SATS reflections

[weareallout]

I was never anti SATS. In some ways I like that Yr6 have some form of testing at the end. My child has found yr6 a bit boring but their primary is nothing like some about if all. Friends tell me their schools little except SATs work Jan - May. I'm actually now quite annoyed that their 7 years of broad & varied education are being defined by about 4 hours of tests. The reading one sounds hard & not relevant to modern day 10-11 year olds?!?! SPAG - I've managed a degree & career without it.
Our school said it was 'low key' but mocks / booster groups / breakfast club etc all make it a big deal.
Anyone feel like it's all out of control?!?

😞😞

My ex and I argued over whether to push our son to do them, I was against as my son has autism and school anxiety and didn’t want the added pressure on him, after speaking with SENCO she said they measure a schools ability to teach a child as such, so not important but my son had always been behind, was put in extra catch up lessons and missed PE & IT to do these which want fair.
Also the recent ofsted report highlighted they weren’t on the right curriculum path and to make improvements so wasn’t great.
however his dad was like he’ll never got a job blah blah.
anyway in the end I encouraged him to try no pressure, he found it hard whilst some of his friends said it was easy, he didn’t finish the reading paper but did finish the others.

Also he left all tests for breaks and came home after one of them because he wouldn’t settle so next time I think I will put my foot down.

Unfortunately, the DfE would just see your ds as minus 3/4% and hammer the school for it - especially if his progress had dropped from Y2. They have no interest in making sure the needs of SEND children are met through the tests or by any other means.

I’ve just seen the school minister is going to review. News said that they can’t reveal any questions yet as there are still children that may not have sat the test yet. Really sad for any DC who have been hearing ion the news or maybe friends how hard they are and still to face them. Alternatively does it give them an advantage of knowing that they may struggle and they won’t be quite like the mocks. When will everyone have sat them?

The same school minister who insists the pay offer was fully funded and the entire profession just didn’t understand. 🙄🙄

Tests have to be locked away until Mon 22nd May.

Not read all the replies but my son did remarkably well in his SATS due to a lot of revision etc as he's not academic and does struggle at school. Based on his results he was placed in all the high sets when he started high school.

Within three months of starting high school he lived down in nearly every single set as he couldn't keep up with the pace.

They are a total
Waste of time and had I had a younger child doing them after him I would not have even encouraged them to revise. It all changes once they get to high school.

That should read got moved down in all the sets not lived down

If you say so 🙄

I dont think there is the time for work (across the country) to be assessed in the manner you describe. Not every child's work would be assessed because of time constraints. Not to mention it would be open to abuse. Also, who would decide which child's work would be assessed?

No doubt if the government suggested it, teachers would be up in arms about that too.

Can you please tell us your profession and point us towards a thread on it, please? I’d like to rip your processes to threads, based on things I know absolute nothing about. Seems an entirely reasonable thing to do.

@Feenie why are you so defensive? I'm not ripping you or anyone else to shreds. I acknowledge that there are difficulties with testing (it doesn't take into account a child's home life/other difficulties) but that is not to say that tests should be abolished.

I am curious as to how the alternatives suggested by teachers would work in practice? It seems like your workload would be increased.

No, because we do that already!

Off piss off.
I do bloody say so, as a teacher of 16 years experience who sees first hand every day the assessment that happens in a school and has done it all myself year after year.
We have to make the time because its required.
We wouldn't be up in arms, we would be happy that our work over the year was the main factor and not an exam that is a snapshot of a child's learning and not a true reflection of their progress and capability.
You clearly have no idea.

Exactly!!!!

Ive clearly touched a nerve 😂

Pathetic.

"Fool" and "piss off"...no problem. But dipshit is where the line is drawn by some posters 😂

I'll leave the teachers to whinge in peace.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what was deleted? Without getting yourself deleted of course. 😄

You do that.
Maybe other posters know that only a 'dipshit' would make ridiculous statements with no knowledge or understanding of the job at hand?

I hope you teach your year 6 how to argue their point without resorting to insults. Or maybe that's why you're worried?

As I say though, this will be my last post on this thread...I'll leave you to have a little whinge. Funny how the OP appears to be a parent, not a teacher...but you can only cope with parents who are agreeing with you.

@Dacadactyl If you say so 🙄

I dont think there is the time for work (across the country) to be assessed in the manner you describe. Not every child's work would be assessed because of time constraints. Not to mention it would be open to abuse. Also, who would decide which child's work would be assessed?

No doubt if the government suggested it, teachers would be up in arms about that too.

You don't think there is the time for work across the country to be assessed in the manner you describe?????

You do realise that that is exactly what every year 6 teacher is now trying to do x 30 for a minimum of six pieces of work per child, just for the writing. Then there's the six topics of Science per child which also require assessment and uploading by the end of June - earlier if moderation is happening?

By the way you're missing an apostrophe in "dont"; that would have lost you a mark on the SPAG paper.

For me there are 3 problems with SATs.

First is the narrowing of the curriculum and educational experiences in Year 6 - it has become a boring and stressful year for children and no one wants to teach Year 6.

It's all SATs prep until May, and then nothing for 4 months until children start secondary in Year 7 so there's a huge amount of catch up to do.

Second is the amount of stress that children are put under - schools pay lip service to the idea that it's not a test of the child, it's the school, and this test doesn't define you. But then they subject children to revision sessions, breakfast clubs, mock tests, target children on grade boundaries.

Third is that SATs results are used to predict GCSE grades. Doing well in your SATs is a rubbish indication that you'll be good at GCSE art or languages. Children who spent Year 6 being coached and target to push up their SATs results then spent the whole of their secondary education being told they are failing and under target because they are heading for Bs instead of the predicted As.

So, to improve things I would move the test to Term 6 and ban all test prep before the May half term holiday. I would ban schools from offering or requiring children to attend SATs revision beyond the normal school day. I'd ban SATs tests being sent home for homework.

I'd expand testing to include every NC subject.

I'd anonymise results and wouldn't give any scores for individual children. Results couldn't be used beyond measuring the school.

Year 6 should just be a normal school year, school trips and plays, and a full curriculum including art and music, normal schools hours, no extra homework, and a short assessment week at the end of the year.

I'd expand testing to include every NC subject

Adding to existing tests, that would make 15 tests in all. For 10/11 year olds?

Seriously?

Yeah, sure - I think 15 shorter tests with limited prep would be a much better assessment of whether a school is teaching the full curriculum than the current set up.

🤣🤣🤣

I can tell you right now that if I have to administer 15 tests, that would finish me right off.

I am a bloody good teacher but the nonsense at the moment has me eying up my escape route. You don’t need more of me leaving the profession!

Have you read the NC? It is massively broad, which is why schools have spend hundreds of hours devising their own progressive curriculum for every subject. How would you assess history for example? For just one unit of KS2 (and there are something like eight), there are 4 ancient civilisations to choose from. You can basically teach whatever you like about those civilisations. It's not like maths with the same learning being covered across the country.