awesome SATS letter from DDs school

[SATSmum]

dd is year 6, she came home with this letter today. (they finish early on Friday) I was in tears.
This why I love our school

Dear Year 6 pupils,

You may have seen lots in the news over the last week about SATS. Next week you will get up and sit your SATS tests that everyone is talking about for mathematics, reading and grammar. We all know that you have been working incredibly hard and we are all proud of your hard work and effort in class. Your work ethic and commitment to your learning is exceptional.

There is though something very important that you need to know:
These tests don't assess you as the amazing individuals that you are. They don't show you that every one of you is special and unique, and that you have many talents. They do not show that you may be an incredible dancer, a born performer, play a musical instrument, a computer whizz, keen basketball player or a fabulous footballer. They also do not show the wonderful values that you show every single day. They do not show what a kind friend you are, how you help the younger children in our school, or how your smile makes others smile with you.

Just remember you are smart, brilliant and amazing individuals. No test can ever measure that!

Believe in yourselves and have a great and restful weekend.

Best wishes,

Headteacher name and all of our school team.

lovely thought, but its not an original :) Its more or less lifted from something sent around the internet a couple of years ago.

Doesn't detract from the point its making to the kids though!

I don't mind if it isn't original, I just think it is lovely they gave it to all the kids today.
I think it is because it is something I can imagine the head saying to the class that it rings true for us.

The school my kids go to sent that out last year, I think it's a lovely thing to do. The head said that it wasn't her words but she agrees wholeheartedly with it.

I saw this on Facebook from a local school. Think it's great!

At my dcs secondary my 14 year ds his where never used,my dd 13 hers have been used to see which option form you get for GCSE

"Can the results at key stage 2 affect which stream you go into at high school??"

Yes they can, but it depends on the school.

DD's only had sets for maths in Y7 and they were based on scores in the KS2 SATs. They also use the average of the Maths SAT, Reading SAT and Writing teacher-assessment to set the baseline for all their progress reporting etc.

many schools do CAT testing in year 7, they base their expectations etc on this. (because they say SATs are so inaccurate)

Many schools also only stream children from Oct half term, once they have had a chance to see what they can do.
It varies from school to school. It should also be true that a child put into a low set who achieves well would be moved up.

Even if it was a letter which is doing the rounds, dd came out chuffed to bits and handed it to me, so it had the desired effect!

I don't think it's a great letter.
You may have seen lots in the news over the last week about SATS. Next week you will get up and sit your SATS tests that everyone is talking about for mathematics, reading and grammar

No letter is at all is better

peaches - they have been doing SATs practice for weeks, the week before last they had a week of mock SATs.

Believe me, they know they are doing them! They are year 6, not year 2.

I think Peaches is complaining about the letter's poor grammar...

It's done the rounds at least twice in the UK and was originally lifted from an American letter. The first head to lift it didn't bother to change the Americanisms.

It is a nice idea but a bit disingenuous to pass it off as their own.

No letter is at all is better

?

I think I will show my dd this tomorrow OP. I'm not impressed with her schools approach lately and I think some kinds words go a long way with a sensitive child who has felt the pressure.

kind words not kinds.

My dd had the same letter, I thought it was great. I had figured out it wasn't completely original as this kind of genuine sentiment is far beyond the abilities of my dc's head teacher but it was appreciated nonetheless.

The sentiment is great, but I would not want my kids educated in a school where the head's grammar and punctuation is even half that bad.

My son got a similar (but not the same) letter on Friday. They've also been listening to weird motivational recordings about how great they are.

Believe me, they know they are doing them! They are year 6, not year 2

I didn't say they did, but a letter which begins.

'You may have seen lots in the news over the last week about SATS. Next week you will get up and sit your SATS tests that everyone is talking about for mathematics, reading and grammar'

is building the SATS up as something a lot more important than the children perceive them to be.

I saw a wonderful one on FB this weekend from a teacher telling her Y2s to go home, play in the garden, eat Haribo and ice cream, and do no more than an hours homework.

Do the kids actually care? It seems to me the teachers and head teachers who are the ones getting stressed!

Yes the kids care.
My school took part in the union boycott in 2010 and we had weeping children who wanted to take the tests

sorry, been out! (doing fun stuff to prepare for SATS)

The kids do care and they do perceive them to be important.