My sons missing 2 days of SATS

[Bright4880]

Hi , my husband booked a surprise holiday to Florida as our Xmas present and it's just hit me it's his year 6 sats that week and he will miss 2 days , I'm so worried

Can one of you fly out later with DS?

The first 2 or the last 2?

School won't be impressed and it was ridiculous to book a term time holiday. However SATs aren't all that IMO. I suspect you will end up either incurring costs to move your holiday or paying fines.

How many days of Sats are there?

Not great, I would get school told asap and expect a fine. I doubt school will be very forgiving.

Does your husband not know the rules about term time holidays? After sats you may have got away with it but you will most likely get fined.

Deeply unfair to the school.
Unfair to your son.

Depends if his Secondary use them to level him and how important that is. I don’t really know how important they are as DD’s Secondary don’t really use their Primary results but I think some schools might.
If they don’t matter then you will probably just have a fine to pay. If yiur son is likely to score highly the School will be keener to have him do them than if he isn’t I would think

Is it too late to change it? Even if you think SATs don't matter I wouldn't want my child to go through all the preparation knowing they wouldn't be able to do tale all their tests.
Are the SATs right before a school holiday, will he miss more than 2 days fo school?

Fuck it. Enjoy your holiday.

Sats are for the school benefit and not your child. I really wouldn’t worry

You might get fined, I'm surprised he booked it during term time.
SATS are done when they get back, doubtful you'll miss them if your child is registered with a school.

No secondary’s I know use them.

Can you change the dates?

There is a timescale when you can sit SATS if you miss the actual days (to cover if child is off sick), would you be back in time for that?

Hi, I'm an ex-primary school teacher and I honestly think it's no big deal. The children repeat everything in year 7 anyway and your DS will be put into a set based on his predicted score. I think it's better that your son is spending time with his family and having fun, not worrying about SATs. If it were GCSE or A-level clearly that's completely different. I would let the school know, out of courtesy, pay the fine, and have a lovely time away.

Does your huaband not consult you on things? I know it's a suprise holiday but still surely he should have found out if anyone had anything on? How does he know you can get time off work?

That's really unfair on your son.
And stupid of your DH to book a term time holiday as a surprise.
I think you need to look at changing the flights, though they may well be ££ more.

My ds school don’t even do SATS. Enjoy the holiday!

I doubt school will be very forgiving.

Depends whether he's on track to pass or not.

Unfair to your son.

In what way? Sats are for the school, Secondaries do their own tests.

Op, any wiggle room to change the dates? A week later will still be term time but nobody will care. Definitely worth checking with the travel agent.

Otherwise, be brave, tell school and budget for a fine.

DD started secondary school in September. Just before half-term all year 7s were streamed based mainly on their SATs results.

But every secondary school is different. Do you know which school your year 6 child will be going to and what their approach to streaming is?

somewhereovertherain I wonder if it's a regional thing because many a school use SAT's as a leveller round here.
The only one I know who pays them no heed is the 2 grammar schools that are across thr county.

Some secondary schools stick children who don't have SAT results in the middle set in Year 7. My children's school bases Maths sets on the tests they do at the beginning of year 7 if a child didn't do SATs but i know from mumsnet that some stick high ability kids in the middle set if they have no sat results.

Unfair to the son because he will have done all the preparation and the work, and then won't have the chance to show how well he can do.
He won't have the same 'rite of passage' as his peers in doing the full SATs week.
He won't get to do the 'after SATs celebrations' that will happen directly after the exams.
If he is a high achiever then it will mess up the formal target setting for secondary, and might, depending on the school mean he is placed in incorrect sets or even streams at the start of year 7.

I'm self employed so I can get time off , it was just a one off big Christmas surprise. We do normally discuss holidays ect . He works nights and is away a lot so has little to do with the school side of things so was just a genuine mistake. We have always taken term time holidays that over lap with school holiday dates to keep the cost down x

He will be there mon , tues , weds , but we fly on the thurs

Where are all these schools who don’t care about SATS? DD is in year 9 and half her school report at the end of this term was her tracking against her SATS results, where she should be, where she is and predicted GCSEs for her SATS average