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

Feenie, the DFE may not be interested in teacher assessment, but primaries will still do them for their own progress/assessment measures.

So the information will be there to pass to secondary schools. I also have a London-centric view, and there are lots of children who don't take SATS for the reason another poster says. This doesn't prevent their secondary school from assessing and setting targets based on what they do in Y7.

I honestly despair of this SATS and data obsession tbh. No wonder child and adolescent mental health problems are escalating when the adults around them can't keep things in perspective.

I was responding to your first point but after reading your second facetious point, I won't bother. You're ill-informed but think you know what you're talking about. You don't.

Fewer than 1% of state school Yr 6 pupils do not receive a SATs score in both subjects. It's a tiny tiny proportion. And actually although the press would have us believe that we are inundated with new arrivals, especially in London. We aren't. The vast and overwhelming majority of GCSE pupils in state schools have SATs data attached to their UPN.

Don't think OP has been back

Talk to the school. they will have the final test paper available locked away in an office, and could probably arrange for your DS to do it in the late afternoon on the day before your holiday starts, back to back with the previous one. he will then need to be prevented from communicating with any other pupil until they have taken the test but that should be easy.

Absolutely no chance would STA agree to that because of a holiday, and without their permission the school would be in trouble for maladministration.

Feenie, the DFE may not be interested in teacher assessment, but primaries will still do them for their own progress/assessment measures.

Yes, thehorseandhisboy, I know - that's what I just told you!

Feenie, I absolutely agree with you. I think it's silly even to think for school to let OP's ds take Sats out of time, only because he is going on the holiday. The way some people think is really weird.

His diary is constantly full due to work so I tell him when things are happening then he works around that if he can.

As I say, there will always be parents with an excuse as to why they don’t have the information given out to parents. I honestly don’t know what more we can do.

Tbh, it's really up to the parents to figure out what's happening to their dc that year.

For example, my ds's school have year group meeting at start of the year. Definitely talk about sats in yr2 and yr6, and ask parents not to take holidays in May. Always followed by the newsletter.
They have termly year group meeting. Also have calendar on the website telling us what could be happening that month, even the dates aren't decided yet.
And there are always someone who complains that they have never been told.

SATs are unnecessary. They're far more a source of stress than of reliable information which cannot be obtained any other way. Teachers are stressed by them, the children are stressed by them, parents end up stressed by them. And for what? Teachers are skilled professionals, they can assess the capabilities and understanding and development needs of the children they teach without this particular set of tests. Despite the insistence upthread that secondary schools rely solely on SAT results for setting, I know that isn't true, not least because not all schools set for the initial part of year 7 anyway.

DS1 gained nothing from year 7 SATs other than acute stress to the point he had a nightly meltdown during which he screamed and banged his head on his bedroom floor and a sense of total failure as a person when he did not get 100+ for all three measures. My telling him that a 98 and a 99 did not mean he was a stupid failure meant nothing in comparison to the message to the contrary that had been drummed into him for years. He would have benefited far more from a holiday than he did from those over hyped tests.

*year 6 SATs, that should say

icannot Whereas my DD learned a lot about test taking and resilience, and consolidated her maths skills, and wasn't at all fazed by not getting 100 in all 3 tests as no one had ever made a big deal of it to her.

So much of the impact of y6 SATs is down to the approach of the school I think.

Agree with Teen. Our school haven set any sats related homework yet. Our school's results aren't so great, but at least it looks like true reflection of the children's ability.

Irvine - not all schools are the same, I don't know why that's hard for people to grasp, my DCs primary has done/does none of the things you've mentioned and has not yet informed parents of the sats dates for 2019.

Great if your school does but it doesn't happen in all schools.

Actually, they only told us not to take holiday during May(which is a known facts for parents of yr6 children, if you are on MN), and that's all. They haven't told us the date yet officially, I only know it because of this thread.

Whereas my DD learned a lot about test taking
She'd never taken a test before year 6 SATs?

and resilience
What did she need to be resilient about if it wasn't a stressful and demanding experience?

and consolidated her maths skills
A week of tests consolidated her Maths skills? Are you are about that? Maybe it was the 6-7 years of education she'd received before the tests.

and wasn't at all fazed by not getting 100 in all 3 tests as no one had ever made a big deal of it to her
That's really good, but if no one had made it a big deal to her and she wasn't at all fazed, again, why did she need to learn resilience to get through it?

icant

She'd never taken a test before year 6 SATs?

