Is it normal for teachers to cheat in SATs?

[MerryMarigold]

I don't personally give a stuff about SATs, but ds1 came home and told me that teachers have told him some of the answers - in all of the tests. Is this normal behaviour? I am shocked, mostly because it is teaching ds1 that cheating in exams is ok. In this case, it is the school cheating.

This just seems really off - and will obviously boost the school's results. On another occasion the HT told my ds1 to 'get a move on' with his paper, which I thought wasn't good either. Ds1 does have slow processing, but I'd rather he was careful and did the questions correctly than storm through the paper. Another time he missed a question as he didn't know the methodology so he moved on (I taught him to do this rather than waste time on something he doesn't know) and he told to go back and do it.

Oh well, it's all over now.

I will reply along those lines but I am so pissed off, and really worried they will identify ds from my name (not difficult) and dock marks anyway. Ds's Teacher Assessment is a solid 'expected' but he is v nervous in tests and sobbed after Wednesday's papers. I can't believe that I personally may have prevented him attaining the right mark. Feel terrible and wish I'd never started this .

Ds's school was pretty much the only school in the LEA whose reading results actually went up last year after 'that' paper. I know why now!

Secondary teacher here: we occasionally get Y7s and parents telling us they had 'help' in SATS (typical example is a TA making faces when a child has marked the wrong answer). It's usually lower ability students who then end up with unachievable KS4 targets and, as a result, go through the rest of school feeling like they are failing. I know we have reported it to various authorities and mentioned it to Ofsted, but the response seems to be that it's all anecdotal so they wont take it seriously. I guess it looks like we are trying to cover up for our students' lack of progress, so we are not taken seriously.

It's so unfair on the students concerned, as well as all the primary teachers who dont cheat.

Namechange68 - please don't worry about your son's results, it really won't make a huge difference to him and if it does there is just as much chance it will be a positive difference. Talking with students in Y10 and Y11 recently the ones with high KS2 results are the ones with the greatest levels of anxiety and stress because of the knock-on effect of Progress 8.

I have a dd in Y9 and if I knew when she did her SATs what I know now I would have taken her out of the various booster classes her Junior school ran and not made her do the homework.

I don't even know what to think.
I had a child sit the SATs last year, but he was a very high achiever and sailed through them with very, very high marks. He didn't do any of the extra booster sessions after school or take home extra work because he didn't need them.

I have a child who will sit them next year, though, who will need extra booster sessions I strongly suspect, even though he is one of their strongest students all round. It's a much weaker class, and I worry about the pressure the school will be facing to maintain their normally very good results. I can see how tempting it is for schools to help, since they live and die by these ridiculous tests.

RainbowChasing and Rufus27 Yes, all complaints can be framed as anecdotal or the result of a personal grievance. The problem is that, as staff, by the time you are reporting to outside bodies you'll have probably already 'gone up against' the head over some of their actions, so it can be dismissed as personal. But if anyone (OFSTED, standards authority?) actually wanted to get to the bottom of this they could. Look at one area in detail, ie track a cohort from primary into secondary, retain primary exercise books as a reference point? I know our exercise books were destroyed ASAP.

Well, not all complaints obviously. But we could never get hold of a copy of the pre-massage tracking to pass on. Very tight IT security.

As much as I don't want to excuse the behaviour of certain teachers, I can see that it is just a symptom of a bigger problem- the pressure schools feel to get all children to the same point regardless of ability, background etc, the governments continued insistence that all children need and should be a certain level by the time they leave primary school, and the fact that OFSTED focus so heavily on these results. School ratings mean everything to schools (and to many parents) because a low rating has a knock on effect. The needs of the children have been lost in the current system, although most teachers are still trying to hold onto them...but its like fighting a losing battle hence why teachers are flocking away from the education system.

This happened to my DD. HT who is rarely seen sat next to her in the exam and said "you may want to look at no 4 again" and "good girl" after looking over her shoulder. She is high achieving so I sure she didn't need the help to pass but HT obviously trying to inflate the average or something. I was shocked as assumed the SATS would be sat in the hall under GCSE style conditions but no, they were sat in their classrooms.

Username, ours were in hall, strict exam conditions, kids sat well apart - well strict exam conditions except for the adults who kept speaking. HT made a guest invigilating appearance as well. So dodgy.

Re anonymous reporting, I phoned and spoke to someone, rather than emailing. Maybe that made a difference. The man was very supportive. He said I could email as well, but no obligation to.

report them without a doubt , maintain YOUR INTEGRITY AND THAT OF YOUR CHILD despite the school having none.

I've never heard of this but a friend was a supply teacher at a school during SATs. She was surprised that the exams were in a hall that had posters up with times tables, fractions/percentages/decimal conversions, spelling lists etc. She asked if that was normal and was told that they were always up and none of the children even noticed them. She found that a bit hard to believe.

I wonder if it would be better if they did the sats exams in the first week at senior school. Teachers wouldn't know them, wouldn't have any reason to cheat.

If the school had received a monitoring visit their results would be invalid. The posters should be removed or covered.

I do remember when my son did his 11 plus 30 years ago and his friend from a very successful local school came round to play and announced that the exam was easy as they had done the same one in school the day before. When my son started grammar school we found the kids who were struggling tended to come from this school. Shame for the kids who missed out on a place they should have had.

"Teachers wouldn't know them, wouldn't have any reason to cheat." My head suggested that Year 6 staff should swap schools for SATs week to avoid "temptation" it didn't go down well with some heads

mrz, yes I'm sure it must be against the rules, my friend was shocked. It would obviously improve marks.

mrz, I wonder why? I'm not as original as I thought then.

Our school always covers up the Maths and English board displays in the classrooms during SATs! It's required!

I wonder if the Guardian saw this thread before they wrote these?
www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/06/teaching-cheating-primary-school-sats-teacher-tests
www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/06/sats-tests-cheating-cramming-primary-school-exam