Year 2 SATS dd falling apart!

[Melody25]

After a more and more extreme reaction from dd age 7 after doing the last 3 SATS papers I'm really worried about her. It's the year 2, key stage 1 SATS she's doing and the school are known to be pushy and are used to getting good results, so there is definitely a level of expectation to meet the expected standard there, and so I suppose inadvertently some pressure. At home we've reassured her over and over that it doesn't matter and to just do her best then forget about it. She's finding this impossible and came home yesterday after doing a maths and English paper that afternoon sobbing and almost hyperventilating, I've never seen her like this til now and I'm so worried about her. Hugging her I could feel her heart racing and it was almost like a panic attack.

She came home like this after the last 2 papers as well but yesterday was the worst yet. I don't know whether I should have kept her at home today for a day just to re-group, or look into withdrawing her from doing the rest of the papers if that's even possible? Dh is worried about her too but thinks she is better off carrying on like her peers are, which I do agree with, and that she has to get used to doing tests for the future, but the other children don't seem to be reacting to them in such an extreme way. That's what worries me, the extreme reaction. Talking to other mums at school there have been some tears from e some of the other girls and them saying they're hard tests and that they're nervous, the boys seem pretty unphased from what their parents said. Some of the children are still 6 and not 7 til August and several have to have a scribe. Seeing them come out of school though and chatting to other parents on the school run, they don't seem that effected in comparison to my dd, so why is she finding it so much harder to cope with?

I'm wondering why my usually happy, bouncy dd with a zest for life and who is usually happy and confident at school, seems to be falling apart since the SATS started a couple of weeks ago. She's done 3 papers so I think has another 2 left. Is it normal for a just turned 7 year old to come out of school sobbing the minute she sees me, each time she has a sats paper, then when we get indoors everything comes out and she tells me round and round for an hour how hard it was, that she's stupid, she's rubbish, she was scared and didn't know what to do, she doesn't want to go to school etc.

I eventually calmed her down yesterday, but she kept getting upset on and off all evening and took ages to go to sleep because she said she felt sick, which I'm guessing is anxiety.

I know they're not allowed help obviously, and it's formal exam conditions sitting at individual desks in a big room in silence which she says she finds scary. They're not allowed to drink from their water bottles much, parents are noticing at the moment they're almost full still from the morning, and they're complaining they're not allowed to go to the toilet unless absolutely desperate and she says they have to keep on asking til they get a yes. I have to say it's not normally that bad, it's just during the sats for some reason. Nothing like this had happened before, she's always loved school til recently when they started gearing up for the sats. Is this a really extreme reaction for a 7 year old, and how would you deal with the situation? Any advice please would really be appreciated x

Poor kid. The school must be making them anxious my DS is also in year 2 but at a private school (which gets good results) but the none of the kids had mentioned the SATS to their parents and I've only just heard they were doing them. Maybe speak to your head, also not allowing water is just cruel.

Jesus. School and teachers need a good talking to. I've taught Year 2 and my kids never even knew it was their 'real' SATS. I would do lots of practice quizzes...made them fun...then the real ones were just given and none of them were any the wiser really. All of them trying to 'compete' to get prizes off me!

Badly handled. Speak to the school.

From a home point of view, too late for now but for Year 5/6, it would probably be a good idea to get her used to the test structures. Get some past papers and see which parts she is struggling with.

Frankly for that kind of reaction I would not be sending her in, and I speak as a governor who is generally supportive of SATS. The school has gotten it totally wrong if they are reducing children to this; and if it means the school have to account for why some of their children didn't complete the papers, or did badly, then that's ultimately a good thing.

hi I'm really sorry you are going through this. For what it's worth I don't think it's an extreme reaction- 7 is just too young to do exams and we should all be out there marching against them! If it's relevant I had to move my son's school due to year one pressure. He wasn't the only child whose parents felt they had to move him but he was the only one whose mental health broke down- so I know that they all react differently- professionals don't seem terribly aware of this unfortunately. I hope your DD recovers soon.

This is horrible! Can you just withdraw her for the rest if the week, poor little love? It's so unfair of the school to put the pressure on.

