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.

Taken from .gov website

Children sitting the SATs grammar test must have a good knowledge of grammatical terms such as adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns, passive voice, and sentence structure.

But they aren't tested to see if they can use them in writing.

Yes they are. Lots of the spag questions involve writing sentences. And the writing itself is assessed?!

I would make sure before reporting.
Lots of things are allowed- extra time for some children, smaller groups, reading the questions.
You could have a moderator in any minute to check if you’re cheating too!
I once had a TA tell everyone I was giving the children the answers to a paper- we were going through a different paper to talk through types of questions...

Yes OP, in my friends’ daughters’ school, the teacher went over one of the questions on the board before the test started so I doubt that’s an isolated incident. My friend was disgusted, and emailed the head. Giving them help on these tests will not help them in the future.

"And the writing itself is assessed?!" By the class teacher there is no longer a writing test
"Yes they are. Lots of the spag questions involve writing sentences." where do they have to write a sentence? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/709997/STA187970ee2018ks22EnglishGPSSPaper1questions.pdf.pdf

OP, I wouldn’t be remotely surprised to be honest. Our primary has a ridiculous timetable of sats prep for year 6. Tests every day since September. Two or three practice some days in the weeks before easter. Test papers sent home for pupils to complete with homework all year 6 until now. Easter holiday 3 hours per day attendance at school to practice test papers for some pupils and now after school sessions. My ds said today they are now onto 4 test papers per day this week. Its in no way productive for the children involved. It is miserably boring for the majority. The amount of school hours devoted to practicing sats should be capped as part of the moderation, to save the kids from boredom and a waste of time that could be well spent learning. Also so that a true picture of pupil ability can be gained by SATS testing.

This is one reason why secondary schools don't find the results helpful and do their own tests on new pupils at the beginning of the school year. (It is amazing how far some of the high scorers have slipped backwards over the summer!)

You want to see what goes on during internal assessments at secondary schools. Probably one reason why they've largely binned it in favour of exams.

Norest:
Well q20 asks you to explain for starters, so that’s writing....not sure what your point is though?
To be an expected standard writer they have to show they can use a variety of grammar features. Yes it’s teacher assessed but you get externally moderated too. The writing standard is fairly high- using the passive voice, subordinate clauses, parentheses etc.

If we want sats to be lower stakes then the judgment of schools in ks2 data needs to stop.
If you are facing a slide into Requires Improvement due to a poor cohort it does test your moral compass a bit, but not to the point of actually cheating when you could get a moderator walk in any minute!
Easter school 3 hours a day every day? And 4 full papers a day? Hmmm, sceptical.

Play it doesn't require children to write in sentences or at length ...that's the point

She's 100% right - it doesn't.

Not does it serve any purpose whatsoever other than naming grammatical terms. It's not included in the progress measure and the working party ran out of money for a KS3 grammar curriculum, so it goes nowhere.

If we want sats to be lower stakes then the judgment of schools in ks2 data needs to stop.

Indeed.

I think you as a parent, need to think about consequences. With help, the child may get better results. But does that help the child? Their official GCSE target is decided by Sats results. If they have over achieved in sats, they may feel inadequate for years, and feel pressure from secondary to meet their target.
It's only a week away. If you need to do something, you need to do it before it's too late.

Playdoughbum-
Seriously. This is my son’s year. He comes home complaining- as do all his mates to their mums. Children who are lower achievers are asked in for Easter holiday 3 hour daily week day sessions. There are after school sessions also. That’s been going on for years. What baffles me more is that parents agree to it. None of this paints a true picture of schools.

my daughter's school has got loads of kids extra time in SATS this year but quite a few just read the passage very slowly because they wanted extra time. They don't NEED it because of a problem, they do however need it to finish the paper going by the practice ones they have done. But surely some children are just slower, doesn't mean they actually ought to just get extra time. will completely skew their results.

Teachers of kids with SEN can apply for various accommodations and a reader and/ or scribe is one option, 25% extra time is another. Surely it is this rather than cheating.

Not if it's every child in the class including those that have no SEN

You have to have evidence that they need the extra time though- so they are taking a big risk if someone comes to check.
Slow reading speed is a valid reason though- and that can apply to quite a few children.

Cheating definitely does happen. I have reported a school this year and they are now going to be moderated. I was working there last year and could not believe that some of the children got 100% when they could barely pull a few sentences together in class. The school is outstanding and gets awards for their progress. They haven't had an Ofsted in numerous years and it's a joke! I bumped into a parent of one of last year's year 6 class and they told me that their child is really struggling. They said they did so well in primary school and they are not too sure what's happened as the secondary school has said that their reading age is 8. There is no way that this child should have passed! I think that every school should have an external person in to watch.

There should be invigilators in every sats exam just like GCSE. So much rides on results that I cannot believe this is not standard practice already.

Hang on. We've got "SATS are so important there should be external invigilation" and "SATS aren't at all important, go to Disneyland instead"
Personally I think " cheating" is abhorrant-although given the pressure some teachers and schools are under, it is easy to see why it happens. But whilst parents and OFSTED judge schools by results and don't take account of circumstances ( I have one child living in a refuge, one child with Mum facing jail for assault, several children in such disfunctional families that social services are weekly visitors, one child with a community service order against them, the list of problems goes on) then teachers will stretch and yes, sometimes break, the boundaries.

Very true, spanieleyes - it is not, and never will be, a level playing field

In primary the school has to show that its normal for that child to have a reader or extra time in the class

Spot on Spanieleyes