Considering not letting my Y6 child sit SATS

[thehorseandhisboy]

My ds has recently been diagnosed with a visual processing disorder. He is having vision therapy, has prism glasses and there are a few adaptions that the school has put in place ie not copying from the board. The prognosis is that the therapy will hopefully help, but he'll have to find ways around his visual difficulties as time goes on.

Understanding that he isn't wired quite right in itself has done lots for his self-esteem. I pursued an Ed psych assessment when he went from being 'exceeding expectations' to 'behind expectations' in maths in a year, along with a number of other concerns. He brought home a stack of tests that he achieved very low marks in eg 8/50 throughout the year. His Ed psych report indicated extremely high scores in some areas, although an extremely low ie 1st percentile processing speed.

Since diagnosis, he has spoken much less about being stupid and has been much more engaged at school.

School are now in full SATS practice mode. He brought home a test today in which he scored 6/26. Although I'm very glad that he finished the test and kept plugging away, I'm really concerned about the effect that this repeated testing and achieving low scores is going to have on his already fragile self-confidence.

He was originally targeted for 'exceeding expectations' in maths and English because of his KS1 SATS results. Last week, his teacher said that he should 'get through' his SATS. This would be good enough for me tbh.

I'm concerned how psychologically damaging him 'not achieving expectation' in his SATS may be. Although I fully understand that children learn by making mistakes and need to learn to fail etc, I sort of feel that he's had enough of that already, and we need to focus on improving his vision as much as possible, working out what he needs adjusting to enable him to do as well and possible and, most importantly, to improve his self-esteem and self-confidence before secondary school.

He'll know what he gets in his SATS, will compare them to his friends etc. He will get extra time, although doesn't think that will help.

It crossed my mind today that I could just keep him off school during the tests. I don't think that's the 'right' thing to do, but in all honestly, I don't think letting him sit tests that his disability creates so many barriers to is either. Not because I care about how he does, but I do care very much about how he is in himself.

Can anyone help me frame this more positively at all?

Hard when statutorily they have to be reported as met the standard/has not met the standard. But I agree this isn't right that a third of children to the high school judged as not being at the standard. The standard is ludicrous.

The deadline for applications for extra time is end April. Ask the school to sort out the required assessments and whatever the results they would have the 5 months before May to implement them on a regular basis. ( We conduct a reading speed and accuracy assessment, a writing speed assessment and a processing accuracy assessment to cover all possibilities!)

Yes, it appalls me that a third of 10/11 year olds and their families are being told that they 'haven't met expectations' at the end of Y6 based on a few hours of testing.

spanieleyes my dc's school does those assessments too - when my other dc did their SATS tests at the same school lots of children had extra time etc

When I met with the SENco before Xmas, she said that his difficulties wouldn't have shown up in these assessments. His reading age is 16, his maths also above age, really high working memory, and it's stamina that he has difficulties with.

What would enable him to demonstrate his attainment, ironically, would be English and Maths tests with only the harder questions. He runs of steam and loses confidence quite early on on a long paper.

Thanks for your responses everyone, they have been very useful.

Hopefully extra time and helping him to remember to put his pen down and rest his eyes every few questions will help.

Would breaks help? If, for example he sat an hour long paper with breaks after every 15-20 minutes, would that help or make things worse! It is certainly something to try-he could even start with the harder reading section and work forwards!

The SENco said that they'd tried breaks with some children in previous years, letting them walk around etc, but said that it generally made it harder to focus.

I was thinking more of him stopping and letting his eyes rest after 5 questions or so. So 'working' for an hour, but using the extra 15 mins to stop working for bits of time, rather than spending more time on the questions iyswim.

I don't think that working backwards through a reading paper would help as the questions generally start at the beginning of the text and that would scramble his brain. Consolidating reading the questions first, underlining key words or phrases may make it easier.

I didn't explain it very well - what I meant was shorter papers but no less 'hard' questions would suit him as his brain/eyes connection run out of stamina.

