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

Family no despite this he wouldnt, he would possibly know holiday terms are coming up but not exact dates as the schools calendar isn't linked to his phone, he doesn't go on the website often at all either plus I would tell him myself. I am pretty sure he isn't the only father or mother that is like this.

I think what OP needs to do now is check with his potential secondary to check out if sats data(or lack of) matter or not, not just for the streaming/setting but with his GCSE target too, and think accordingly. No point worrying about it from hearing all these different opinions on different school.

This is the situation currently according to the central government "Pupils who do not take all test papers for a subject will receive a raw score for the
paper(s) they have completed but will not receive a scaled score. The overall outcome for
a pupil who does not complete all test papers for a subject will be ‘A’ (absent). See
section 9.2 for further guidance on return of results.
TA judgements must still be submitted for pupils who are absent from the tests."

Whatever claims are made about 'statutory results' there will need to be some system in place for assessment information to be passed onto secondary schools if children are absent from the tests (a friend of mine's son missed his SATS as he was being treated for cancer on an inpatient basis), or don't receive their results for some reason (some are annulled each year).

If 'predictions' based on SATS results were bound to be accurate, there wouldn't really be any point of children going to secondary school would there, as their academic outcomes would be decided at 11.

Having said that, I wouldn't plan to go on holiday that week, but I can completely understand why parents wouldn't know when the SATS were precisely.

I am pretty sure he isn't the only father or mother that is like this.

With my 20 years working in education, I would say that sadly, I think you’re right. No matter how much effort schools make to keep parents informed with increasingly creative ways of sharing information, there will always be parents who will find an excuse not to avail themselves of that information.

I’m honestly at a loss as to how to get those parents more engaged in their children’s education.

Ummm I'm actually planning a holiday to avoid all DD's SATs! Why on earth would I let her take them? They are for the schools benefit not hers and she suffers from anxiety.

Ignore the pearl clutchers, this is a non problem

How is avoiding the Sats going to help your DD with her anxiety grobags?

She will never learn how to deal with life’s challenges if you don’t help her develop strategies to manage them.

I really cannot understand the point of a holidays This time. What sort of message does it send to your child? That their hard work counts for nothing and that what's more important to skive off to go on a holiday that you can't afford?! If you can't afford to go in holiday time, then go somewhere else. This is just teaching kids that the world owes them something rather than you work hard and buy what you can afford!

This is the situation currently according to the central government "Pupils who do not take all test papers for a subject will receive a raw score for the paper(s) they have completed but will not receive a scaled score. The overall outcome for a pupil who does not complete all test papers for a subject will be ‘A’ (absent). See section 9.2 for further guidance on return of results. TA judgements must still be submitted for pupils who are absent from the tests."

That information is from last year's ARA and is incorrect now, thehorseandhisboy. The sentence about TA judgements has been removed, as there are no statutory requirements to report reading or Maths TAs - the dfe are not interested in them.

Individual secondary schools will of course continue to seek information from primary schools in different formats directly from them - but there is now no formal requirement for them to be reported.

Sounds like a great holiday and in the overall scheme of his life won’t matter one jot. My child is it a private junior school so won’t do SAT’s but will go to a state secondary and I feel sure will be put in the right set without need for the SAT’s. Just pay the fine if there is one and enjoy without a second thought - he’ll have amazing memories of a once in a lifetime holiday!

Family with my experience of Been a parent over the past 8 years he certainly isn't the only one. Sometimes I am not 100% sure of when term times are and I know this counts for a lot of people (I have to check the calendar and hope nothing has been added like a training day)

With your 20 years of working in education I can see how you know when the holidays are as that is your diary. But it's not everyone else's

Please don't assume that parents are not engaged in children's education over school dates as I think that's a tad unfair. There isn't much that my husband misses out on at all unless he needs to be in work.

To me this is the good thing about communication as parents. We do it between ourselves. His diary is constantly full due to work so I tell him when things are happening then he works around that if he can. Again him sure we are not the only ones that do this.

My nephews are at private school and my sister in law is pretty much on the same wave length as you winking my girls go to state school which I find a lovely school. But private school seems much more chilled out and family orientated. No sure if this is because they don't have a local authority to answer to and to get fined by?

To be fair, my husband wouldn't know when SATS are either, but then he'd never book a term time holiday (or indeed anything else, without checking with my diary first).

cindersrella

It’s great you do it between you, so how come your DH doesn’t have the school dates in his diary? Surely you don’t mean he puts some dates in his diary and you put others in yours?

I maintain that any parent who doesn’t know dates of school holidays until a week before they start isn’t engaged in their child’s education. Unless the school is an academy, term dates for the current and following year will be available on the LEA’s website. It takes seconds to find them and you can program them into your phone diary in minutes. Why wouldn’t you, unless you don’t see it as your responsibility?

As well as my own work diary I have DH’s weekly business trips and DS’s uni term dates in my phone, not just my own. I could never book a family holiday if I didn’t make sure I knew these.

His diary is constantly full due to work so I tell him when things are happening then he works around that if he can. Again him sure we are not the only ones that do this.

The answer to your questions. I have already stated below

My DS is in year 8 and his SAT results are used as a benchmark to his expected grade/progress and used in his progress report. Don’t quite understand it all, but for us SATs aren’t just for the primary school where we are.

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.

Sometimes I am not 100% sure of when term times are

... but by the time your child is in Year 6, i bet you have a general idea off when they are i.e. there is a couple of weeks holiday round Christmas, a couple of weeks round Easter, half term week in February ...
The middle of May is never a school holiday (in state schools anyway).

Maybe I have a more London-centric perspective that others here? The amount of pupils who’ve been living abroad during SATS, have moved to UK since yr 6, previously been in private education, previously been home educated is huge, before you even start with those ill or on holiday. We certainly don’t ever have whole cohorts measured for progress 8 or have any difficulties with grade predictions or teaching those without SAT results. There’s certainly a few grammars round here where over 25% have no SATs results (private primary years) and cant report.

I think it’s impossible to say whether it’s ok or not as the answer depends on so many different factors, area you live in and how sats used, type of school, attitude of child etc. For us all these factors combined to make not missing sats imperative who knows for you.

Grobags - is your child going to avoid all exams for the rest of her life? Your approach doesn't seem the best to build a bit of resilience for later life.

I see the usual assumptions about other people's life's are now out in force. Hard as it may for some to believe not everyone has a synchronised electronic diary with their partner into which they instantly enter all school dates. Do posters really not have a clue about the how vast numbers of families operate and the hardships some children are facing just to get to school every day?

Not the OP as she has enough money for foreign holidays but the posters with engaged partners, knowing years ahead when the sats week is. Don't you know that most people aren't like that?

Hopefully by the time she is year 6 then yes I know the months but not exact dates off the top of my head.

Patti my thoughts

@MummySharkDoDo
Yes you do. Being in London or in Timbuktu is nothing to do with it. All London state grammars report their Progress 8. Even those with huge mobility. Just look on the league tables and they are there. Honestly so much misinformation being flung about.

Not mobility, moving area.

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

Being in Timbuktu would be even harder to report wouldn’t it now, with 0% entering the school with UK state primary test results?

Or tell us how that’s done