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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

grrr flippen Sat's

36 replies

Ibelieve123 · 09/05/2016 13:49

My 6 yo ds came home from school on Fri in a real state. He was frustrated & upset he didn't do very well in a test.
Of course I reassured him it didn't matter, that as long A he tried his best I would be proud wet her he get 0/10 or 100/100.
He's gone into school this morning to face a whole week more.
He already has more homework than his 10 yo sister. Physically he is just not able to take in any more information. He sits their every night & really tries his best.
If he remembers not to get his 'b' & 'd' confused in a sentence that's a great achievement for him. (Btw he doesn't have SEN just the youngest in class & behind where he should be)
My frustration is why? What is the point of testing 6 yr old that are only just beginning their learning journey? Is it really necessary to put undue mental stress on children that young?
Do our (without doubt in my ds school) fantastic hard working teachers need this extra work load put on them?
Could someone please explain their purpose to me. Cause it just seems someone in the education depth was bored 1 day & made up this crazy idea of testing children who are only just learning their times table, to create more paper work?!

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Original poster

Ibelieve123 · 09/05/2016 13:52

Sorry, I'm just reading this post back. & my awesome phone has done a great job with its predictive txts & correcting my grammar! (Not)

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InternationalHouseofToast · 09/05/2016 13:58

No, but as another parent of a year 2 doing Sats, who you could just see shutting down when we got the test paper out of his bag as homework, I'm with you. This is an appalling system.

It also grates how Mrs Morgan keeps on about tests for 7 year olds. My son won't be 7 for months and it's disingenuous to give the impression the kids doing these tests are older than they are. On the continent they wouldn't be doing formal writing yet but there they are supposed to read a 2 page comprehension peice on their own and fully answer 8 questions.

DS made a mistake on the one sent hom as homework. I said not to worry because you can write the correct answer under the line. Aparently you can't - DS got all upset and said the answer can't come off the line at all as it won't count. What sort of crap is this? These poor kids.

CocktailQueen · 09/05/2016 14:02

You can say no. I'd write to the teacher/the HT and say that you're happy to do reading, spellings, etc., but you're not doing any revision homework for SATs.

Bloody ridiculous, the whole thing. Best way to put kids off school. They need to play at the end of the day, not do more homework!

Phonicks · 09/05/2016 14:06

The whole thing is crazy! We had booster classes for the phonics test!

BaboonBottom · 09/05/2016 14:09

Its so damaging for them, at this age they so want to do their best, they so want to do well and please. It is completely counter productive to send home the papers and damaging for your child, they do enough of it at school.
I am on a bit of a one woman mission at the moment with my eldest's school (he's 7 and a half and gets his b's and d's round the wrong way too) as they are having to re-do tests they've done wrong or "not well enough'. I would do as cocktail queen said and get in contact with the head teacher to tell her 'no'. Although how you manage telling your child without stressing them that they aren't doing it, i don't know.

lisaneedsarest · 09/05/2016 14:11

I agree, my ds (7) has had so much more homework than ds1 (9). He hates doing the homework, and it's hard going and full on! I've just not made him do it to be honest, maybe that's the wrong way to go but I don't want an argument and a sad child because of some stupidly hard curriculum that clearly someone who has never even met a 6/7 year old has devised!
I'm expecting many tears this week - he's not mentioned it at all yet and neither have I, but he hates change and will hate spending time sitting the tests and then doing different stuff with different teachers the rest of the time!

Original poster

Ibelieve123 · 09/05/2016 14:14

To be fair on top of the ridiculous amount of homework they have had. I did download sample papers & I've been practising those with him so added to his work load myself.
The thing is your right. He's completely put off school.
I'm not showing him I completely agree with him, just trying to reassure him that no matter what I will be proud. & I guess I'm lucky I've a little boy that cares. (I'm sure a lot of 6 yo wouldn't get frustrated with themselves )
I spoke to TA this morning & asked to keep an eye on him.
But I'm really not pressuring him anymore.

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TheWildRumpyPumpus · 09/05/2016 14:16

I think this is more about how your school handles it.

We had no revision papers home for KS1 SATS, and DS1 didn't seem to know that the tests he was taking were anything special. He certainly never asked for his results after the fact.

We have them coming up with DS2 next year and I expect/hope it will be the same for him.

TheWildRumpyPumpus · 09/05/2016 14:18

X post. I really wouldn't bother downloading extra work for him at home - his result in the KS1 sats really means very little to anyone but the school. Whatever standard they get him to in the classroom ought to be the result they achieve as a school.

Original poster

Ibelieve123 · 09/05/2016 14:21

The school said they were going to keep things light.
Wed morning he walked into class room desks set put formally, all work on walls covered up with brown paper.
This morning they had to go into class room (still looking the same )
Then down to hall for test. So it most definitely did not look light & easy!.
I'm glad I'm not alone thinking that its just completely unnecessary pressure.

