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

Florida will be life enriching

Fines round here only kick in on 5 days missed.

Married to a teacher - SATs really don’t matter. Fucking hate the pressure put on kids. It’s not a beauty contest for the current crap government.

Secondary schools don’t fully trust says results. Ours uses cats to set

Patti

Quite a few sahp's here do it as don't believe in SATS, schools don't mind as all of them are affected.
If you can't afford a fine you H.ed and start again in September.
We did it, but not for y6 we started at Y4.
It's good learning for the sake of it rather for a test to measure teachers performance.
Obviously, our secondaries don't look at SATS for targets and test in y7 for setting.

Family time and experiences abroad. Both valuable

Fines kick in after 10 days unauthorised absence in my area

I’d be more concerned about his dad not making the effort to keep himself informed about his child’s education.

Family time and experiences abroad. Both valuable

Completely agree. Which is why there are 13 weeks in which to have those valuable experiences.

This isn't an attack on my husband , he's a very busy man running his own business

As does my DH. He would have checked before booking something like this. Many people are very busy.

Florida will be life enriching

Really rubbish thing to do to the teacher and it takes about 30 seconds to find out when SATS will be online so there’s no excuse at all.

But that's not the issue Romany the OP hasn't said she doesn't agree with SATs and she has said she runs her own business. Not doubting that you know some people whi in totally different circumstances have deregistered but tbh that's not really relevant to this discussion imo

It's just one day he misses? I'm sure other children could miss a day of SATS through illness and it won't really make that much difference. When DC have left education and are busy with their lives, SATS and GCSE results fade into the background. You always remember fantastic family holidays.

the OP hasn't said she doesn't agree with SATs

She posted this upthread:

I don't really agree with these exams as all I've read over the years is that it's mainly for the school

I’ve taught year 6 and this happens most years with a child. Officially you will be reported as absent but the teacher assessment will also be passed to high school. School will be annoyed a bit, but will get over it as he won’t be the first. You probably won’t be fined, but check the absence policy. Some allow 5 days, some fine day 1 if a holiday. If it’s a 1 form entry school it’s more of a results hit, but a larger school less so.

I’d probably tell them (if you’re yet to tell your son) a little closer to the time so he’s not the ‘boy who will be on holiday’ all year! Be polite and factual.

In terms of your son it’ll have no bearing on his life at all, it’s just a case of weathering the school disapproval.

Heck, I'm not a fan of the SATs but even I'd baulk at this tbh. It seems unfair for him to take some of them but not the last couple (and it's probably the reason those dates are so cheap!)

I'm surprised that the school have only just mentioned the dates, my DD's school told us from the start of the year and they are the same dates nationally so not hard to check.

Fines are only generally after 10 sessions which is 5 days (2 sessions a day morning/afternoon).

I think you need to talk to the school ASAP to see if anything can be done.

In regards to the data tracking comment lots of kids don’t have predicted grades from SATs, illness, history of home education, previously in a private school, education abroad, withdrawn by parents, school boycott years.... is not unusual for many in one class. No bearing for the child, just means schools have trouble/ aren’t able to use them in officially reported progress measures.

I guess the next comment with be Ofsted related, yes a sudden drop if lots of kids off lowering % at expected can trigger inspections. When they come though clear evidence if grades is shown, plus absence and if that’s the only issue it’s not an issue. I have been through the exact scenario.

The other thing I’ve noticed in my role managing attendance in a primary school is the number of holidays booked by a relative who “had no idea” about term dates and taking term-time holidays.

Usually it’s a grandparent because not many people would be daft enough to pretend a dad wouldn’t know about these things.

Haven't rtft but most secondary schools use the SATS marks to decide which set the child goes into.

In the unlikely event they don’t use their own testing format they will set him on the teacher assessment level he gets

A few children at my DS' secondary school missed sats and had to sit a grading exam to ascertain their set at secondary school. Two were very bright, but have ended up in low sets and with low GCSE targets.

When DS was at primary school I thought SATS were just a measure of the school. I have now revised my opinion as DS' results have determined quite a lot at secondary school including targets, GCSE options and papers.

I would absolutely not take a child on holiday knowing they were going to miss sats.

I think there's normally only one o n Thursday and the Friday is used for writing. I'm pretty sure that he can sit the tests he misses on another day. Probably best to speak to the school, explain what's happened, and they can make the necessary arrangements. They won't be happy though!

Unless it is a requirement for a private secondary I don't think it remotely matters. It doesn't much matter anyhow - my son's state secondary did their own tests on entry anyway.

One paper