I do get that you can't shield children from being tested and assessed, it's tricky for him and many others as his difficulties have only just been diagnosed (and thank goodness they have before secondary) so he's having to go through this adjustment when the emphasis at school is on SATS rather than him learning how to learn in the most efficient way for him.

Sorry haven't read the whole thread.
My son (now year 8) was the same as yours. School was not an enjoyable experience from reception onwards. His self esteem and subsequent behaviour both at school and home was appalling. He could neither read or write. It was heartbreaking
Eventually I paid for an Ed psych assessment and he was diagnosed with severe dyslexia, although in the gifted range of intelligence. The Ed psychs assessment was that it was unfair that DS could not access the curriculum (can't remember of the top of my head but I think there is a legal right in some Act somewhere) and that I should start the EHCP process immediately.
The school was actually great in their initial support (the Senco was switched on) but wouldn't commence the EHCP process themselves so I did it myself. Luckily I had the letters and paperwork from every appt he'd ever had (cahms, counsellor, occupational therapy, optometrist etc).
The whole process seemed to take ages and was quite time consuming - I did it all myself; researched the hell out of it. Fortunately the LEA's own Ed psych agreed broadly with the original assessment and we eventually got him his EHCP (to my amazement as I convinced myself it would never happen). His Senco wrote a report for inclusion that supported the evidence I'd gathered such as supporting docs from other all the other medical depts he'd ever been referred to)
In the meantime he got access arrangements for his SATS and he had a reader and scribe for all (excluding the reading paper) and easily passed all but the reading paper (as we had expected, and we had managed his expectations around this).
He is now funded to attend a dyslexia specialist school where he has access to an almost 1:1 TA reading and scribing in many of his lessons. He's doing really well. Next step is to get him typing and less reliant on the TA (this has not proven easy so far and is work in progress...). I cannot begin to tell you what a huge difference this has made to his happiness and self esteem.

There's still time get get access arrangements in place for your sons SATs. It is in his schools interests after all. Then have a read up about the process to apply for an EHCP (everyone has a right to make an application) and start it yourself - don't wait for for the school. Good luck.

Forgot to ask, does your ds already have an IEP in place? If not, he should have. My ds has had one for several years so it made it easier to argue that, despite continued support, progress had not been made and next step intervention was necessary (ie access arrangements and EHCP)
We've also done a lot of work building his resilience skills. Am very proud of him.

Thanks for your comments, and I'm glad that your ds is now getting the help that he needs.

I'm honestly not sure what the school have formally recorded his needs as. The lovely SENco left at Xmas, and the new one is covering two schools so very stretched.

I did look briefly at EHCPs, but I don't think he'd qualify at the moment. He's always done well at school, although started to drop off during Y5 which was one of the reasons I pursued an independent Ed Psych assessment.

I started him on a touch typing course which I've put on hold as it seems a bit much at the moment with his vision therapy/violin/homework etc. I'm planning to pick it up again after the SATS and make sure that he's fluently touch typing by the time he goes into secondary school.

I do think that with this, having board notes on the screen in front of him etc that he'll be able to manage in secondary. His needs aren't beyond the remit of reasonable adjustments in a mainstream school, at the moment, it's working out what adjustments he'll need going forward that's the current work in process.

Just knowing that he has a visual processing disorder has done his self-confidence and engagement with school a lot of good and I hoping that if I can approach the secondary already aware of what support he will need, things will be put in place from when he starts.

I'm struggling to understand just why he is scoring so low on the tests he is doing, if academically he can manage the work but cannot focus for long, and has only started to drop off the standard last year. Is it taking him a very long time to do every question, so he is only getting a few questions done?
What subject was 6/26 - none of the tests are out of 26, so presumably it was a test put together by the school?

It was some 'SATs practice test' about percentages, so different types of questions all based on working out %s.

What seems to happen is that he focuses and concentrates very well for a few minutes then his brain rushes ahead of his eyes (this is definitely what I observe when I get him to read out loud to me), he gets anxious and mixed up, can't think straight and makes silly mistakes.

He did complete the paper and the ones that he got correct were the first few at the beginning and a few at the end. His brain and eyes seem to click in and out of gear. Looking through his books from last year that's a very definite pattern.

