Teachers helping in Sats test

[Lindy360]

My DS is about to take his Ks2 Sats and he's really getting stressed about it. I have just been talking to a friend and her DS who sat his Sats last year at the same primary school and they informed me that it is standard practise for the school staff to sit one to two/three pupils and guide them through the test - telling them which answers they've got it wrong and telling them which operations to use to solve the reasoning questions. Surely this cannot be true! While I really want DS to do well, I can't see how this will help him later in life. Even if they don't tell the children the answers it sounds like cheating to me. My friend is adamant that this has happened with all three of her offspring.

This is very serious. It should be reported. Unfair on the many, many schools who do it by the book. Unacceptable.

My dd's school recently had some of their SATS from last year made null and void for mal administration. A quick Google showed others have in the past too.

But everyone wants their child to go to an ‘outstanding’ school, right? Look at the threads asking fir help with appeals on this page. SATs results have become the be all and end all of primary education. You can’t be outstanding without good SATs. This is why (some) schools cheat.

My dd did SATS last year. She is a below average student.
She came home from one test on one of the days telling me that her exam was great because 'Miss xxx told me all the answers!!'. I didn't believe her at the time but wasn't overly interested as I disagree with the whole SATS process anyway.
I'm inclined to believe her now... coincidentally Miss xxx is the Deputy Head. Hmmm!

Yeah, my ds's school do this. I reported them, but it didn't go any further because they wanted his name and told me they would deduct the affected marks from his score - effectively penalising him for the school's misdemeanors. He was borderline, so I declined (he got 103 in the end).

Down the road, I am administering tests with the head and governors in the room, signing papers in and out and jumping through all kinds of hoops - whilst his school is habitually saying to children that's wrong, you need to change it, and that's fine apparently. Mad.

@norestformrz
I've never known a primary school that didn't do mock SATs! Why on earth wouldn't you practice?

2 schools in my LEA had their SATs results voided for maladministration last year.
The high school most of these kids now go to stream year 7 according to sats results and all the kids who’ve come from these 2 schools were put in the bottom sets.

A mock test isn't practice...practice involves teaching and familiarity.

The 1-1 and small groups is fine. Maths and SPag can be read to pupils and even in the reading test some children benefit from a quiet space to read aloud.

Telling answers is completely brazen cheating.

It's only fine if that is normal classroom practice for that child. How many classes have 30 children with 1-1 support?

I've had a parent threaten to pull their child from SATs this year if I didn't give their ds extra time.His dyslexia tutor had assured them that he would automatically qualify (not the first time a dyslexia tutor has promised this, had it last year too).

The child is scoring 115 in practice tests, finishes the tests and completes tasks in class ahead of most other children. He does not need extra time and I have stood my ground rather than be at risk of being accused of maladministration.

My dis did his says last year ,they had a ta as well as a teacher in each room and at parents evening prior it was stressed that they weren’t allowed to help with answers.
I’m glad they didn’t as his high school set maths and English and he’s been given targets in his other classes based on his results and also what his teacher had predicted.
Giving help would have helped the primary’s results but would have given false targets for him and he would be struggling now and they have enough to deal with transitioning

Ofsted seem to have got the message about SATS by the way. The new proposed framework places much less emphasis on performance data
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/new-ofsted-inspection-framework-whats-changing-for-schools/amp/

"5. Ofsted won’t use internal performance data, but will ask about workload"
But they will still use SAT data ...

Thank goodness we don't do SATs here. What a waste of everyone's time.

A school near us cheated on sats. HT was fired. Governors stood down. It's taken seriously. What you've described would be regarded as cheating and I'd report it if it was my school

My friends dc told my friend who told me. Sorry but that sounds like Chinese whispers to me. Are you 100% certain it wasnt a reader or scribe?

I imagine this happens a lot with lower ability students. The amount of low ability students who have high target grades due to their fake sats results is vast. The schools that do this should be ashamed of themselves as it sets students up for feeling like failures at 16.

Governors have been asked to observe some of the SATs procedures in our schools this year

There should be governors overseeing the SATs process in all schools. It’s not quite statutory but it is strongly recommended and a school would be daft not to do it for their own protection - all schools are open to allegations, even if they’re doing nothing wrong.

Still18atheart so you think I should ignore it? I was veering on the side of the advice from others in this conversation

I've worked in 5 different primary schools. I can categorically say Sats cheating didn't happen in any of them.

There are very strict guidelines to follow, the same as there would be for GCSEs. The local authority can turn up to observe proceedings at any point: before the tests (to check papers are locked away, unopened), during the tests (to check for maladministration) or after the tests (to check papers are locked away before being sent off). Lots of schools have governors in to check things are being done properly. Lots of schools insist on 2 adults being present at all times to cover their own back.

Don't assume Sats cheating is a common thing. It's not. If you suspect it's happened at your place talk to the school and talk to the maladministration phoneline.

You would need to be 100% sure before you report this. It will likely trigger an investigation by the local authority and the STA. it does sound like there is cheating going on but the repercussions for the school are huge so just be really sure before you proceed.

Us Secondary teachers have long since stopped relying on SAT scores when pupils score highly yet cannot actually write even a short sentence coherently and legibly, when they arrive in year 7. This doesn’t surprise me but the pressure on teachers from government, SLT and parents is to blame for this.

The sats don't test whether a child can write a sentence or not.