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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

Help! DD’s SATS paper today !

76 replies

bluegiraffe · 14/05/2018 18:10

Can’t believe what’s happened. DD’s best SATS paper today, SPAG.
She’s told me she was checking through answers at end in the last few minutes.... and realised only then that she had missed out 2 pages of questions!!! She must have turned over 2 pages together! How can that even happen! Argh! She managed to answer one of the missed questions before the teacher told them to stop writing! She is really upset but couldn’t say anything at the time.
I am so so gutted for her that it has happened in the real thing. 😞
Question is to any teachers out there, is there ANYTHING she can do?? I am going to go in with her to tell the teacher what happened (she is so worried she will be cross with her)
Help and advise please, wise SATs Mumsnetters 😢😢

OP posts:

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Lougle · 14/05/2018 22:30

@Starlight2345 Aren't they all? Can you believe we're here in year 6? They haven't killed us yet!

Starlight2345 · 14/05/2018 22:32

@lougle and we have kept them alive too 😁

thedishonthecoffeetable · 14/05/2018 22:33

I remember going to talks for parents about SATS before they came in as my DD was 7 when they first started, we were told over and over again that that weren't really testing the children it was to make sure that all the schools in the country were teaching the same thing at the same level.

I feel so sad that now children get so much pressure to do well, like other posters have said, no one ever puts SATS results on an application form or CV. It seems now it's all about league tables, not fair on the children, they all develope and learn at their own pace.

Hope everyone's children are ok and not too stressed.

Lougle · 14/05/2018 22:45

@Starlight2345 yes! Although, DD2 is still waiting for DX, and very sagely said to me last week "Mum, if I so clearly behave as Autism, why do I need someone to tell us I have Autism, because it's kinda obvious I ain't normal?!" "Errmmm, well, you are 'normal', DD2, but I do know what you're saying.....it just doesn't work that way, really..." "Well that's just all kinds of stupid then, isn't it. "

JustCallMeJones · 14/05/2018 23:08

That’s good to know noblegiraffe.

higgyyellow · 14/05/2018 23:15

I would have tackled that with an 'omg' only you haha' followed by 'not to worry, I'm sure the questions you did answer will be fine'. Then swiftly move on. But I'm in Scotland so I don't get all the fuss over sats.

user789653241 · 15/05/2018 05:15

I agree with TeenTimes, and reassured by Noble, secondary teacher. It's a great lesson, that she will never do that again on more important exams in the future!

ChangingStates · 15/05/2018 05:56

This year I have the joy of being the parent of a year 6 child and a y6 teacher (my child is in a different school from the one I work in). As a teacher I push the children to do well because we have a ridiculous education system where 10/11 year olds have to go through this in order for the school to be measured. I know full well it makes no difference to the child, their secondary education or anything.
As a parent I don't give a crap how well or badly my child does and have told them as much, I have told them that at the end of the year if their teacher says they have made progress (in their learning not test results) and worked hard then that's all that's important to me and to anyone else.

Lougle · 15/05/2018 06:56

ChangingStates, that seems a little unfair to me. You are saying that you are applying different pressure to your own children than the children you teach. My DD2 gets incredibly anxious. She has been up at night for months about these tests. Hence my reassurance that if she walks into the room, writes her name on the paper and answers just one question, I'll be utterly proud of her, because I'll know she was brave enough to do it. Part of her anxiety has stemmed from her teacher telling her class that 'If you get that envelope dropping through your door, telling you that you've failed, you will care!' That has terrified her, because she is likely to fail, through no fault of her own. Simply because she has unmet needs. How can a teacher do that? Why would they?

I DON'T CARE. And I was the girl who wasn't allowed to do maths in maths lessons in primary school, because I was too far ahead, so I had to go and paint our model of Noah's Ark while the other kids caught up. I wasn't allowed to do times table tests because I just got them right all the time, so I had to do something else. I still don't care, because it is damaging my child. All she is being "taught" is that she is a failure. The reality is that she is being failed.

vickibee · 15/05/2018 07:01

My Ds is asd and the anxiety it is causing is off the scale. His. Behaviour was so irratic last night, he was so unsettled and I had to lay next to him at bed time to get him off to sleep.

Vixnixtrix1981 · 15/05/2018 09:41

@noblegiraffe... is that right about SPAG? I thought that they were used... only because my DS has just received his GCSE target grades. He got 119 on SPAG and only 107 on reading. A few of the girls in his school got 110 in reading but far lower in SPAG and they all have lower GCSE targets for English than him?

user789653241 · 15/05/2018 09:56

107 and 110 aren't that different. They are both above national expected level of 100. And having received targets now, they may have put their works this year into account?