Not formal ones, no. When they did y2 SATs it was 'work in special booklets' she had no idea she had taken a test. Apart from that, she had done tables and spelling tests, but nothing else that had to be prepared for in advance.

What did she need to be resilient about if it wasn't a stressful and demanding experience?

She had to learn not to panic or get stressed if she couldn't do everything. That that was OK, and just to miss things out and move on, and come back and have another go if she had time. She started Jan by being stressed by tests, but by April had learned not to be. This stood her in really good stead for y7 where formal assessments were much more common.

A week of tests consolidated her Maths skills? Are you are about that? Maybe it was the 6-7 years of education she'd received before the tests.

Not the tests, no. But the focus in y6 on consolidation of skills over and above ploughing on earning new stuff. So some regular practice on core skills helped embed them, which imo has given her a firmer foundation going forward.

That's really good, but if no one had made it a big deal to her and she wasn't at all fazed, again, why did she need to learn resilience to get through it?

She knew they were important as they showed what she could do. She also had to sit and concentrate for an hour (or whatever) which she finds hard.

In a school with a different approach, my DD's confidence could have been shot to pieces by y6 SATs. But her school helped her develop emotionally and educationally by the experience. It was a really positive year for her.

Family always an excuse.. and there will always be those people who think there was is the right way and no one else's is.

It’s not really a question of right way or wrong way.

All schools need parents to want to know important information about their child’s eduction. It’s not about one-upmanship.

It's unfair to blame either the school for families for stress that children may experience about testing/SATS. These things may play a part, but children respond in a very individual way to situations.

Even siblings at the same school will respond differently.

Having said that, all this hyping of the SATS and how they will adversely affect secondary experience just promotes the value of them. Really counter-productive as well as not true.

Children with no SATs results for the reasons below. Or have you found a way they create those SATs results that don’t exist?

All Progress8 results have a 'coverage' percentage in the DfE tables. A scghool with 25% of children with no SATs results have 75% coverage but the progress8 is still reported.

A school with 98% coverage obviously has a more reliable progress8, but however unreliable, both schools will be ranked and inspected by their progress.

Bad parent alert, I didn't know the dates for SATS until about an hour ago. Contrary to popular belief it doesn't take a fee seconds to find them. Surprisingly, I searched on the school website first. No mention of dates, not even in the calendar. In the end I went online and googled. You would think it would be in amongst the curriculum ecening notes. I thought they were in April after Easter holidays. I'm assuming your schools are all the same and I just needed to search for information to be on top of things. Because our primary doesn't communicate or make things easier for busy working (In some cases two jobs) parents.

I hope the OP enjoys her holiday, but no doubt the school will have indoctrinated her child against breaking absence rules and will probably not enjoy his holiday entirely.

Faulty I no longer have a child at Primary school but I just googled 'when are 2019 KS2 SATS' and the dates came up immediately, so it does just take a matter of seconds to find them (all schools will hold them at the same time).

I would have thought any parent who was planning to take an in term holiday would check for any important dates first

I really don't understand taking kids out during term time. Such a bad life lesson to them, that their parents value holidays more than their education! And we wonder why we are raising such an entitled generation...

I went on a beach club holiday a few years ago before mine were in school and there was one family with an 8 and 10 year old. It was really odd as everyone knew they had taken the kids out of school so it was a bit weird for them and also there was no one for the kids to play with because it was all toddlers. Just don't understand why people do it, SATs aside.

I haven't been on a beach club holiday since mine started school as it would cost us £6k plus for a week as opposed to £3k for a week, so we just accept that we can't afford it and do a different type of holiday. That's life!

faulty

Could you not just have phoned the school?

Ineedaholidaynow, the thing is I DO have a child at Primary, so the easiest place to look is on their website, because I can go to their calendar and events page and look. And that is quicker than typing (even though I have 80 wpm, I don't on a phone), so that's why it took longer than a few seconds.

FamilyOfAliens did you notice the time I sent my post. 8.30a.m., obviously I checked prior to posting, so it's before 8.30a.m. at that time our school office hasn't started work yet, and that would have taken more than a few minutes to get through to them even if I had.

Which is probably why it should be on the website. But communication is so great between schools and parents, that they don't. (Unless, of course, they want another non-uniform to raise money)

howonearthdoyoucopewith3 that's one way of looking at it, I look at it as I value family time more important than the end of term when nothing gets done. If Dad had booked it a day later it wouldn't be ap roblem, it's just sats.

Sick and tired of hearing about Jurassic park, Monsters Inc etc, being watched in the last week of school, which would save any parent £150 per parent. Effing cheek to fine anyone in those circumstances.