Home ed for one term/SATs

[karaokesmokey]

I'm considering home education for the half term between Easter and May half term for DD in year six. Re SATs-Yes, that is deliberate, and the point.

We don't have pressure on school places here, and DD is in the 2nd admission criteria. I do not imagine they will fill her place, and that is a risk I'm willing to take. (Worst case scenario, I can home ed for the second half of the term, too).

The school will not be chuffed, for obvious reasons. My question is, if they have a place available, and we are top of the list, and apply for it just before May half term for her to return after the half term, can they deny her it?

I don't wish to discuss the merits of SATs here, just whether pissing the school off can affect admissions.

Alternatively, is the £60 fine per absence, or per day? If DD misses SATs week, and I've ensured she's had access to the internet, my reading tells me she then can't sit them. Is that true?

I'm young enough to have taken sats. We had all sorts of other assessments, including the 11+. Trust me, she isn't taking them.

I'm curious about your dd's feelings on the subject of completing the tests/leaving her friends?

OK. Bear the following in mind.

Some secondary schools put them in sets based on SATs results until after Christmas. I am assuming your child is very bright- you do not want her to spend a term in the wrong sets.

She will miss out on lots of fun- and the goodbyes to her classmates. That is not something to be taken lightly unless she is very unhappy at school.

Children generally don't like to be singled out from their friends- think carefully about whether she will be happy with this.

Doing things for the sole reason of pissing someone else off- in this case a primary school (if I am guessing right) is generally a bad thing to do- it is unsettling and bad for your soul or spirit or karma or whatever you choose to call it - and a really bad example to your daughter.

Oh, and for those who wish they had gone private for year 6- many private schools have an examination schedule that makes SATs look like play school!

Does your DD know you decided to H.ed her? Is she ok with it?
My ds will hate me/us if I/ We decided to take him out from school.

I am not doing it to deliberately piss the school off. Don't try and guess. I don't wish to go in to my reasons. I love the school. DD loves the school. I don't love the school enough to allow DD to do sats. I feel very strongly.

DD has always known she will not be sitting year six sats, and may need to miss the summer term for this to occur.

I don't object to assessment per se. I object to sats.

I nearly typed why I object, then remembered this is a bunch of strangers on the internet.

Take as read- DD is not sitting sats. I am her mother. She doesn't sit sats the same way she doesn't go on sleepovers with the friend whose mum's an alcoholic.

If you've always known that she wouldn't be sitting SATS and would have to miss the summer term, why on earth have you paid for the residential.

It seems a little cruel to have got her hopes up that she would go, if in practice there is a huge chance that she won't be able to.

You seem to have done enough research into SATs that you would have known that you would have no option but to remove her from school in order to avoid them.

I don't have no option.

I thought she'd be able to get a place back again. (There is quite a bit of movement in and out of our school due to the demographic, kids go off for a bit, and come back). Then, I had a panic that if the school were really pissed off, could they over-ride that. Hence the OP.

I'd planned for her to be out from after Easter to May. So, I paid for the June week away, because she'd be back for then. Then I had the thought 'what if they don't let her back?' So I posted here.

Then I had a thought "everyone else has had term time holidays, we never had" and read up on that, where I saw the bit about children with access to the internet. So I thought I'd clarify whether that would be an option, too, and whether to risk the fines.

DD knows she won't be sitting sats. Has always known that. It allows her to take an 'amused observer' stance to the stress, I hope.

She won't be sitting them. I don't have to tell you why I feel this way. I am aware she will be assessed through secondary. She still isn't sitting year 6 sats. We'll cross year 9 sats when we get to them, as then her opinion will matter more, but I will give her the option of not sitting those, or never telling her the result.

I posted here to get guidance about how to achieve her not sitting sats, given the plan, the panic and the thought.

How does she feel about it?

Going by the thread- unless triplet, previously looked after, catholic children move opposite the school, she can go on the residential.

How do your children feel you won't let them play on the motorway?

Her feelings, while important, and I explore with her, do not change my decision in her best interests, as her parent.

You do know year 9 SATS haven't happened for ages, don't you?

And you are prepared to make her miss her residential because of SATs?

When she goes to secondary, she will have exam weeks and mock GCSE week and GCSEs and mock A Levels etc. If she goes to uni she will have degree level exams.

Do you plan to withdraw her from all assessments, or have you just got an issue with these?

There aren't any Y9 SATS. I expect there will be many more tests though.

Y9 SATs no longer exist.

So the next important exams she will have will be GCSEs. Which will probably be 100% based on an exam. (Well around 30 exams)

How odd. I can't think of any parents who let their children play on motorways?

It is highly unlikely she will have to miss the residential. TBH, she isn't bothered about it and is liable to decide she doesn't wantto go at the last minute, anyway.

I am relieved to hear year 9 sats are gone! Thanks.

It's just sats I object to so strongly. She's not doing them.

I feel about sats the way you feel about children on motorways.

"Oh, and for those who wish they had gone private for year 6- many private schools have an examination schedule that makes SATs look like play school!"

In my area the only high pressure exams that private school kids sit is entrance exams to selective secondaries in year 6. There is no compulsion to enter a child for selective private schools. Plenty of private schools are non selective or the exam pressure is in year 8 with common entrance. In fact non selective private primary schools are more likely to have places in year 6.

Secondary school can hope with children who have not done SATs. Lots immigrant children with limited English end up in the top sets by the time they get into year 11. Secondaries are on the lookout for potential which is why they look beyond SATs.

GCSEs are different. Totally different.

I'm bowing out, here. Thanks for those who helped on the points in my OP re reregistering.

I did say I wasn't interesting in discussing the merits of sats.

I'm not. Hiding thread.

So, it's just statutory examinations which both rank schools and begin with an 's' that you object to.

I see. Well, that sounds entirely rational.

This is one of the strangest viewpoints that I have ever read. Likening a few tests to playing on a motorway or staying with an alcoholic...?

But why? And why don't you want to say? As you say, we are a bunch of randoms on the Internet and you might have an idea that might be good for our dc too. I have quite a sensitive dd and am wondering if that is your reason?

Plus the school will presumably be doing practice Sats tests. ?

I suppose the issue you have to consider is whether the risk of her missing the residential etc outweighs the advantages of her not doing sats. From what you have said, her missing the sats is paramount so you really do just have to pull her out of school and hope for the best. From what you've said home school then hope she can go back.

And for those who think that private schools don't do sats; that is not always true. They often call sats "Y6 exams" and don't big them up as much.