Ubercornsdiscoball · 15/05/2018 09:58

She’s year 6? Just let her be a child! Move on, no stress.

mrkaykay · 15/05/2018 10:08

I really don't understand the worry over sats. I did utterly shite in my maths and at the beginning of the next year was moved from the top set to the bottom two weeks into the year I was moved back up. And received a b in my higher GCSE in maths and I missed a good 10 questions in that exam due to not focusing from extreme depression.

Lougle · 15/05/2018 13:12

The worry comes from the extreme focus that is put on SATs by schools, which makes children feel that they must pass or their lives will be forever marked. When some of those same children have no earthly hope of passing, or have learning barriers that are triggered by stress, and can do the work in class, but fall apart under test conditions, it becomes intolerable.

Baubletrouble43 · 15/05/2018 13:15

I cannot believe and personally find it abhorrent that a child of this age is being allowed to even be vaguely concerned about exams. Makes me rage.

Baubletrouble43 · 15/05/2018 13:17

And yes changingstates I'm looking at you.

Baubletrouble43 · 15/05/2018 13:19

I'm with lougle x

Tansytaylor · 15/05/2018 13:27

God really?

My son is doing his SATS this week too. It hadn't occurred to me to ask him anything about it nat my usual 'how's yours day been love?'

Honestly you need to loosen up a bit here. Talk about pressure and stress where absolutely none is needed

noblegiraffe · 15/05/2018 13:27

The worry comes from the extreme focus that is put on SATs by schools, which makes children feel that they must pass or their lives will be forever marked

And in turn, the extreme focus that is put on Heads by the DfE and Ofsted who can boot the head out and make the school an academy, which trickles down to class teachers who know that their pay progression and perhaps even job is at risk.

Lougle · 15/05/2018 13:53

@noblegiraffe, absolutely true, and I nearly said it, but as a non-teacher, I felt it wasn't really my place! Wouldn't it be wonderful if teachers could just teach? I understand that there has to be rigour, and that we have to ensure standards, somehow, but I can't believe that subjecting young children to hours of exams tests is the answer.

DD2 came home one day and said "I only got 4 marks in my practice test today." When I asked what her teacher said, she replied "That's a great answer, lougle's girl, but unfortunately, it doesn't match the mark scheme." I (stupidly) said "Ok, so all you have to do now is get your answers to match the mark scheme " She replied "Mum! I don't have the flipping mark scheme, do I? That's the whole point. If I had the mark scheme, I wouldn't have to do the stupid test! " See? She's not stupid, is she? My point is, she was giving her answers, good answers, but not the 'right' answers. You don't get marks for being you. Just for learning the mark scheme.

Original poster

bluegiraffe · 15/05/2018 14:19

Thank you all so much! My reaction was truly just because I felt bad that after all the work she has put in over 4 years something like that had to happen in the 'real thing' ... I wasn't cross with her at all and she got cuddles galore. With all the great advice we are all totally chill about it.

Funnily enough though, the Head (who I've barely shared more than a "morning" with all year, chose this morning to ask 'how is X finding the SATS?' (Must be part of his random sample ..) So I told him what had happened (DD wasn't with me) so he can take that away and fret about how it might affect the school statistics.😋

I also realised that several of DD's friends coming from independent schools to her new secondary won't even have taken the SATS, so they will be meaningless in that comparison data! 😎

Onwards! 👍🏻

OP posts:

MsJolly · 15/05/2018 14:22

I shouldn't worry too much. I invigilated yesterday and some of the kids spelt their middle names wrong and a dozen got their DOB wrong!😱 It will be fine

icecreamvan · 15/05/2018 14:45

Lougle - the thing about not matching the mark scheme. I don't get this at all. How is the OK/allowed? It makes the whole thing pointless (which I know it is) but really really pointless. My son's come up with some brilliant answers- but they don't match the mark scheme, so they'd be wrong.

It just makes it an impossible pointless exercise and doesn't measure anything. How are teachers even supposed to teach this stuff?

TeenTimesTwo · 15/05/2018 14:58

I would take the not matching the mark scheme to mean didn't actually answer the question but put in a nice way. From my recollection of DD's SATs 2 years ago (so first under new style), there wasn't a lot of room for interpretation of the questions.

It's really not like GCSE English where it is not at all clear what is needed if you haven't been taught.

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