SATs - unethical practice

[Mumzilla1]

I’ve just found out that my child’s school are offering extra tutoring after school to the Students who are destined to achieve Greater Depth in their SATs.

My child is on the other end of the scale. He struggles so much that he has anxiety. So yes, I’m upset about this.

Is this normal practice for schools ? that the struggling students are left behind? Are they not worth the extra time because they get more points for GD students ?

Do I complain or is this just how it is? I may be naive in saying this but I believe the gap needs bridging so that all children have the opportunity and support to succeed.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

If that is the only extra tuition being offered then I think that's unfair.

If there were another group being offered, aimed at those who are struggling and for bridging those gaps then I don't see a problem.

Not normal practice in my DC’s school. In fact the opposite they employed a teacher to just help the ones who needed extra help. She took the ones who were struggling for extra lessons in small groups within school time. I think it’s strange they are concentrating on GD children as surely if they’re GD they don’t need extra help. I would query this with the school if I were you.

Strange that they pick the GD students rather than students from the other groups who might go up a level if tutored correctly,

My son was in the lower third and got lots of support in year 5 in preparation for SATS. He has fine in maths but had extra weekly sessions for literacy, handwriting and spelling (different sessions) I have no doubt that this happened because of SATS.

Completely normal to target the ( voluntary) extra time and resources given by teachers to where the benefit would be the greatest

My dcs primary had a programme of morning tuition from 8am separated into different groups, so you went on set days. It saved us koney as it cane with a free breakfast, so no paying breakfast club on those days

They were probably picked up by Ofsted as not stretching the most able or similar. Or maybe in last year's SATs their EXS group was in line with national, but their GD was below so they are trying to fix that before Ofsted tell them they are not stretching the most able.

These things are always about data.

It may be that they are spending the lessons trying to get everyone up to expected and not covering GD at all there.

Speaking as someone whose two highly able children spent more time as unpaid TAs than doing appropriate learning in maths lessons I can confirm that there is very very little resources given for the more able kids.

That sounds like they are being given appropriate tasks in maths. It will be benefitting them as much if not more than the children they are supporting, that is why it is done.

So the benefit would be greatest by targeting the high achievers? 😳 Wow. What world do we live in.

I’m not opposed to the extra tuition for the high achievers at all. I just do not think they should be prioritised and the struggling children left behind. It creates a larger gap to bridge and ALL children deserve the same opportunities.

If this is year 6 then it is probably to make sure that those who got greater depth in year 2 get it at year six. If they don't it really is bad for the school because it looks as though their standards have dropped even though the tests are very different.

This is why some schools will not give 'too many' greater depths at year two because they better get it again in year 6!

It is normal to target tutoring and extra support where children are borderline on a grade boundary. It just makes sense.

If you don’t think your son is receiving the support he needs to do his best during school hours, then you have a valid worry that you should talk to the school about. If you’ve only become concerned about this because you can see other children getting something that yours isn’t then you need to mind your own business. Schools have equal responsibility towards all their children, not only the ones who struggle academically and who probably already need a disproportionate amount of lesson time.

No, GD was mentioned as the reason for the extra tuition. I don’t oppose it at all. I believe all children should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential.

They might pivot to tutoring those who struggle at another time. Or they might be doing lots in class and feel they don't need extra tutoring after school.

It's not unethical practice.

Normally they invite the whole class for extra tuition. I never sent my daughter as I done a lot of work with her anyway and she was greater depth so didn't think she would benefit.

As wrong as I think the school is (because let's face it SATs is quite easy for those already doing greater depth) can you not set a side 20 mins after school to go through SATs materials to boost his confidence.

No it isn’t. It is mainly done because they have to do something with the child who finishes the work of an hour lesson in less than 15 minutes and partly because the teacher can’t be everywhere in a lesson and the most able children fill in the gaps.

It is not in the best interests of a child to spend less than 25% of a maths lesson doing work that is too easy for them and then to spend the remaining 75% of the lesson explaining the too easy work for other children.

It is a fact of life for most highly able children - especially in maths - but please don’t pretend that it is for their benefit. It isn’t. A small amount of explaining time is good. Maybe 5 - 10 minutes out of the hour. But that isn’t what actually happens.

@Mumzilla1
Yes ALL children do, do you think high achieving children should not be extended or pushed but should be expected to just coast because other children are not as able?
Teacher here btw. At an outstanding school where they cater for ALL children, including those working at higher levels who are often put at the bottom of the priority list. I'll just wait to get flamed for this now.

