Year 6 SATs

[jhg5]

Hoping for some advice/opinion here please.

Daughter is in a class where around a third are expected to attain reasonable SATs grades, and she is amongst those.

During the run up to the exams currently taking place, the teacher has developed a practice of tapping on their tables (during mock exams) after reading their unfinished papers to indicate they have an answer wrong, and must look at it again.

During the actual exams this week, same teacher has continued this practice, and has also given out correct spellings of words to improve marks with some students.

After leaving Monday's tests, daughter told a school-friend what had happened, and the friend replied that this was cheating. This came to the ears of the (same) teacher who then called them back into the classroom and informed them that she could get sacked for this, and was merely trying to "help" them.

Daughter states she wishes to pass exams under her own steam (without this kind of help).

Seems to me that the teacher is more interested in boosting the overall grades of her class artificially, and avoiding difficult questions/inspections - and is certainly not helping anybody other than the school and herself.

I am aware there is a procedure for reporting cheating, but my question is - am I being over zealous? Or right to be outraged at a) the foul play and b) the fact that the teacher has made the children complicit in her cheating?

If you are that concerned, then campaign to change the system that puts teachers in this situation.
Go after the organ grinder, not the monkey.

Re hargen's message

I do, I support the opposition's pledge to abolish SATs altogether.

A foul system shouldn't lead to these behaviours in my opinion however (teachers teaching kids to cheat etc), but thanks for your input.

This came to the ears of the (same) teacher who then called them back into the classroom and informed them that she could get sacked for this, and was merely trying to "help" them.*

I would make it my business to speak to the teacher about that alone. She has absolutely no business speaking to the children in that manner. Then I would address the ‘helping’ issue with her. I would report it also.

It is cheating and its unfair on so many levels. Other schools are doing the tests honestly, working hard for their results and yet will come out looking like failures in comparison. For the children, whatever happens now your dd will feel she has failed and many will go onto secondary school with inflated target grades and face the next 5 years being told they are under achieving.
Raising a complaint won't effect your dd (the schools results will probably be made void but she will be questioning their value anyway) but will teach the school that they can't get away with it and in the long run highlight one of the many faults of SATs.

Often when people say see the headteacher I read and think it is an over reaction. It would not be here. Nothing to be gained by talking to teacher. They have made their position clear. Talk to head and if not happy still write to chair of governors

The system stinks. That doesn’t mean cheating is right. It is unfair on the children and on all the schools that don’t cheat. Your daughter knows it is wrong, show her she is right. Report it. www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-report-maladministration-at-key-stage-1-and-key-stage-2

JHG5 - My ds came home on Monday with a similar story, and I was absolutely fuming. The children grouped into different rooms and the 3 teachers/TAs in his room were walking round telling children to ‘Look at that one again’, ‘Change that one’, ‘the word you have written there is toung not tongue’ etc. This was during the spelling and SPAG tests.

DS has worked hard, we’ve practiced a lot of spellings at home, the teacher didn’t tell him to change any answers and I’m happy that his results will be accurate. But I was so annoyed about the blatant cheating that I phoned the school straight away to complain. I’m still on the fence as to whether I should complain officially to whoever sets the tests. I do feel sorry for the teachers that they are put under so much pressure that they need to resort to this. This school looks great on paper - good in the league tables, oversubscribed every year whilst people don’t want other local schools that look worse on the league tables. It’s all fake. Don’t get me started on the fact that they stick post it notes all over the children’s written work that will be used to assess their writing score, telling the children where they’ve missed punctuation, where to add things, change spellings etc (and last year blatantly told the year 6’s to take all the post it notes off as the moderators were coming in the next day and they didn’t want them to see the post it notes).

hargen, you are totally wrong.
You cannot justify the teachers actions just because they are under pressure.
Teachers are expected to be role models of young children, as well as to educate them. Are you happy if your children learned that it's ok to cheat if you have any reasons?

Wow bit gobsmacked about the schools with such a lack of integrity; regardless of the rights and wrongs of SATS it should not happen! I wonder how widespread is this?