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DubiousCredentials · 09/05/2016 14:24

Not all schools operate like this op. I have a dd in yr2 and she isn't quite blissfully unaware of the sats but not far off. We have had a "quiz sheet"(aka test paper) or two over the last few weeks but there is none of this extra work or pressure that you have experienced.

DubiousCredentials · 09/05/2016 14:24

And the teacher moved their tables into sats positions weeks ago. Not sure about walls being covered though.

lisaneedsarest · 09/05/2016 14:25

Thewild things have changed massively since last year, when ds1 took them there was no extra homework sent home as they had been learning the stuff they needed already and the curriculum was much easier. This year they have made loads of changes and as such the yr2's are needing to learn a huge amount more in a small space of time, they are expected to know 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 times tables, addition problems, complicated spellings, very in depth English comprehension work and lots of grammar. From now on this stuff will be taught from yr1, so I guess will start to get easier for them but this years yr2 will have had it particularly hard.

DubiousCredentials · 09/05/2016 14:28

These yr twos have had this curriculum since yr1 too though lisa.

lisaneedsarest · 09/05/2016 14:28

I have to say, the school my ds is at are keeping it relaxed as much as they can and as I said my ds seems blissfully unaware. However they have no choice but to cram in as much work as possible to get them up to the standard and also allow them to even understand what the test questions are like so they are capable of answering them - it's not that the kids don't know the answers but how the questions are asked which is hard in a lot of cases!

lisaneedsarest · 09/05/2016 14:30

This is the first year of the new sats, although they've had the curriculum it's only in this academic year that teachers knew what the sats would be testing. In fact it has changed already a couple of times this year.

ineedamoreadultieradult · 09/05/2016 14:30

I agree the SATS are ridiculous but it is the schools who put the stress on the kids. DS1 didn't know he was doing SATS just that he was doing 'special worksheets' he didn't know you got a score and didn't have any extra homework.

lisaneedsarest · 09/05/2016 14:34

I think it also depends on kids, some kids at my ds's school are stressed and worried about getting things wrong my ds is unaware.
Ds1 was concerned about them when he did them, he knew they were SATs tests and wanted to make sure he did well. Again others in his year were also blissfully unaware.

PotteringAlong · 09/05/2016 14:34

So you think the school is being ridiculous but you downloaded sample tests and made him do them? At 6? You can disagree with the school but you've played your own part in this one too.

JeffreySadsacIsUnwell · 09/05/2016 14:47

I also have a young Y2 DC. She's definitely blissfully unaware of SATS - she's been complaining that nobody's tested her spellings recently because they're all too busy, and she spent a couple of hours doing maths online at the weekend 'because they haven't had time to do maths at school this week'. When I asked what they had been doing, she told me that they were 'cloud-gazing in the playground' - lying on their backs staring at the sky on a sunny day on Friday. The 'work' bit of this was apparently coming up with 5 adjectives to describe clouds, but DD said they were lying there so long she and her friends came up with 55(!!!).

Most of the parents are oblivious too - I overheard one Y2 parent tell another that she was so glad our school has opted out of SATS. It hasn't!! They were mentioned in the welcome meeting at the beginning of the year and we were told the school would be taking a low-key approach and didn't want the children to be under any pressure. That was it. No homework, no practice papers.

Original poster

Ibelieve123 · 09/05/2016 15:05

I don't think the school are being ridiculous, they didn't come up with the idea of testing 6 yo. & I feel for the teacher's it's a massive extra workload. But
I think the tests are unecessary at this age and since my ds has to do them of course I'm going to support him in every way possible. Just like most other parents.
I have been adding a few extra questions a time from sample papers onto whatever homework he was doing that day.
So maybe 3/4 from the maths paper. if he had maths homework that day.
So it was a very gentle way of working through them.

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FarAwayHills · 09/05/2016 15:08

How well a child can cope with SATS is very much dependant on the child's age, their personality, how the school approaches tests and parental attitude.

It is unfair that a 6 year old naturally anxious child should have to compete with a confident 7 almost 8 year old in the same test.

ShelaghTurner · 09/05/2016 15:23

Sounds horrendous. Our head doesn't like the sats and keeps them as low key as possible. Consequently my super anxious dd1 didn't even know she'd done a test until she came home afterwards thank goodness. No homework or practise papers sent home at all.

Cookiesandcoffee · 09/05/2016 15:31

This sounds awful. My daughter is in Y2 (summer born, not 7 until Aug) and sitting her SATS. She has no idea what's going on - and is really quite switched on. We haven't mentioned 'tests' and neither has her teacher. Why even worry or stress them? Why print off test papers? Her class haven't been given homework other than reading or spellings, all of which was discussed in advance at parents evening last term. Not the schools or heads fault that they have to be taken, but the way it's handled can be changed. I would be talking to the school. And, not to criticise, not printing off test papers...

DubiousCredentials · 09/05/2016 15:55

But your school is being ridiculous if this is how it is dealing with sats. The tests are set by the government, but the manner the school deals with them is entirely up to them surely? As shown by several posters on here who have dc who are unaware of the tests.

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