Year 6 SATs ruining my son's mental health

[ReallyTired]

We have just had parents evening and it wasn't get. Ds is doing sweet FA in class and is being threatened with being demoted from the top table. At the moment ds is suffering from anxiety and I believe that this is the reason that he is under performing in the classroom. We are waiting for a referal to see a pychologist as ds is too young to be prescribed medication. Ds' teacher knows this.

The stupid cow launched into him that key stage 2 SATs have a serious affect on his future, which is utter bollux. Ds finished year 5 with 4a for maths, 5c for reading and 4b for writing. At the moment he is not performing to these levels as he is frankly ill. It does not help him to tell him that he is not top table standard at the moment.

I feel that the stupid bitch of a teacher needs to take a step back and stop stressing him. The poor child is feeling suicidal at the age of ten.

If if ds does crash out in his key stage 2 SATs I don't believe it will change the course of his life. No exam is that important.

Bizarre!!

I just tried to post this but it popped elsewhere.

Do we have a school Admin boff who can comment on what it means for a school if a y6 child misses siting the KS2 SATs? Does the school get fined or marked down by Ofsted in some way?

The school is marked as that child not having achieved level 4. So in a class of 30, the school is down 4% straight away.

And don't call me a boff

School will be marked down (obviously the child hasn't sat the test - the bigger the school the less the impact of one child) the school will not be fined.

But OFSTED will come calling if results are low!

If you have a 3 form intake one child won't make any difference, if on the other hand you have a year group of 10 then it will be very noticeable.

Hi Really

I have a similar situation with my DD. She had very similar levels at the end of Y5 and so is a borderline for a L5 across all subjects. Teacher is putting far more pressure on her than I think is appropriate - sending extra work home that no other kids are getting. DD is now feeling victimised, has decided she hates writing and doesn't like school (after years of loving it) Also now not sleeping and behaviour is going downhill.

I haven't got any great advice for you, as I'm not in a position to consider HE and haven't yet demanded swapping classes (she doesn't want to leave best friend). Just wanted you to know you're not alone. I've also been drumming into DD that SATS are for the teacher, not for her. Doesn't stop the pressure coming from school though.

I understand teachers have to work to targets. I have targets in my job, but I don't use children as the tools to reach them! A good teacher who cares about her pupils should be able to see which kids will respond to pushing, and which ones will just withdraw and do worse.

x

Wow, why does the missing child count as a result? Why not just count it as missing datum? (Realise my question is rhetorical & touches on boring political philosophy)

They probably think schools will send all their level 3 children home

As mrz says, it is to avoid abuse of the system by having all 'doubtful' children away on the day....

It's like for GCSEs, every child of the appropriate age has to be accounted for in some school or other... which can have some bizarre effects, as in a school I know of, having 1 child in prison and one literally in the maternity ward having a baby on the day of the exam takes them below the magic 'floor' percentage - but they can't be removed from the results because they HAVE to appear somewhere.

Oh fig, I understand your explanations but they just make the system seem that much more ridiculous. Wish they didn't publish the sodding league table data.

The tests are fine for a summative assessment as you say the league tables are the problem.

Are you sure there isn't more to his anxiety than this? It seems very very very unusual for a 10/11 yr old boy to be SO anxious about it more than 6 months before.My guess would be that there is something else causing this anxiety that he is hanging on the SATS hook.He might not even be able to easily identify what it is himself.

'a school I know of, having 1 child in prison and one literally in the maternity ward having a baby on the day of the exam '
please tell me it was a secondary school!!

Socharlotte it was GCSEs referred to, so I guess secondary.

Dd was ill in bed, in too much pain to either sit up in bed or hold a pen on SATS week so they sent round a TA to take her answers down by dictation.

At every point throughout junior school she was reminded of the damage she was doing to the school by her medical absences; noone ever suggested that her rights to an education were in any way of comparable interest to the school's right to a good Ofsted.

5 years later she is in danger of failing her GCSEs (having been predicted As and A*s across the board) due to anxiety and stress. It is not our fault, it is not the fault of her secondary school, it is what she learnt between Yr 3 and Yr 6.

My university also gets judged on the number of students who manage to complete our courses and potentially my job could be in the firing line. But I'm glad I manage to get through my working day without laying that stress on sick and vulnerable students. As far as they are concerned, I am there to support them; they are not there to worry about me. If I had to treat any human being the way my daughter was treated, I would not stay in that job.

Cory-why did you allow that?