DS is in year 2 at an "outstanding" school with a good reputation to keep, and doesn't even realise he's doing SATs! We went to the park after school yesterday and he mentioned that he'd done a maths test that was "dead easy"*, then ran off to play on the monkey bars.

*this is not a stealth boast and DS is not a child genius. He's just as likely to have found it "easy" 'cause he didn't read the questions properly He has a somewhat slap-dash approach to life, being 7.

Your poor DD. Why on earth are the school piling on such pressure? My dc is also taking year 2 sats, but is completely unaware that they are even being tested.

There really is no point in pulling your dd out of school, she will still be made to complete the tests on her return. Have you spoken with her teacher? Could there be a way for her to complete her final 2 tests under different conditions, in another room maybe? It sounds like it’s the way the exam conditions are conducted that is causing the big anxiety.

Arrange a big treat for her at the end of the sats and tell her to keep it in mind as the end result. Reassure and reassure her again that she is a bright, beautiful, much loved little girl and that no matter what the outcome that will never change. She has more to offer than what she includes in an English or Maths paper. Remind her of everything she does well, and that she’s over halfway there.

I feel for you op, you must be fretting and anxious yourself. Speak with her teacher though, chances are they have no idea it is affecting her this way

Oh my goodness. My youngest hasn't done the year 2 SATS yet but my older 2 have (one is in year 3, the other is in year 11 sitting his first GCSE exam today).
OP, I never even knew when my two older kids did their year 2 SATS. It was so surreptitiously slipped into their regular school day (the prepping and the exam itself), that they didn't even talk about their year 2 SATS. Year 6 was different for DC1, understandably. But even that wasn't such a huge stress factor.
The school's way of handling SATS in their case was to make it as lo-angst as possible. I don't even know if my kids knew they were taking exams. I still remember our American equivalent when I was a child. It was one of the most fond memories I have of primary school. Why? Because we had all sorts of fun doing pop quizzes and games. I'm sure I thought the real tests were more pop quizzes and games.

I'd change schools. Your DD's experience would be enough reason for me to move her. Imagine what the year 6 SATS will be like. Your DD's school's approach will kill a child's spirit and love of learning.

For KS1 sats they shouldn't really be aware they're doing anything. My DS did them last year (he was still 6) & he gets quite anxious about things but he was fine with them. His older brother was also doing the KS3 sats so was aware of sats in general (& I think another child in Y2 told them all they were going sats) so he panicked a bit when he heard this cos he thought they were like the ones his brother was doing. He was fine once we reassured him he wasn't.

Have school not approached you about her being upset or have they not even realised? I think you need to speak to them & see what they can suggest. As much as I don't believe in sats (& especially for Y2) I think pulling her from them now they've started might make doing exams later tricky. I think reassuring her that she just has to try her best & maybe see if the teachers are able to let her have extra time might help. But I wouldn't be happy with the pressure they're piling on them.

Y2 sats can be done at any time (within a certain time frame) so if you did take her off for a day, maybe she could do them another day in a less stressful situation.

I think what's wrong is the school. KS1 sats is not very serious at our school, and we didn't even know when it happened until my ds said he did some maths test/English test whatever today at our school. Only advice they given us was not to take holiday during May, that was all.

I feel you! My DD is 7 she just finished hers last week.
She cried every day over them. She came back with practice papers and I asked whether she wanted to do them or bin them, she chose the latter. We never mentioned them unless my daughter spoke about them.
All the pressure she had felt came soley from the School, She is a high achiever* and has often been given 'extra' work out of the classroom.
*Absolutely not boasting, you should see her doing Physical activity, definitely not one of her strong points lol.
She felt as if she had to get every single question correct. Of course we told her she could get them all wrong and we would still be proud.
Our School are more concerned with their Ofstead ratings and looking good.
All we could do was just give her extra cuddles and just try to keep her occupied after School just to keep her mind of it as much as possible.
She's now back to her normal jolly self, smiling this morning because she has PE today

I'm sorry I'm not much help but I promise it will all be over pretty soon. Maybe buy her a surprise gift for when she's finished them? All this pressure is completely unnecessary at this age x

Rescue remedy. Drops in her water bottle. If if iso nothing more than her taking control of her emotions and using the time to take a small drink to regroup and relax, it will help.