My DD is in Y6 doing them this week too and AFAIK the only help the kids have been given is to come in early for breakfast with toast and hot chocolate!!

To clarify, the school HAS been in special measures in the past, so there is likely pressure from within to ensure this does not happen again.

I am aware that the SATs system generates situations/scenarios that simply would not take place if children aged 10/11 were not monitored and tested in such a fashion.

I (personally) feel that the teachers are up against it in this school. As stated two-thirds are not expected to achieve good results, and the same two-thirds do not participate well during lessons nor complete homework set. I feel there is a lack of support from (some) parents/guardians to encourage positive engagement.

This is also a Church School. It should not make a difference, but the religious teachings are in evidence, and mentioned regularly during assemblies & the like. For (a) member of staff to essentially cheat & then to expect children to keep her lie a secret goes against all they are taught from a religious perspective too.

I see no benefit in speaking to the teacher concerned, and have an inkling that the Head may be complicit in these actions too. I feel the only course of action is to report these instances, and let others more qualified make a decision going forward. Sorry to hear of others with a similar experience.

Just in case your chosen secondary school does set based on SATS you could have a discreet word just so they are aware

Talking to the secondary school won't help, they will be judged on the pupils making progress from those SATs results if they stand, and knowing that they are inaccurate won't change that. They will be able to tell within about half a term who isn't working at the standard expected from their SATS results in any case! You are just passing the buck for reporting if you do that, but you have more evidence than the secondary school will and it happened this week, not months in the past.

Number to report maladministration: 0300 303 3013

@jhg5 and @LadyLannister

As a Year Six teacher, I urge you to please, please, please report this to the number Feenie gave.

This happening in schools has an effect on all other Year Six children and schools across the country. Grade boundries are set based upon how the children score so cheating in some schools does mean the boundaries for everyone will be higher than they should be. There will be children who are told that they aren't working at the age-related standard because of things like this.

My son is in the same year and his school is not a good one. But this is cheating you should report it. Is so unfair for all of those who work hard for secondary school to go to higher group only for cheaters to take their place. That person should stay away faraway from education altogether.

Forget the Head, I would be going straight to the LA. It's so utterly unfair on schools that play by the rules, and on their pupils. If the cheating is that blatant, I would imagine the Head is complicit.

I work in a school and have been involved in sats testing this week. I agree with Iamnotthe1- please, please report this. Children and their teachers all around the country have been working so hard to prepare for the tests and, contrary to popular MN belief, they DO impact on a child's future since they are used to predicted gcse grades. As Iam said, grade boundaries are now set in the scores, do will negatively impact upon innocent children and their non-cheating teachers.
Yes, the system causes dreadful pressures on staff and children, but cheating like this can only increase the pressure as it artificially inflates scores.
Please report.

Yes please report - cheating has implications for all, not just those in your school.

Report it. A teacher doing this deserves to be sacked. As others have said, this will potentially after the standardised scoring and is so unfair on all the other schools who wouldn’t dream of cheating.

Yes I would report it. I don't agree with sats but if they have to do then, they sgound be administered without cheating. I'd also complain to HT and governors

affect not after

And I'd withdraw my child from The remaining sats on the grounds that the teacher is cheating.

Report, report, report.

Also tell the Governing Body you are doing so. They (the GB) should be doing spot checks to ensure that the school is complying with the test administration guidelines.

Sadly, it’s more common for the “better” schools to do this. If their reputation rides on high SATs scores, they’ll do anything to protect their reputation.

Report it. I have many family members and friends slogging their guts out teaching secondary, trying to get pupils to achieve completely unattainable GCSE results based on questionably high SATs grades. It's a stupid system and I know teachers can't win but this is very detrimental.

REPORT IT! You can call 0300 303 3013 I think anonymously and give the school's details. They will investigate. I would also tell the Head and Chair of govs you are doing it. You're absolutely right about the religious school hypocrisy. What sort of example are they setting?!

If you don't report it you are helping to collude with the national results being unfairly skewed. Please, as a teacher who works to administer things fairly and equitably, I ask you NOT to do that!

Let us know how you get on. It won't feel nice doing it, but it's the right thing to do.