SATS overkill - anyone else fed-up?

[Snowsquonk]

So DD is in year 6....first term not too bad, lots of topic work, fab PE lessons with an Olympic standard athelete coming in regularly, mock SATS each half term....

So far this term...no art, music or drama and half an hour a week PE in order to make room for daily spelling, puncutation and grammer revision. No new concepts in numeracy or literacy, but lots of revision. Weekly mental maths tests. Mock SATS last week.

After half term - no topic work at all, just SATS revision.....plus the school now wants parents to buy their approved SATS revision workbooks....

When asked, the teachers could not say how the SATS would benefit the children....

Is it me or is this mad?

DS1 is in yr2 so he's preparing for SATs here, he likes the academic side but they are starting to put pressure on the children. I'm not averse to pressure and think that to the right child it can do them good.

I'm not keen on 50 question maths papers for 6/7year olds, mind. I didn't think they were tested in this way so young?

DD1 had a relatively relaxed time with the SATs
OFSTED downgraded the school, basically on 3-4 level 4s that could have been 5s
DD2 had SATs revision coming out of her ears.

As far as I'm concerned it's not the SATs that are the problem it's league tables and OFSTED.

I suspect all our local rural schools do a pretty similar job and prepare their pupils reasonably well for secondary.

Grading them outstanding, good or needs improvement on the basis of a few numbers (that no way would be considered statistically significant in any other walk of life) is ridiculous.

DD2's class were a way more academic cohort, there results would have been higher than DD1s group if they'd done 50% PE for the whole of Y6

Their

Totally agree bruffin, I never even realised when my DS did his first lot of SATS & he has been at three separate primary schools and none of them gave him any pressure over SATs.

Its a bit like parents complaining that their children get too much homework, my DS is now at secondary school and after three primaries and now a secondary school I can honestly say he has never had more than 20 minutes homework a couple of times a week - and I am a parent that really believes in giving children homework !! Where are these schools ? !!

Well our Y2's arent even aware they are doing Sats. Last year we had a parent in asking when they were and we said we had already done them! Our head would hit the roof if we were seen to be pressurising the children. In a way being the county a special needs focus plays to our beneift as their levels have to be included in the % and of course this brings the % getting a level 4etc in y6 right down. Doesnt mean our mainstream children dont do really well as they do but this fact is masked by the overall scores.
We actually have a primary near us that get 100% getting a 4b or above in ALL the reading, writing and numeracy! The pressure the children are under is awful. I have a friend who took her child out as she didnt like what she could see.
It does make me cross though as children arent little machines. Just because one school might get lower % doesnt mean the teachers arent doing their jobs properly!