SATS-do you think this is right?

[anon1987]

My daughter came home yesterday and told me that they had had an impromptu SATS test.

She then told me, she wasn't allowed to tell me anything about it, and that they said the law states they are not allowed to mention they've done a test or anything about it, to their parents.

Now I understand that they probably have this rule, because not all children are doing the test at the same time and they don't want parents blabbering on social media and giving people the heads up about it.

However....I personally think out of principle, that it's wrong for someone (especially in authority) to tell a child that they must keep a secret from their parents.

She of course did tell me about the test (but no details) but I don't want her thinking that an adult can force you to keep a secret. I feel that vulnerable children may think that it's therefore ok to keep any secret from a parent.

Opinions please

Totally agree with you. We had a situation (not SATS related) where the teacher said and 'don't tell your parents'. Never acceptable.

I mentioned to the class teacher that I was keen to keep communications open with my DC (and it is likely they will decide themselves when they close1) and that kind of comment however well intentioned was not helpful.

If she is YR2 I would take that with a pinch of salt.

Armani's she's 11 years old, intelligent articulate and has a lot of common sense. She's in year 6, and has no reason to lie.

I meant Arkadia

Sounds a bit dodgy to me. I'm a Y6 teacher (currently on mat leave) and am struggling to think of any situation where we'd ask the kids to keep it secret. The real tests are next week anyway.

Fizzicles thanks for your comment.
My daughter is not the sort to lie or exaggerate so this confused me more so because of that.
She said it was a lady who she hadn't seen before and not her teacher that said this???

I am not saying she is lying... Maybe she just got the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps the teacher simply said not to divulge the CONTENT of the test because blah-blah.
TBH that seems more likely than the teacher saying to keep a/that secret (which, as we all know is the best way to assure that EVERYBODY gets to know about it)

Weird - I know they trial the tests, but they wouldn't be doing that a week before the actual SATs. Was she told not to tell you about the content or not to tell you she'd done it at all?

Arkadia but she said that it was 'an educational board law' or something along the lines of that, and that they specifically said that they were not allowed tinny law tell anyone including parents about the test, and like I said, it wasn't her teacher it was a woman from outside the school (that was supervising the test) that said this.

Fizzicles I'm not entirely sure, but she try to back track and change the subject and said "well i wasn't supposed to even mention it"

I'm rather confused. Perhaps this is a new thing?

Since she is under eighteen I don't think they can make any legal agreements with her anyhow.

Tomorrow exactly, and it's not the sort of thing my daughter would just make up either.
Which makes me concerned about the Manipulation side of it, and the almost blackmailing aspect of the whole thing, I worry about other things having to be kept secret too. I know people in education are under immense pressure all the time, but I feel like this was an inappropriate and immoral request from an adult to a group of children.

I would not be happy if my child was told to keep a secret from me by another adult. I'd definitely be questioning it

The SATs have to be completed on set days for Y6. All set by the government.

www.gov.uk/guidance/key-stage-1-and-key-stage-2-test-dates#to-2017-academic-year

So I'm not sure what on earth they've done as it can't be the actual SATS unless the school has some sort of exemption

I also agree it's very wrong of any teacher to tell a student to keep any secrets from their parents.

The tests are indeed next week. Can't tell you how I know but, it can't be the real tests. There are no circumstances where the test would be administered this early. Slight possibility that it is a trial for next year's paper.

If that's what she's been told it's absolute nonsense. All year 6 children take the tests at the same time. We are asked not to discuss the content and there have been threats from the DfE regarding those posting details on social media but there is no reason why she can't tell you she had a reading test and found it easy/ok/ difficult.
The information regarding the test times is published on line by the DfE so hardly top secret.

Hopefully the school is following the "rules" regarding administration and not breaking the law

I don't think that papers have even been delivered to the schools yet.

The tests were delivered in April but should be sealed and locked away.

Some schools have been "chosen" to pilot test for use in future years (administered by the NFER) could it be that's what she's done? Our children did the reading tests last week and I've heard of others doing them this week.

Could it have been the science paper, isn't it only some schools that do those papers ( I could be wrong)

Mrz yep I reckon that's what it was! She said it was a reading test.
An official lady came in from the sats board she said.