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?

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

Well, yes, but because prior lower attainers tend to be the children that are less bright.

On the other hand, prior lower attainers who turn out to have an unrecognised SEN that was holding back their learning, (or others who eg had a rubbish primary, or significant disruption in their lives), are quite capable of catching up / overtaking.

Yes, I know you're right TeenPlus Twenties.

I'm massively over-thinking this. It feels like living on a roller coaster of wondering where his self-esteem will be each day and working around that.

I'm with you on that horse , I'm working on self esteem with my y10 DD at the moment (she has various difficulties herself).

One of our year 6 will be getting enlarged papers as she has visual problems. Another has a reader/scribe and extra time due to various additional needs

Thanks. I'm going to speak with his teacher about trying some large print papers. I think they will suit him better as they don't have the 'clutter' of clip art like the standard ones, although I notice that the maths papers don't have grids to help with column work, presumably to keep the paper as simple as possible, but not necessarily that helpful.

All of the Arithmetic questions have grids and the reasoning questions that require a method (or an accurate answer) definitely do.

Feenie they don't seem to on the large print versions.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804084/STA198216Mle_2019_ks2_mathematics_MLP_Paper1_arithmetic.pdf

Here's the standard version of the same paper -

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804053/STA198216e_2019_ks2_mathematics_Paper1_arithmetic.pdf

How strange!

Yes, it's odd isn't it?

Although the no grid lines make the paper 'cleaner' they potentially disadvantage children esp with long multiplication and division and those who have difficulty with size and spacing of their writing.

And the lack of a box to put your answer in is very strange - if there are workings out and crossings out how will the marker know what the child's final answer is?

Even with answer boxes, markers are trained to look elsewhere on the paper for the answer, if the answer box is empty.

Crossings out are ignored and workings may be considered, depending on the type of question.

Thanks Ellie56 that's interesting.

Would it be possible for a child to have large print with grid lines do you think? I was thinking if the adjustments need to be usual classroom practice, I'll have to ask his teacher about this sooner rather than later.

Yes, the school can open the test packs an hour early to make "minor adjustments" so a school can open the papers and photocopy from A4 size to A3 size, the enlarged version would then have the grid lines on. The school doesn't even need permission from the STA as long as it is only one hour before. It can also be photocopied onto coloured paper if that helps too

Great, thanks spanieleyes.

His teacher said that she'd let me know about the assessments they did last week before half-term. If they haven't gone well, I'll suggest that they try enlarging a paper and see how he gets on with that.

I'd suggest they try him with the standard paper with the grid lines enlarged, and also with the modified paper to see which one he gets on with best.

Even if you enlarge the standard paper so you have grid lines, you will still have all the "business" and clutter of pictures etc which may be distracting and add to the focusing difficulties.