Teachers answering questions/helping children in SATs

[Flicketyflack]

Hurrah SATS have finished!

DC has come home every day perplexed by some children in his class and certain kids in particular repeatedly asking for help during the tests.

I am quite annoyed as surely they are tests and if teacher help the kids it does not reflect their real abilities? Or am I naive?

He has told me that he thinks it is as much as six or seven questions each test! He also suggested certain children were 'favoured' in that she helped them more than others!

Should I report this? It seems unfair on those kids that don't ask for help.

Your son's score could be adversely affected if their teacher is found to have cheated, I believe.

Are they not readers and scribes for the kids with Sen

The children do not have SEN because those needing extra help sat in another room with the necessary help/support.

I was shocked by what he has reported to me the teacher was doing more than encouraging, for example she gave an example sentence to illustrate a modal verb etc! On another occasion the contraction was identified! Don' t even dare ask about all the maths examples but it has happened on every paper and seems to be a few kids generally and one lad in particular.

Report it then. It is unfair to your child and thousands of others across the country if some children are helped like this. It is cheating and will affect how the standardised scoring is calculated. That means some children will get expected rather than greater depth and won’t get the targets they deserve for GCSE.

"If a pupil asks a question about test content, you may explain or rephrase a question provided you do not give away subject-specific information. For example, if a question asks to “insert a pair of commas”, ‘insert’ may be explained, but not ‘commas.

If a pupil requests it, a question may be read to them on a one-to-one basis.
If reading to a pupil, you can read words and numbers but not mathematical symbols. This is to ensure that pupils are not given an unfair advantage by having the function inadvertently explained by reading its name."

Asking questions is allowed

They’re encouraged to ask for a question to be read to them - you shouldn’t lose marks in a maths paper because you can’t read the question. Help can’t be given, but it may be that he’s misunderstood reading for helping

And ANY child can have a SPAG or a Maths question read to them if they ask - including yours.

All children can have questions read to them, they just have to ask. Some children put their hands up more than others. It's not cheating.

Pointing out answers and explaining terminology is absolutely not allowed.
Reading out a question (except in Reading Comprehension) is allowed, but you have to be careful not to put stress anywhere, except if it’s in bold. You can rephrase questions but not explain subject specific terminology.
I have read out questions for 5 years of SATS tests and scribed for one child. You have to be very careful.

My daughter also reported that certain children were given answers or tips on how to work out the answer. I'm disappointed but at least we know her scores will be accurate as she didn't ask for or receive any help.
It's a shame as my daughter views her teacher as a role model and I can see she that feels let down.

I strongly suspect a lot of malpractice goes on. Schools and teachers are under such pressure to get these pointless results.

A school local to me had its results annulled after it was found teachers had given too much help.

My Ds repeatedly asked for answers to questions but it was batted back what do you think

About what?

I understand about asking a question and that children should not be disadvantaged because of their reading abilities. However some questions were reframed by giving examples specific to that child(using his and sisters name).

As previous poster said her dd did not ask for help and neither did my son. He is disappointed some people had more help and then at break time corrected him, based on what teacher had told them in the test!

If skews the results in favour of these children

However some questions were reframed by giving examples specific to that child(using his and sisters name).

As long as specific vocabulary wasn't also rephrased, the example you have given is fine.

You should clarify with the school what was going on and if not satisfied report it.

skews the results in favour of these children

It doesn't matter. They don't stand to gain anything as a result.

Exactly. The children assisted (if they were) don't gain anything.

I've heard so much about this over the years, and it only truly dawned on me how crazy this attention to SATS is last year when I realised that they amounted to just a few hours out of a whole primary education.

I didn't even bother to ask my child about them when she sat them last year. I have another child going into Y6 in September and, having seen how much work at secondary school goes into undoing the utterly ridiculous way that Y6 children are taught to 'write', I feel even sorrier for the teachers who have to be involved in this charade of education.

Has your child enjoyed primary school? Do you think the teachers are generally decent people who don't need any extra hassle?

If the answer to the second question is yes, then just move on.

Also, the kids who were helped are unlikely to have been the more able ones iyswim. I doubt they'll do better than your son even if they were helped.

I agree and understand that those children who were 'assisted' gain little in the longer run however it feels very unfair when other kids, who may also have not fully understood or wanting reassurance or help, just got on with it

feels very unfair when other kids, who may also have not fully understood or wanting reassurance or help, just got on with it

You think it's unfair that some children asked for help or a question to be read to them and some didn't? It's not unfair, because every child has the option to put their hand up and ask a question. It doesn't make it unfair that some children didn't use the option.

I guess I thought it was a test or assessment and never thought you could 'ask' for interpretation but hey-ho

Norestformrz quoted the official guidance above. You can't ask for interpretation. Stop trying to make this a bigger thing than it is because you feel your DC may have been disadvantaged in some way.

Also, just because a child asks a question doesn't mean they get the answer they want. Many times during SATs I've had to answer children's questions with "I can't tell you that but..." or "I can't explain that bit to you..."