Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

The most tested children in the world.....can you opt out?

29 replies

chocolatequeen · 12/12/2007 13:55

There was a piece about this on the BBC yesterday, re the unveiling of the latest 10 year education plans. It said that british kids are the most tested in the world. It set me thinking, is it possible to refuse to allow your child to be tested? We have one son in Reception, have been living abroad for all of his life so have no idea how gruelling this testing is, or how relevant and useful to their education, but what is there to stop parents from insisting their children do not participate?

Do home schooled children have to complete the same tests?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Tinkerbeltinsel · 12/12/2007 14:10

Is this SATS ? if it is then as far as I know its not relevant at all to the children but more of a test of the school, my daughter's are next year so havnt had any experience of them as yet

flack · 12/12/2007 17:00

HE and independent schools don't have to do the SATs. KS1 SATs are easy to opt out ime if done right, the KS1 kids barely realise anyway. But I think there might be legal requirements about KS2 and above SATs I feel sure our state primary implied as much for KS2.

nailpolish · 12/12/2007 17:04

you could always move to scotland, we dont have any of these silly useless SATs

and its not BRitish kids that are the most tested in the world, its ENGLISH

pinetreedog · 12/12/2007 17:30

yes, naily, no SATs here, thank the Lord.

(Although scottish primaries are put under a lot of pressure re their testing.)

smartiejake · 12/12/2007 17:33

Find out which is test week and don't send him to school! Problem is lots of headteachers will mark these as unauthorised absences which go on the child's school records as truancy. Also lots of schools prepare them for the tests in advance so this may not have any effect.

Many independent schools don't do SATs (at dd1s school they do the ks 2 tests but not ks 3 OR 1)
SATs tests do not benefit children at all- they are a tool for making schools accountable.

Saturn74 · 12/12/2007 17:59

We opted DS2 out of KS1 SATS a few years ago.
Home schooled children do not do SATS.

Tamum · 12/12/2007 18:00

Damn, naily beat me to it on both points (not British, move to Scotland etc etc)

SauerKraut · 12/12/2007 18:04

What do you mean by "tested"? How often? Where we live, our kids, aged 9, 10 and 11, are tested every week and what's more, these marks count. If they don't do well enough, they don't move up to the next class. If they are borderline, they are on probation in the next class for the first term. This week, my 8 and 9 year old dds have been learning for tomorrow's test every day.

christywhisty · 12/12/2007 23:28

I remember having tests every year in junior school back in the late 60's/early 70's, no different to what they have nowadays.

KS1 my children hardly noticed they were doing them.
My son did KS2 in May, again not a huge amount of pressure, in fact he really enjoyed doing them.

Twinklemegan · 12/12/2007 23:32

It sounds like your DS was lucky Christywhisty. You hear so much in the media about teachers really putting the kids under pressure so they (the teachers) get good results. For that reason I'm very worried about DS going to school (long way off yet mind).

I too did tests all the time at school. But the difference then was that
a) I didn't spend half the school year being coached for that one thing
b) the tests were for my benefit, so the school and my parents knew how I was doing, NOT for the school to prove its own worth to the Government.

It makes me really cross actually that our kids are being used in this way.

S1ur · 12/12/2007 23:49

I believe you can't legally withdraw your child from sats despite the awful crapness of them in many schools, you could book a holiday/come down with a bad cold on that week, it would lower the schools results though.

They can be done better, teacher assessed is often better. Y6 sats are often horrible IME.

Twinklemegan · 12/12/2007 23:57

It really annoys me the amount of time they seem to waste in training kids to pass the SATS rather than actually "teaching" them. Is that true, or just a Daily Mail ism?

Shitemum · 13/12/2007 00:01

i used to really enjoy having 'spelling tests' when i was about 7 [slightly irrelevant post]

S1ur · 13/12/2007 00:02

Completely depends on the school.

I was in a school whre they were simply terrible and would humiliate, belittle and pressure chidren. Exclude those likely not to get certain levels. Spend around a term on practising and preparing.

It was horrible. Those poor kids and their pale scared faces. It was shit actually and I'm thankful not to be there anymore. It hardened my resolve about testing and children.

Twinklemegan · 13/12/2007 00:03

That's enough to turn those poor children off from learning for life.

S1ur · 13/12/2007 00:05

shitemum, some kids do like tests, mostly the bright ones! [wink[ but I still don't think all children should be subject to tests that are largely used to either inform leagues or set kids into ability grops at age 11 based on jumping through hoops on one day.

S1ur · 13/12/2007 00:07

Twinkle, I cannot stress enough how horrible and worthless it made those feel who weren't going to acheive a level 5 or let alone a 4!

Twinklemegan · 13/12/2007 00:08

I really liked tests and exams when I was at school (particularly maths strangely). But from what I've seen these SATS things seem really boring and inane. We should be challenging children in a positive way and firing their imagination. I feel the same about literacy and numeracy hours - I wish we could consider home educating, I really do.

S1ur · 13/12/2007 00:09

Twinkle, I do understand your feelings, but the right school can be so good and supportive and nurturing. BUT rather than looking at league tables I'd ask about their policies on testing.

Quattrocento · 13/12/2007 00:10

As has been said down the thread, surely the tests are not for the children, they are a tool to manage schools.

It's a pity they couldn't have thought of a better one that was less disruptive to children though.

Private schools in England don't have to do these, although some choose to.

Twinklemegan · 13/12/2007 00:10

Yep, totally agree. The school I went to was a bit of a hothouse and I don't think that did me any favours, in hindsight.

Twinklemegan · 13/12/2007 00:12

Although having said that, we will have a choice of one school for DS so I hope they have a good attitude to this kind of thing.

S1ur · 13/12/2007 00:19

You can down play them too though, and have the option of ahem holidaying broadening their education within the family for those weeks

nooonit · 14/12/2007 11:23

As long as those parents who are talking about "holidaying" during SATs aren't the same parents who would consider League Tables a tool for choosing a 'good' school for their child!(a child not attending for KS2 SATs counts as a zero for the school, pulling down the scores achieved by the rest of the year group)
Yes (from a teacher's point of view) KS2 SATs are in many ways unneccessary, but unavoidable by schools. Surely parents would prefer their children to be prepared for them rather than going into a test situation without any help.
When my dd is old enough for her SATs, I'd prefer her to sit them with her peers and develop the life skills that going through situations like tests give you, than learning at age 11 that when the going gets tough we can always run away on holiday!

mummymagic · 14/12/2007 11:36

Am a teacher parent who will be sending my dd to the nearest, smallest school that I like . Don't give a monkeys about league tables, in fact she will probably go to a rubbish school in league table terms because it is likely we wil choose a school with lots of refugee children and children not achieving high levels. I will choose based on the feel of the school (if we have a choice at all).

If the National tests still exist when she is at school, I will be keeping her off school on the days. They tests are completely unnecessary IMO. Personally, I quite liked tests as a child and agree that they do not have to be pressured but I do not agree with them on principle so wouldn't want her to take them.

I believe one of the Headteacher Unions suggested parents do this...
headteachers urge parents to boycott tests

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread