SATs week is here

[paxillin]

Starting tomorrow with spag. Did you manage to stop yours fretting?

Hope it goes well for all your DCs. It’s been a while since mine did SATs but it is stressful for them so I sympathise.

My year 2 child hasn't even heard the word "SATS" while they've been doing theirs. They did some "nice really posh workbooks" which I assume was the tests going by without them noticing!

I guess people may fret if they think they are not going to get great results.

I think children fretting over exams they have been working towards for months is independent of expected performance, @Hollowvictory.

I’ve been perfectly relaxed about the SATs but the school on the other hand have put a ridiculous amount of pressure since the start of September they even ran a club for sats revision during the easter holidays and breakfast club. He has had endless SATS papers and homework every weekend and school holiday!! In will be glad when its over so DS can relax!!

I am not sure if I am missing something, but tonight my FB is full of Mums (and it is the Mums) wishing their child lots of luck, and I'm proud of you however you do and telling them to 'go smash them'

So it isn't just the school, parents are too. I am feeling a dreadful parent for not really caring. He will get my standard advice 'do your best' and 'if you get stuck on something, leave it, go to the next question and come back at the end if you have time'

Probably practising the jollying along of nervous kids, @moonrises .

DDs school haven’t been piling on the pressure and neither have I, in fact I didn’t even know when they were until last week. DD is looking forward to going in early for breakfast, she’s pretty chilled about the actual tests. I think this is because we are in an 11 plus area and DD took that in September. The 11 plus felt much more stressy as the result of that was going to make a big difference to DDs future schooling and DD really wanted to go to grammar school.

DD is in a right state over the SATS. This is despite us repeatedly telling her that it doesn't matter, the exams test her teachers not her, and that the senior school she's going to doesn't use SATS results to stream. I guess if you've been preparing intensively for a test for a year, you're going to be stressed - whatever your mom says. I wish our education system didn't do this to children.

Morning was good, kids basked a bit in their Y6 on exam day glory and school were lovely.

I hope your dd will be better tonight having done the first ones, @Mog37.

I told DS this morning to do his best but not to worry as they didn't matter that much. To which he replied 'why are we doing them then?'

You need to play it down op. They are tests that reflect on the school more than the dc. Yes secondaries use them as targets for GCSEs but only loosely so.

If parents are stressed enough to start a thread then their DC will pick up on that.

Stop fretting.

Glad it went well

School has been fretting I think, but dd is chilled. They've done so many practices she knows what to expect. She's more worried about her secondary appeal...

My niece is doing them and is really stressed. Imo it’s unfair to put that sort of pressure on little kids when they don’t benefit from it at all, it’s just used to assess the school. And tbh I’m struggling to see why I should give a shit about how the school is assessed. I’m seriously just considering withdrawing my DC when the time arrives.

Totally chilled now they realised it was all day play and art interrupted by a couple of tests . Panic over.

Thankfully ds isn't fretting.

It's all quite exciting really, I did him a special breakfast instead of the usual toast/cereal, then he got toast again at school. They did their test then had a fancy lunch, and a nice chilled out afternoon.

I think it's a break from the usual school routine.

Nope not fretting, DD is just doing her best, and as far as I am concerned SAT's are just to see how the school done and not about the children.

The Yr 6's at my DD are looking forward to Friday when they have finished their SAT's as they have a non uniform day and go Bowling, Burgers.

Dd is totally unfazed by the whole thing. It’s not really been mentioned in ours house much except to tell to just do her best this morning.

Her teacher is also massively unbothered about them. They don’t get the amazingly high results some schools get, but they’re taught well and get the mark that reflects their ability rather than what they’ve been trained for with endless test papers. Dd2 has done just one practice paper before Easter, and nothing else other than normal lessons.

Dd1 has the same teacher, she got good results, not as high as some kids in her secondary classes, who got more or less full marks, but good enough to be in top sets and she is now ahead of many of those kids with amazing sats marks from other schools.

The most important thing for me, is that my girls both had lovely y6s which weren’t ruined by stats pressure.

I do wonder if all the 'don't fret' people expect their DC to do pretty well. Both we and school have tried to avoid putting pressure on DD - hell she didn't even have to take them... but it is just dawning on her she will fail the lot. So we have.. 'what's the point in trying if my best isn't good enough'.

Very envious of some of the previous posters. My DD has had a horrible lead up to SATS which culminated in me complaining to school that it was making her ill. At home we've been very low pressure and calm but she's hugely stressed, came out of school crying today. I've tried to help her relax tonight and emphasise (again) that we are not concerned about results.

Yesterday’s spelling not too bad, we thought. A couple of tricky questions in the P+G paper, but lots that they could manage.

Onwards to the reading! Fingers crossed for no Victorian novel gobbits...

I think in some cases however chilled parents and schools try to be the children will find it stressful. it is different to day to day lessons (unless they are at a school which has practiced loadsin test conditions), the news keeps talking about SATs on local radio etc. one or two children are stressed because of home pressure and that rubs off on others. All we can try and do as parents is reassure them that as long as they do their best that is all that matters. tell them we are proud of their efforts and plan a small treat or nice meal at the end of it all. reports here were that the SPAG was easier than the practice paper they had done and went better than expected so happy in this household. hopefully reading won't have been something too dull or strange. we were joking at bedtime that if she couldn't sleep she could imagine all the really dull topics they could use in the reading paper! we came up with some fabulous ideas.

@KingscoteStaff let's hope they dont have to spell gobbet.