Up to Y4 or so, work was generally in shorter bits and, I think, less reliant on solely visual imput. I think he used his phenomenal auditory working memory to manage and that method doesn't work as well with more to remember.

One of my boys has visual problems too thehorse, though not the same type as your son's. It didn't really start to impact on his school work until well into secondary school, and even then, not in every subject. He struggles with reading large blocks of text, so English, particularly literature, was very problematic, but subjects like maths were barely affected.
I think up to a point, people with any kind of sensory difficulties find coping mechanisms, but eventually they reach a tipping point where the ways they have developed to manage the situation become overwhelmed. We are incredibly grateful to my son's English teacher as she was the person who realised what was gouig on and pushed for him to be assessed to see if he could have adjustments made.She could have just concluded that he was lazy or disinterested but she noticed that his work, particularly under exam conditions, always started out well but deteriorated with time, and that he rarely managed to finish within the alloted time. After being assessed he was given extra time, access to a reader, and his exam papers in larger print and it made a huge difference. Prior to his needs being recognised we were hoping that he would manage 5s for his English GCSEs, if he got lucky with the questions. He actually got 7s, and that was all down to the adjustments in my opinion. He was working hard before but he simply couldn't read the text fast enough to organise his thoughts and get the answer down in time. Then he would panic about not finishing which made everything worse. Obviously I knew his vision was poor, but as it hadn't affected attainment previously, and wasn't a problem in all subjects, I just didn't twig that the issues in "essay" subjects were related to his vision.
So I can well believe that your son's attainment suddenly fell. As you say, he will have developed ways round his problems that worked effectively to a point, but now something like the amount of words on the page, or the speed with which he needs to read and/or write has reached a critical point and h!is coping mechanisms no longer work. But there should be adjustments available. They may not eradicate the problem entirely but they should help to a degree. If it can be done for GCSEs, I am sure it can be done for SATs.

Thanks MAFIL. I was wondering about larger font, as that seems to slow his brain down when he reads on a Kindle, and will ask his teacher whether they can try giving him one of the (many, oh so many) practice papers with large font to see if that makes a difference.

Okay. Ds has been quite grumpy the past few days, not clear why. Tonight he told me that he is 'stressed and depressed' about 'failing the SATS' and being put in the 'bottom set' at secondary.

I empathised that the school is making a big fuss about them and that this current education system is very difficult for children. Also, that his visual processing difficulties make testing situations difficult for him, that SATS are only a snapshot in time etc etc etc.

I made some suggestions about things that might help him eg larger font, being able to read the questions aloud to himself, and he said that these might help. I'll try some of these things at the weekend when hopefully he isn't as grumpy and obstructive.

I spoke with his teacher earlier in the week about how I could support him. She said that 'it's not that he can't do the work, he needs to focus more'. Yes, I know. He has some faulty wiring between his eyes and brain that make it difficult for him, he's not choosing to 'not focus'.

They're going to do some past papers this week/next week and she's going to let parents know the marks before half term. My plan is to see how these go and if they don't go well for my ds to ask if some more focused adjustments eg larger font, reading the questions out will be possible.

I'm finding this soul-destroying tbh. It's unfortunate that his diagnosis and the process of working out what will help him has coincided with SATs frenzy.

I don't care about the SATs, but I do care very much about the effect that this is having on his self-esteem and anxieties about secondary school.

OTOH, if it wasn't for SATs and tests in school you maybe wouldn't have pursued Ed Psych stuff now. That would have meant going up to secondary without diagnosis and having worked out what adjustments are needed.

Any half decent secondary school will have a system for adjusting any initial setting (or not setting until half term / Christmas / y8). So even if he is 'miss-set' it should soon be obvious. Plus hopefully they will get moving up info from the primary schools too.

Yes, I'm very glad that we got a diagnosis before secondary school. I just wish we weren't trying to work out what adjustments he needs/restore his fragile self-esteem in a context in which the school are treating SATs like an Oxbridge entry exam.

