so my son failed his SATs and thinks he's stupid.

[spudlike1]

He failed his SATS and has been in floods of tears , how the hell does one limit damage to his self esteem on this . I'm so gutted for him and those like him what a away to start his secondary education . He's on a spectrum for dyslexia can't spell or remember t tables etc etc . But this does not make it easier to cope with

Completely agree with that, Mrz

Tell your little boy that SATS are a useless stupid measure and will not impact his life in anyway at all. Dig out the stories of Edison and Darwin etc etc who were told they were dunces and went on to do great things. Makes me so angry that children are made to feel like this. Enjoy your summer, hug your boy, tell him he is wonderful and every day he brings joy and happiness and that alone makes him a success. SATS be damned.

OP, your post makes me so sad. It simply cannot be right to make an 11 year old child feel like a failure, but that's exactly what we've done to a significant proportion of children across the country, thanks to these stupid bloody tests.

My dd did the KS2 SATS this year, but she is one of the lucky ones who finds jumping through hoops for academic tests relatively easy. Had she been tested on art or aspects of PE, it would have been a very different story. Children have so many different talents, and they are all valuable. Are there things you can do this summer that remind your DS of his strengths?

What the children learn and achieve at primary school cannot be summed up by a few stupid numbers based on a couple of tests at the end of the year. It isn't fair on the teachers or the children. This year, it was particularly unfair as the year 6 cohort had not had long enough to cover the new curriculum properly.

My dd's teacher told the class that she didn't care what results they got as long as they did their best, and as far as she was concerned, it was far more important that they were nice people who were kind and supportive to one another. Is that a message you can emphasise to your DS? My dd is quite academic but I have always told her that it's the type of person she is that matters, much more than academic results.

I don't think your DS will have to re-sit in year 7 as that doesn't come in until next year, but I agree with the suggestions that it might be worth meeting the SENCO at the new school to discuss any support needs. Could you let the new school know that the SATS have knocked his confidence a bit, so that they can perhaps try to build him up a bit?

I'm a teacher and have spoken to so many children and parents who were disappointed by their results.
I ask them if only 53% of Year 6 passed them does that mean that there's something wrong with half the children in the country or something wrong with the tests?
I also remind them that the new curriculum is a 4 year programme and they've only had 2 years of doing it, so they can't possibly have been taught everything in great enough depth (this has been a major stress point for teachers with many leaving the profession because of it!).
Ask him what's the worst that can happen? Even if he goes into a lower set at high school it's not the end of the world and there's always the chance to move up anyway.

FWIW, our secondary has said that they won't be using the SATS for setting purposes this year in any case.

My sister is dyslexic. She was also constantly compared to her much more academic older sister, to whom these things came easily.

When she was finally tested at 15, after years of thinking she was stupid, it turns out that her IQ is genius level. Which was why it hadn't been caught before, he coping strategies were so good. It wasn't until the volume of work that was needed for GCSEs hit her that it became a problem. With the right support she passed her A levels with flying colours and has a better degree than I do. And I couldn't be more proud of her.

More importantly, she is happily married, has 3 beautiful children and a job that she loves (teaching music).

Please tell your son he is not a failure, that it's the system that is wrong not him. Find him something to do that he loves - the way my sister loves her music. And help him to get on with his life.

But surely the way to boost his confidence would be to get him some extra help and support so that he can feel confident at maths etc rather than to tell him the tests are silly and don't matter. Otherwise you will be saying the same about GCSEs, a levels etc. The op has said he can't remember times tables these are basics that will impact on progress in maths at secondary school. " it doesn't matter" simply isn't true and I am not referring to the sats results but to what the op has said about her sons challenges.

Also, people are commenting that only 53% of kids met the standard , that is pretty much in line with the % achieving 5 GCSEs grade a-c including English and maths isn't it? So not unexpected?

Despite everyone says the SATS scores don't matter sadly the secondary schools are measured on the progress children make between their KS2 SATS and their GCSE grades. This seems very unfair on everyone as secondary teachers will be under pressure from their management to ensure they meet this progress even if it is totally unrealistic. This may then result in pressure on the kids who have no chance of getting a top score in a totally unrelated subject at GCSE despite high SATS. Hopefully it wont result in less focus on children who got low SATS due to things like dyslexia despite maybe being capable of higher GCSEs in many subjects than their SATS would dictate.

Why are you assuming he needs support or extra help the difference between achieving/not achieving the expected standard could be one mark in a test and on one particular day.

Can I just remind people who haven't yet, to please sign this petition against Y7 SATs resits?

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131568

The OP's DS won't have to resit, but current plans are that many like him who have just finished Y5 will be labelled failures and have to resit next year.

