Bloody SATS

[Ledkr]

I know they are important to schools but its madness at dds school. They've gone on and on at them a out it for months, extra homework, extra lessons and generally created a great deal of expectation and stress.
Poor dd gets migraines and they are currently rife due to her worry over sats. She thinks they will impact on her going to her already allocated secondary school.
Then yesterday she came out with a list her teacher had given them. Apparently it's bed early a d a good breakfast (preferably cooked) which obviously all children need everyday.
It seems ott to me but hey.
Anyone got any comparisons?

I'll second Bloody SATS Ledkr DS2 has been given the past papers homework pile from hell for the weekend.

Here is my stressy thread re pencils.

dd did SATS last year and they gave her a timetable for the week before along with breakfast ideas and a meal idea for the day before SATS started...
Timetable was stuff like 7;30am wake up, 8;00 good breakfast 9:00 school, etc. But it was completely different to everyone's timetable-everyone woke up at different time.

Haha like we don't give then a good breakfast any other day.
I' might give dd mc ds brekkie every morning out of spite.
Why are they so obsessed?

I've told my year 6's to go and enjoy the weekend and NOT to do any homework! I run a breakfast club during SATs week ( because some of ours come to school without any!) and we play ball games for a bit before breakfast-just to wake us all up!
( Actually the reason we become "obsessive" is that OFSTED and parents judge schools on their results, the pressure on Year 6 teachers can be HUGE I want my Year 6's to do the best they can to show off, the school wants them to do the best they can to keep OFSTED from the door!

They are so obsessed because sadly schools are judged on the results they get. The progress the children make doesn't matter anymore according to the new ofsted criteria, it's all about every child getting the expected level. Trust me, the teachers hate them as much as you and the children.

We are providing breakfast before school (most won't have had breakfast at home) In past years we have opened the pool before school for a swim or splash around ...children have been told to relax definitely no homework.

I have just looked at DS's HW pile-

He has spellings (15) to be learnt by Thursday. Then select 5 of the words and write a sentence using them containing an adverb. adjective and connective and colour code them.

A past maths SATS paper.

A 9 page English paper about Synonyms and antonyms, superlatives and I and Me.

What a fun weekend. The maths paper looks hard.

Obviously the school don't know a great deal about preparing for exams/tests Sparkling

But he has been doing past papers for months mrz. He is actually still asleep. I won't wake him up to do SATs stuff.

My DC's school and the school where I teach have given instructions only to have a relaxing weekend. Both do breakfast each day during SATs week.

The pressure on the school and the yr6 teachers is immense. Your pupils MUST show 2 levels of progress in KS2... OR ELSE! It's horrible . The teachers are stressed and sleepless. Every room has been booked out for the ones needing extra time and/or readers. Two members of staff for each group, even if it's just a single child. It impacts the entire school. We're ALL glad when it's over... school disco on Friday!

Our pupils and staff are quite relaxed ... Y6 teacher and pupils just back from a Comenius visit to Turkey, swimming in the Med, climbing Mt Olympus and making new friends

I hated exams. Sitting at a desk in rows with the invigilator clopping up and down. All that 'turn your papers over' and 'ten minutes to go'. Makes me feel peculiar just thinking about it. That was at High School too.

When I was at DS1's school I saw one of those 'QUIET! Exams in Progress' signs and felt a bit sick.

SATS are a swear word in this household at the moment.

I have sent DD away on pack holiday this weekend. Alot of the parents decided not to let their DDs go as they had revision to do.

My DD is so stressed by them. The school have been practising since after Christmas.

The school DD goes to in Sept. has their own test system as they know the primaries teach to the SATS and the DC are often lower than the grade achieved.

Roll on the end of next week.

Then DS2 starts his GCSE exams!!

DS2 doesn't go to High School til Year 8. I will be more interested in next year's CAT scores.

My DD was supposed to be doing the level 6 SATs for both maths and English but I had to put a stop to maths. If she was pushed really hard she could probably have got a fair mark but the stress it was causing her really wasn't worth it. She's 11 FFS.

If she's going to be having sleepless nights I want it to be in excitement about something fantastic, not stress due to tests that won't have any real impact on her education.

When my DS did his SATs at the same school three years ago it wasn't anything like as pressured.

Our schools been horrendous this year! Both my girls will be doing their Sats next week, one year two, one year 6 thankfully the little ones haven't been too bad but the older ones, they've had kids in tears with the stress, im lucky that my older daughter is so laid back, she was put in two groups for extra work as she's sitting level 6 as well and then on top of that the amount of past papers they've had to do has been unbelievable to the point they've barely had any free time, think the teacher must feel under so much pressure this year as she's been really off and more aggressive in her attitude to the kids which isn't like her. My other little girl has sen so im hoping its kept very low key and chilled out for her as she got pretty upset with a practice test in exam conditions. To be honest ill be glad when its over and done with so they can enjoy the rest of the year and fun things that are coming up

No - in Y6 there are two results in Reading and Maths - a teacher assessment and a test result. It's teacher assessment only for writing and a test result only for the new SPAG.

The two results in Reading and Maths are supposed to have equal weighting, but they don't - OFSTED is only interested in the test results, and have planned their agenda around them before they even arrive.

DS1 did them at the same school in 2010. I don't remember this level of stress from then.

It gets harder every year to escape the clutches of OFSTED! This year , it is expected that as a minimum standard, all schools should have at least 60 per cent of pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 achieving a level four or above in both English and mathematics( which is relatively easy to achieve) and not be below the median school scores for the percentage of pupils making expected progress between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 in English and in mathematics. In 2012, the median school score for English was 92 per cent and for mathematics 90 per cent.
SO you need to be above average to be above floor targets, and so everyone has to be above average!!

Year 2 report the teacher assessment level x.

Nothing, no stress, bit of excitement & nerves. School had a netball tournament this week. Maybe they were told to relax. DD & a bunch of other yr6 girls are meeting in town for shopping today.

DD says the reading test is hardest one so she's quite glad it's the first day, get it over & done with.

Regardless of your take on how much pressure is acceptable in the few months beforehand (extra classes, past papers etc etc) surely only the dimmest teacher/Head could think extra work the weekend before is a good thing...I prescribe fun, sleep, playing, chilling and decent breakfasts all round for all year 6s this weekend!

I know a local headteacher who has promised the children who achieve the top two highest marks in the school £50 cash each.

How's that for pressure - not to mention elitism and bribery?