Op i brought my dd up 7 on sats in a couple of months.
If i were you i would give him a few of the cgp sats practise tests.
You want to aim ofr full marks on the arithmetic paper.
The cgp sats workbooks are also good.
I didnt find any extra school tutoring a help because there was basically still 30 kids!

I do disagree with schools offering these sessions secretively!

And as pp said schools do manipulate the ks1 sats results to look like they made more progress. Ours wouldnt give ds the exceeding at ks1 despite him getting over the 110

I guarantee those greater depth children are those most ignored as part of the working day, as they are the ones who can access the too tricky curriculum without support. I speak from experience

this may be the only extra attention kids get that is specifically tailored for them.

demonstrating GD is all about the teacher collecting evidence to prove their abilities- this may be the only chance the class teacher gets to document this and do 1:1 readers with GD questions.

You shouldn’t get flamed.

I have not once said that the GD children should not be tutored. I am not opposed to this at all!

As I’ve said numerous times on this thread. I do not resent the children working at GD, I would just like the same help for my child that is struggling. Currently at my child’s school they are prioritising the GD children for tutoring which feels uncomfortable when I see how much my child is struggling.

I would like my child and other children to have the equal opportunities to thrive. This does include GD children. I’m not saying take the tutoring away from GD children.

Hopefully, it will be as someone has suggested that they may pivot the tutoring to include all children that need it.

Your daughter is most likely getting her extra attention through a TA timetable and class teacher input in the working day.

these kids won’t be- GD children are never the priority. This is the result of our assessment system which breeds pure gaming and milking. We care about these kids when it’s assessment time- but 99% of the time they are just cracking on with it because they are the only kids that can.

I would be incredibly surprised if those children who are struggling are not already being boostered/supported during lessons or in interventions within the school day.

As PPs have said, the children that can manage well in lessons are the ones who get the least support generally, and the only way to give them support during lesson time is to remove that support from children who are struggling. That benefits nobody in the long run!

It makes far, far more sense to leave the support in place for the children who need it in lessons, and continue with boostering/interventions during the normal school day (I do maths and literacy interventions during assembly time for example, as well as supporting less able learners in class), and then have additional, optional sessions for the GD children where they can actually be the focus and can be stretched without it impacting teaching time for everyone else.

If you feel like your child isn't being adequately supported within lessons or may need extra intervention time, then address that with the school, but the after-school tutoring will have no bearing on it.

I guess from the school's point of view they need to spend the capacity they have where it will make the most difference. Is it possible that there is a group for those near the boundaries between the level of "working towards"/"has not met" kinds of scores and the "expected standard" level but they reckon that such efforts might be detrimental or even demotivating for those who are quite far off that boundary and so its best for those children to do the best they can within school hours?

The percentages that make it into those higher categories will have a wide-reaching impact that will benefit all pupils, as they will affect the standing and reputation of the school which will have knock-on effects for being able to recruit good staff etc.

Meanwhile there is absolutely no positive impact on the child themselves for getting a particularly good SATs score. In fact it could be significantly detrimental to a child who is struggling to have extra tuition to get them across an arbitrary boundary if that then causes their difficulties to be masked. It's in your child's best interests to get the SATs score which accurately reflects the standard that he has been able to achieve after 6.5 years of primary education without any artificial last minute inflation due to tutoring. That will be the best first step to the senior school understanding the magnitude of the task to be achieved over the years ahead.

Remember that SATs are primarily a measure of the school not a measure of the child. They are not public exams and no one quotes their SATs score on their CV.

@Arsebollock
it’s really sad to hear that. I posted this because I wanted to see the other side which you have politely explained to me. Thank you for your input. Love your name btw! 😂

I’ve decided not to put pressure on my child’s teacher, he has enough to deal with. I will be looking for private tuition to help my child, however this is not an option for everyone. 😟

You’re presuming here that all children are equal.
You’re also presuming that SATs at KS2 are important. Believe me, they’re not. At all. If a child is working at a lower level, they are most likely not going to achieve GD by being given more work to do after school. So the likelihood is that those children are supported in class to achieve as best they can. As teaching is now whole class, those with the potential to achieve GD are being held back. Offering that group additional tuition makes sense.

quite often yes, for them it might make the difference between getting into a grammar school, or not, for example, whereas for a middle achiever it wont. Not always, for example at GCSE level, the biggest difference it makes is on the border between 3 and 4, so most effort is likely to be targeted there.

And I stress again, that this is likely to be entirely voluntary by the teachers.