This is a school issue - they Don't have to be done in a big room etc. Dd1 has done 2 x maths papers so far and did them alone with teacher in a spare classroom, others have been doing them in small groups. They had to take water bottles with them and dd1 didn't know if they were "real quizzes" or practice ones.
I don't know if there were biscuits involved like there were for phonics test last year.

Can you speak to teacher/welfare officer and see if she can complete the rest of the tests in a less formal environment. She's so young it's crazy that school are creating this atmosphere. I'd also be wary of what yr6 will bring...

The whole situation sounds crazy! My 6 year old had no idea he was doing sats last year.
I'd keep her home til they're over.

Melody 25 I can only blame the school class teacher. Your poor DD. I remember when my two did year 2 SATS DS PFB is a bright lad his teacher was excellent. I tried to Lee things as normal as possible at home and knew SATS were in May but didn’t know when exactly. I always asked them both what they had done at school etc. A couple of times DS said he did some special work for miss x at school. I asked what it was like and he said it was easy. I later found out he had done the higher paper. However, with DD a year later bright but not as academic her teacher frightened them so much so that she asked me if we could book a holiday as she didn’t want to do the SATS work.
However, by year 6 the pressure they the school and year 6 teachers put on DS was unbelievable. He was more stressed and upset by that (crying most mornings) than he was doing his 11 plus test.

Has she been able to say why she is so upset? My dd got very anxious by the fact it was timed. We worked on ignoring the timer and focusing on each question one at a time.

Is ks1 sats timed now? I thought it wasn't.

Also the attainment of end of yr2 is teacher assessment, not the results of ks1 sats. Sats are only a part of the assessment, and results won't even be told to parents at our school. All the more reason to relax as a parents, and help children not to get stressed up whatever the school's stance is.

KS1 sats are not timed, can be done at any time during the month and don't have to be done all together (and I imagine a school where results are cheated won't do them together so the most able do it first in the hope they might chat to their peers...)

So it is all quite strange how the school appear to be doing it.

The tests are also really short, so I don't really get the water/toilet references either.

This is really sad there is that much pressure. My DD is doing hers and doesn't even know she is. Someone asked her the other day if she was doing sats and she said she didn't know. She told me she did tests yesterday so I am assuming they have started but she didn't seem bothered so i think the school have handled it well.

I would call the school immediately and let them know how your daughter is feeling. They’ve clearly handled it badly upto now, but ought to make a special effort to reassure your daughter from now on.

The ‘rules’ about how the KS1 SATs are administered are very flexible (much more so than KS2), therefore the school should easily be able to adjust things for your daughter – perhaps by finding her a quiet space with a gentle adult there for reassurance, or just doing part of a paper at a time, or spreading it into next week with more breaks between tests – and certainly by reassuring her and downplaying it as much as they can (albeit it’s a bit late for that, by the sound of it!).

DTs did theirs (all / some, I have no idea?!) yesterday. They didn't know they were coming and came home excited as they had no homework as they had been doing tests for fun.

The school sounds totally totally at fault here.

I would keep her off if there are more to come.

This is the school's fault. Year 2 SATs are not published. There is no reason for the school to wind kids up like this.
My dd is Y6 doing her SATS now. Her school has a very healthy attitude to them . Yes they did lots of practice and even had a weekly preschool "club". But they also had a residential this year to let off steam and will be doing an end of year production starting work after SATS.
All the parents were encouraged to give them down time before the tests with an emphasis on chilling out. And this is for the SATs that have published results.

Agree, this is totally the school's issue (another Governor here, who is not completely adverse to testing, but would have serious concerns in your school).

Year 2 SATS are just one piece of evidence used towards the teacher assessment. Yes, the children need to understand the concept of tests, not copying others, quiet environment etc, but not the sort of pressure you're describing.

I would be seriously worried about your year 6 Sats.

this school isn't doing them the way any other school I know does y2 SATs. what a horrible experience for your daughter.

Can you arrange a telephone call with her teacher/keystage leader or someone to explain the impact its having at home and ask how they are going to help?