SATS- is there any benefit for the child?

[MinnieMountain]

DS is in year 5. His teachers have already talked about SATS preparation. We told him that we won’t be making him do any extra work as there’s no benefit to him and he will be assessed by his secondary when he starts.

He told the TA this yesterday and she said that he must do the extra work as it will help him at secondary. Will it?

Perhaps better to start secondary school without a SATs grade so the school has to do their own assessment and rely on only that to set groupings and grade targets?

This means that the child would not contribute to the secondary school's progress score, either positively or negatively, so from a data perspective, he/she doesn't "count".

The optimist in me would like to say that doesn't matter but, based on what I've seen in secondaries that I have worked with, the realist in me says that it really does.

My daughter has targets of 9 for all of her GCSEs based on her SATS. In year 9, she is already under pressure to achieve that and came home unhappy because she got a 7 in Spanish - ridiculous.
My son did less well in his SATs, resulting in targets of 4s. As he got older the school recognised he had progressed more and supported him to achieve more so yes he got a couple of 4s but also 5s, 6s and even an 8.
So my point is, SATS are important for schools and target setting, but getting not great or average SATS results doesn't necessarily mean not being pushed at secondary school.

Great points.

Conversely, imagine the child at secondary who blithely asserts that his parents say X is pointless and kept him off school when Y was done.

I don't know what sort of managers you work for, but ours are a bit more intelligent than this.

Target grades are stupid. Progress 8 is stupid. people know this

@Wishihadanalgorithm what do you think about the parents who keep the children you teach off school when you set them some work/test they don't want to do?

What a bizarre attitude (though sadly not unique I imagine) for a teacher to have.

Absolutely this.
Parents like you make teachers' jobs so much harder.

Useful for teaching Yr6 to study for a test type experienced. Our high used them to initially set DC in maths. But some schools go well over the top.

Not in the vast majority of secondary schools who recognise that Progress 8 is one of the primary measures of the schools effectiveness in the eyes of parents, the trust/LA, Ofsted, etc.

There is often a significant difference between what is said: "We don't do things for Ofsted," and what actually happens in practice.

DD was told years ago that they were the most important exams of your life by some ridiculous headteacher. She was a nervous wreck. She is off to uni soon.

DS was covid year and didn't do them. He's doing well at his GCSEs and I don't see that their education has differed in any way.

@MinnieMountain

I think the issue is that SATS are about academic achievement. Therefore the sense of ‘worth’ children feel is defined by their academic ability, the ‘worth’ of a school etc. In other European educational systems, there is more choice for a more vocational secondary school setting, or an academic setting, or a more sporting setting. And no real stigma about which setting a child attends. Therefore if their ability is more practical or sporting they still feel like they are achieving : and know that their skill set is valued/needed for whatever they do later in life.

I thought the sats age 7 have been abolished. My elder son dud them last year in year 2, and younger son won't do them. That being said, they were VERY useful. Son didn't realise he was doing them, but he has autism. It highlighted that he needs an EHCP as he didn't score. Until that time, the school said ge didn't. It unequivocally helped our case.

Oh and led to his autism diagnosis.

My child is year 6 and SATS prep has taken over.
I volunteered at the school library in the past and once witnessed an episode of a year 6 child in tears, having a panic attack, and being brought to the library to help calm down during SATS week. My own child is quite prone to anxiety so I worry how she will handle that week.
We just encourage her to do her best & give it her best shot, but I reiterate that SATS and the outcomes are not a big concern. We reiterate that It's good practice for secondary school, and just keep conversations around them light and positive.

Everyone in primary knows SATs are a waste of time. But they are used as an indicator for GCSE results - crazy 🙄. If your son is top set and already motivated he ll be fine and just ignore the constant references to SATs from now until May 2025. (Ps - My daughter has just aced 3 A s in her A levels this year - her SATs results would never have predicted that!) .

Schools should not be spending weeks and months practising for the SATS. Additional work or even ridiculous breakfast sessions should not be required. This doesn’t give a true reflection of a child’s ability.

That's the way for parents to support and exactly what I did when mine was doing them. ❤️

It is a shame that some schools get so aggressive about their implementation but that doesn't take away the micro positives about learning how to learn and how to deal with things.

No they shouldn't.
That's why they don't. In most cases.

My sons school went overboard on SATs stress. Bearing in mind that we just said 'it tests the school not you etc' he ended up very worried.
My son said they were the most stressful thing he did, and he found his gcses less stressful as a result. he said he had experience of a test everyone was making a big fuss off, that was actually ok to do in reality, and then noone mentioned them again.

So maybe it had a use for him afterall.

Unfortunately many do and add significant stress on the children.

I can't imagine ensuring he has his primary school knowledge secure could not help? Yes SATS help schools plan but they also tell the child's high school which set they should be in and even help form their academic goals until the high school knows them better.
Plus studying for exams is good practice?
Sure don't make them stressful but a consistent approach to study would be useful?

I am quite worried about my youngest taking his SATs this year. I know from his older brother that his GCSE target grades will be set based on his SATs. The difficulty we have is that his teacher tells us that he is meeting ES or greater depth in all of his class work. For reasons that nobody can work out he does very badly on all assessments.

I think that anxiety might be contributing towards low assessment scores, so I need to make sure I do not put him under any unnecessary pressure. However, I am worried that his large secondary school will look at his abysmal assessment scores and assume that he is far less capable than he is. If he wants his GCSE target grades to reflect what he is capable of then he really needs to perform much better in tests.

It can help the child if their secondary school, as many do, use SATS results for setting.

It's also helpful for a child if they do as well as they can in their first experience of "public" exams. I don't believe in huge amounts of preparation- but some so they know what they're like -is a good thing.

I don’t hate sats - I think exam experience at an early stage is helpful but some schools really add the pressure. Thankfully ours didn’t. The benefit to my youngest 2 was that they proved what I’d been saying.

dtds are youngest in the year (end august and premature) and they were always just about meeting expectations until year 4 (covid) where we as parents saw a huge change in them. They were predicted to get just over 100 (101-104) in all but actually both got over 110 with dtd1 getting 119 in maths. Teachers were shocked, I wasn’t. Finally their ability was recognised and that has carried through in secondary.

our school made it fun with cooked breakfasts and fun sessions between. They also felt super important above the other years doing their sats.

ime, parents stress about them far more than the dc. I just said to dc that they check the teacher is doing a good job and so long as they try I’ll be happy. I always praise effort rather than results.

I think it depends. Is your dc doing the 11+? If yes, then I would skip SATs prep because 11+ a much higher level. But if your dc is not doing it, then I would have him prep. It will help with his comprehension and math skills. If he is already getting GDS in all the mocks, then perhaps skip it. But if there is room to improve, why not.

We have always encouraged our DC to approach any school work as being of potential benefit to them in future - even if an individual task or set of tasks might seem 'pointless' at the time.

At the end of the day even if there are political considerations around SATs, progress 8, GCSE predictions and so on, and even if some schools go too over the top in preparing for them, the taking of assessments like these should benefit the DC because it's all practice in taking timed assessments under exam conditions.

Schools should obviously not pressurise (I appreciate some do, which is awful) but equally parents should not encourage DC to simply opt out - that is doing them no favours in the long run.