APPs - as in what's in each national curriculum level? It might help you to know what to target. But bear in mind that these things have to be evidenced consistently over a long period of time, i.e. all term, to be assessed as achieved. Doing it once obviously wouldn't be enough.
As far as exam performance goes, some of us are just not good in that situation. Recently, I got 1st class in all my postgrad coursework, then dropped to a 2-2 on the exam, 2-1 on a good day. We're looking at about 20% below. You'd think at an ancient age and with tons of teaching experience that we'd be able to conquer it, wouldn;t you?! Luckily there is always coursework and teacher assessment to keep our grades up. Frustrating, but there it is.
DS1 is Aspie and a born worrier, but has managed to get to the point where he sees tests as a challenge to beat, and amazingly got himself a level 5. It can be done. As he gets older, he'll see a bit of how the thing works, and hopefully find some strategies with your support. Am also of the opinion to leave it for now, to avoid making an issue of the ks1 sats.

Thank you littlecupcake. I am so proud of him & your post brought a tear to my eye. His results are great and he has worked so hard and acheived lots with his confidence growing massively (trying to work with a stammer he has developed recently too). I just hate the thought of him panicking and worrying and that is pretty much what his teacher said. She said that it is such a shame he doesn't realise how able he is. He just seems to be one of those children who worries about letting people down or not getting things right. It's strange because he isn't like it with me - always been a bit nervy with other adults. Getting much better with age and confidence though.

Thank you for such a positive post - I will as you say do nothing about this years and moving forward just work on helping him with the skills you mention. Hopefully another year older and a little more confidence will mean he won't worry next time.

I would be delighted for him to have a teacher who is as lovely and positive as you sound. Thank you.

I forgot to say - one thing I tell the children when they are doing tests (of any kind) is that it is to show me what they can do, and that some of the questions may be a little bit tricky, but that's to help me find out what I need to teach them next. I find that this helps to eliminate a bit of the panic when they come across a question that they can't do.

Rather than telling the children that it is testing what they know, you could say that SATs are testing the teachers to see how well they have taught the children (but I would use caution with this one - some kids might not want their teacher to do well, so they may not try very hard)!!

MrsShrek3 - I agree; the APPs would help OP find out the areas of relative weakness that she could work on with her son (I say relative because if he's achieving those sorts of levels, they are not weaknesses at all, just areas that DS finds more challenging).

Corrrrr, teachers that make parents feel that their child's excellent results could have been better make me mad! Grrrrrr.

It is great and reassuring to hear how others have overcome the nerves. I guess me worrying about it will definitely not help the issue, so will just support him anyway I can, but hope that maturity and age do help.

Mrsshrek3 & Mummytime - Sounds like your DS1 & DD overcame this, you must be very proud with their achievements and happy that they over came their nerves/ worrying.

Just a few issues with littlecupcake's replies:

'I'm a teacher and have a lot of experience with teaching Year 2 and SATs. I think your son's teacher has been very ambitious in predicting 3Bs. In fact, if I remember correctly, level 3 is not split into a/b/c for Year 2 SATs - they are just awarded 'Level 3'. This was a couple of years ago though, so it may have changed.'

Straight level 3s and 4s are indeed reported to parents (without sublevels), but the school will be tracking the progress of all their pupils using sublevels and/or Average Point Scores (APS). A 3b is certainly possible in Y2, as is a 3a and 4. Secure and high level 3s, are, of course, ambitious targets, but the teachers should know the children well enough to ensure they are also realistic targets.

'I've never predicted a 3B for a pupil in Year 2, and I have taught some VERY able pupils. Given that 2B is average, a child who achieves 2A is slightly above average and 3C is well above average anyway. I think 3B is overly ambitious and just makes you as a parent feel disappointed in your son's results, rather than - as you should be - feeling very proud and delighted that he is doing so well. '

'VERY' able pupils should be working well within level 3. I have given 3bs as targets (information I don't share with parents) and children have achieved them. A 2b is not 'average'. It is 'the expected level' for a Y2 child.

Many children make silly mistakes on the Y2 maths SATs. Some of this can be attributed to their comprehension of the questions. There are lots of words! Uber-confident children don't ask for help in the reading because they think they're right, and the shy ones don't ask for help because they are scared to! Loss/loss situation! We read the questions to the children, as we believe it is a test of maths, not of reading ability.
At the end of the day, it isn't that important. The test in Y2 is only used to support the teacher's assessment. Evidence from books will define the end of year level and can override the test results.