Oh OP. Ds1 will be in year 6 next year and will almost certainly 'fail' the SATs and is already stressed about it. We have told him over and over that in our eyes, if he does his absolute best and puts the effort in, he is a success. We have told him that the new tests and the 'fail and resit' thing has been brought in for purely ideological reasons by a Tory government who would are out of touch and whose ideas of success and failure are meaningless to us and most teachers. We've pointed out that his uncle did appallingly on sats aged 7 and 11 and didn't come into his own academically until his mid teens, when he was ready- and he got a good degree from a good uni and has a very good job. We've pointed out that his dad didn't pass an exam until he was in his 30s and had figured out what his path in life was going to be. If needs be I will sit down and do an example paper and deliberately mess it up just to show him that not passing a bloody sat doesn't make you a failure because I am certainly not a failure.
But I know he will feel like your boy does. I hate the government for a lot of things but little so much as this, making children feel like failures aged 11 :(

Mrz

Extra support not in relation to the test but in relation to the op where she says that he struggles to remember times tables etc.

Forget the test, the ops son is struggling with basics therefore it would seem reasonable to suggest that additional support may be helpful in supporting him to feel more confident.

Thankyou for the supportive messages, they will certainly help me frame this for him and hopefully repair the damage to his confidence before starting secondary school . For the record he attended every catch up class that he was asked to after school and weekends were spent preparing as well as easter as much as we could ( both parents work) he needed constant breaks when doing past papers and found it agonising .
1in 10 people have dyslexic tendencies the sats are draconian
If he has to resit I will take unpaid leave and we will boycott them.
Yes exams are importan't later on but not at the expense of a rounded, engaging & motivational education for an 11 yr old, his yr 6 has been an awful.experience
Pity the poor children

The SATs did not test the basics. They tested things like whether a child knew the word 'aerodrome' (so often used in everyday language) and a level of grammar well above the level to which most adults have been educated. I was very worried about my ds having your ds' exact reaction if he had 'failed' and why I thought the SATs were ridiculous. He would have been incredibly discouraged and it would have taken a lot of effort to convince him he wasn't stupid and should continue to work hard.

I know schools in our area where the children did not cram for the exams as ours did, and scores were extremely low. I'm sure the kids were well-prepared for the outcome and the high school will no doubt make allowances for the different approaches adopted by their feeder schools.

I would be tempted to get him to write (with your assistance) to both your MP and Justine Greening to explain how he feels. Hopefully he might find that cathartic and they should hear from the sharp end what these stupid exams are like.

Not sure why you think I was talking about support for the test mouldy but my point remains ...I'm afraid I think the "dyslexic spectrum" is a bit of a red herring and the preparation the OP describes has led him to feeling a failure ...sorry but absolute overkill!

Why is it overkill to give a child that can't grasp times tables some extra help? Especially if they are feeling stupid and lack confidence.

Because the type of preparation the OP describes doesn't help and just serves to create stress.

Was he feeling stupid before the pressure the school created?

Maybe best to stop talking about them at all just now, get him involved in lots of summer holiday activities that he enjoys and is good at whatever they are (sports, hobbies, arts and crafts etc etc), so switching the focus to things he does well to help build his confidence back.

DD2 has SN and didn't sit the maths SATS --presumably so she didn't buggar the school league table position. She also had extra time for the English test and still didn't manage to finish.

IMO SATS test the school at the expense of stressing a lot of children. My DC attend/attended different secondary schools and each were tested again in year 7 and put in the appropriate sets for them.

OP I hope you have already met with the SENCO and support will already be in place for your son.

If a child isn't entered in the SATs the school league tables will be "buggered up"! Not taking the tests for whatever reason automatically means the school results will be "down" by x% (depending on number in year group) so there is no advantage to not entering a child.

My son has always been motivated, tried his best and this result has knocked his confidence, he now feels inferior to his peers he dosen't know anyone else who failed to.meet ' expected standards' . Were going to try to move forward positively .His cousin is in yr 5 and has inherited the same family traits, my sister in law is determined to boycott SATS when it is her turn, in hindsight I wish I'd done the same. 47 % of 11 years old are now embarking on their next stage of education feeling like failures for what purpose ? , I feel so angry

Mr z I'm not interested in 'buggering' up school. League tables. League tabless are the reasons schools drill into.children day in day out about how important these tests are !!!
I'm Interested in my son's motivation to engage and the long term impact on his self esteem . He's currently embarrassed to share his results with anyone .

spudlike1, your post where you say that he attended every catch up session etc tells me a lot.
The school has a lot to answer for here. Clearly they were at least partially responsible for putting pressure on your son and created the "pass / fail" reaction. Also if your son did all the catch up etc the school also failed to understand how best to teach your son the requirements necessary or taught the wrong things. I agree with MRZ as to whether your preparation over Easter etc also did not help
He did not fail the test, the school and the system failed the test by not being able to teach your son in a manner that allowed him to grasp the fundamentals required.

Mouldy my son can't remember his times tables or tell.the time all this indicates is that his brain works differently to the conventional standard , extra help yes . But why are we trying to hammer a round peg into.a square hole . A great big sledge hammer to be more accurate.