It's not about him being put in the 'wrong set' or the bottom set. It's about how he feels about the possibility of being in the 'bottom set' and the effect that that is having on his self-esteem that is concerning me.

He could have a modified large print paper if that would help - I think pupils who have those automatically get extra time.

Information here:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/852231/2020_key_stage_2_access_arrangements.pdf

I think you just need to keep talking about how SATs aren't important in themselves whatever the school says, but isn't it great he can try out adjustments now, so when he goes to secondary he'll have more idea of what works.

Then maybe also contact SENCO/Transition lead at expected secondary school and ask how/when they set and adjust setting so hopefully you can allay fears on that too.

In other words you need to counteract unhelpful messages from school!

Thanks. The school that he chose is always under subscribed, so I'm already pretty certain which one he'll be going to.

I do plan to contact the SENco/transition lead as soon as places are allocated to find out what transition plans are for children with SEN etc.

The problem is that SATS are important to him. Also, in all honesty it worries me that if he doesn't meet expected standards then his chances of getting reasonable GCSEs are very low/non-existent statistically speaking as 'lower prior attainers' at KS2 tend to stay that way up to GCSE.

That's a lot of years to keep saying that tests and exams aren't important!

Are you certain that the secondary school he will be attending use SATS to set? Many completely ignore them, recognising that the results are often unrepresentative of a child's actual ability. Schools that heavily coach for the tests, not surprisingly, have a tendency to get better results than those that don't, but it doesn't mean that those children are more able or have had a better primary education, just that they have been more thoroughly prepared for those specific tests.
When my children were in year 6 there were always rumours flying around about what would happen in secondary school if you didn't get high SATS results. I don't know where they came from, as both the Head of their primary school and the Head of the secondary that they were going onto stated that there would be no impact whatsoever. Like many schools, ours does not set in any subject until part way through Year 7 and uses the results of their own CATS and teachers' assessments, plus as TeenPlus says, setting is, if you pardon the pun, rarely set in stone.
I would second the suggestion of clarifying with the secondary school asap what their actual process for setting is. Your DS's concerns may be completely unfounded. Kids seem to wind each other up over these things even if the schools aren't pushing the issue, and it does sound as though his teacher isn't helping unfortunately.

They're all very good points MAFIL.

My dd's school set only for maths in Y7 and that was based on CAT tests they did around half term.

From the info on the website, it sounds like ds's school only set for maths in Y7 and you're right that many schools don't use SATs fo rthis purpose.

His teacher is lovely although somewhat stretched as she's also assistant head (the original class teacher became ill very early on in the autumn term and I'm very grateful that she stepped in), has half a new SENco and an executive head who is hardly there.

I don't think she really 'gets' his difficulties, which is sort of understandable with 29 other children to think about. I did send her the ed psych report, but I know that she's very busy and not a SENco.

I'll speak with him tomorrow about trying not to take any notice of these rumours. It won't be long now until places are allocated and I can provide him with concrete information from the secondary school.

Thanks again all - all responses are very much appreciated.

It could be that your son gets tired and loses focus because he is having to cope with small print. Maybe he would cope better with with the modified papers which are clearer and have larger print.

Examples of MLP SATs papers from 2018:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/710199/STA187968Mle_2018_ks2_English_reading_MLP_Reading_booklet.pdf

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/710197/STA187967Mle_2018_ks2_English_reading_MLP_Reading_answer_booklet.pdf

Thanks Ellie56 that's fantastic.

It will be so much easier to bring this up with his teacher if I have something tangible to show her.

Are there similar modified papers for maths/spag do you know?

Don't worry - I've found them.

Here if anyone else is interested -

www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-2-tests-2018-mathematics-test-modified-materials

Maths papers here in between the Braille materials:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-2-tests-2019-mathematics-test-modified-materials

SPAG

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803961/STA198213Mle_2019_ks2_English_GPS_MLP_Paper1_questions.pdf

If you want any more just google MLP SATS papers.

Did you see the link I posted further up about access arrangements? It might be helpful if you read that before you meet with the SENCO too.

Cross posted OP