grrr flippen Sat's

[Ibelieve123]

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?!

Your school are definitely the problem. My Dd's didn't even know they were doing Y2 sats.

I have two children, one year 2 and one year 6 both doing the SATs. When my first child did them in year 2, there was no mention of them whatsoever, nothing was bought home, there no pressure on him. My younger one (still at the same school, different head teacher) has been sent home with SATs revision books to complete, I have let her pick up and do these if she wants to, only. Parents were invited to a SATs meeting, where you could tell the teachers did not really know what was expected of the children, as it is new to them too, this year! My older child has had mock tests since January, last week a mock test a day. There is far to much pressure on both if them, i do not think our school has helped. I find it very frustrating!

There is no longer joy or discovery or a desire to understand something just for the sheer hell of it anymore.

Obviously many teachers try to add it into a crowded curriculum but it's not built in to the system.

We are teaching kids not to take risks, that there is only one right answer and that the important thing is getting things right, not the process. We should be teaching children to embrace not knowing something, working out how they can find it out and assisting that journey.

I hate the current education system

Unfortunately this year the rules for administering the tests make it impossible for children not to know they are being tested. Classroom seating has to be organised to prevent copying, wall displays covered and children escorted to the toilet so that is not the school.
The mad thing is that the results aren't even reported.

I used to teach Y2 and we never did 'sats' we did 'special fun activity booklets' and they got to go in small groups out with the lovely ta and 'have a go'.

Each one was finished off with a 'oh my goodness, look how well you did on that activity' and a treat at the end of the couple of weeks (I takes bloody ages to do tests that way but it's definitely the best way). My class bloody loved sats, not that they knew what they were

That sounds such a good approach kitty!!
I bet they would get even better results then too if kids are relaxed & enjoying it.
As said before the school is really lovely, I'm not blaming them at all. (I'm not even sure they agree with them to be honest) just frustrated at the need to give this too 6 year old. I have older children as well & don't remember them having this. So I think this year they have been approached in a different way.
Either way our children are all brilliant, &awesome
Non of us need a piece of paper to tell us that

Yep, schools hands are tied this year. It's really bad

In previous years, when children only had to do one maths paper and one reading paper, it was possible to administer them without the children knowing what they were. Now that all children do two maths papers and two reading papers, including one which is comparable to the old level 3 paper, it is not so easy.

Yes the tests are ridiculous. But totally agree it's down to how the school handles it. My ds is in yr2. Based on his experience and my conversations with the teachers and other parents it appears our school is managing to successfully keep it all pretty low-key. He and his classmates seem to enjoy doing the practice tests in school and don't seem pressured at all. They have barely any homework, just the odd fun homework 'challenge'.

It may help that our school is an 'improving' school ( was inadequate, now good) with children with a wide-range of abilities and backgrounds. I guess for more traditionally high-achieving schools who are desperate to hold on to academic reputation or outstanding gradings the pressure to get the pupils to perform may be greater.

No it's the new rules from the DfE making administration of tests rigid

Our school has been pretty relaxed about it, my DS is one of the younger in the class May birthday and he knows that there are SATs (which he calls STATS ;-) ) but I think it's mostly because the Y6 are doing them and being a small school, the Y2s have had to have their playtime in the reception playground, which is apparently very exciting!

It's a massive change from when my DS1 did them though, two years ago and we have had much more difficult homework, the maths especially is ridiciolously complicated for a 6/7 yo. What pisses me off is the trick questions, you can be super at maths but maybe not as strong in reading so you'll get it wrong. What's that suppose to test?

Also traditionally the Y2s have gone on a seaside trip which they are not doing this year, could be the new curriculum but could be the fact that they have a new teacher this year. Sad anyway

I also don't get parents who fret about it, it's for the school and government statistics, what is the point of putting your child under more stress by doing more at home?

I hope the results will be low all over the country so that they change it again