Can you refuse SATS

[Zizi444]

Can you refuse to allow your child to sit SATS? What would happen if they were off on that day?

In my opinion they are a pointless waste of time are purley for the schools benefit. They serve no purpose for the kids other than to stress them out. My eldest never did them due to covid and I'd prefer my youngest not to do them but I'm not sure if this is an option.
Thanks

Actually many young children aren’t very resilient (and neither are parents). Just need to see how many children are starting school in nappies as parents can’t face the trauma of potty training, children who can’t put their own coats on. In some countries children as young as 4 walk to school on their own, and we have children who can’t put their coat on or carry their school bag. I have seen emails from parents complaining that their child didn’t get chosen for a sports team and their child is devastated and their world has ended and what is school going to do about it (parents dramatic language does not help these situations).

As I said above your DC has already done the hard work for SATs. If you didn’t want them doing them better to have deregistered for the whole of Y6.

I’m not a fan of year 6 Sats at all. They basically test whether a child can … sit a test. Not all kids are able at the age of 10!11 to perform in the very specific way these tests require. But my DD wouldn’t want to miss out on the ‘experience’. She probably won’t do brilliantly because she has a slower than average processing speed. But she certainly understands the work and can produce the right answers, just not as quickly as these tests require!

My biggest concern is how all the kids know what the ‘pass’ score is and the school do talk about ‘passing’ your sats and so there is an undercurrent of making the children feel like they have failed if they don’t get a certain score.That’s my biggest bug bear right now and I want to know how they inform children of their scores because I want to avoid my DD feeling like she’s failed at maths when she’s only 11!

@summershere99 is your DD getting extra time

Keep in mind that exams are a feature of life and qualifications.

Theyre an unusual activity that isn’t really replicated in any other aspect of life, and it’s a skill that improves with practise.

So one approach to consider is to emphasise that the outcome this time doesn’t matter, but it’s good experience to get an idea of what exams entail. Chip away at that experience so that it’s less of an issue come formal qualifications.

Mine is taking theirs this year I just don't make a big deal about it and tell them they can only do what they can do. Life is full of situations that make you anxious and I think it's important kids learn to face them head on. In a couple of years they will be sitting GCSE and it wont hurt them to have had some experience of that kind of setting. I see some people have said they pulled their children from sats and they were fine which is great but I would be concerned it could go the other way and makes exams an even bigger deal in their mind.

I have no idea whether you can refuse, but when I did mine (along time ago now) we were told by the school the results were nothing to worry about and were there to put you in the right maths and English groups for year 7. I think my school must have been really good with the way they positioned them to us as I don’t know anyone who was stressed about them. Maybe you could talk to your daughter about them and position them that way?

I will say it was really good practice for GCSE’s. She will have to sit in these type of exams at some point so it’s better to understand the conditions now so she can prepare rather than waiting until GCSE’s when she really does need to do as well as she can. Imagine how stressful she will find it if she’s never sat a formal exam and the first is her GCSE’s.

Yes if your secondary place is secured, deregistering in year 6 won’t affect that. Just explain when you get contact from the local authority that you intend to take up the secondary place and maybe also call the secondary school to ensure that they have her name on their roll and make it clear that you wish to accept it.

They're more beneficial for the child. In year 7 there will be regular assessments, sats help them prepare for that.

I used to work at a primary school and every year a couple of parents requested their child not sit the sats so yes it's possible.

Most of the time the school would then try and get the parent to change their mind (especially if the child was expected to do well) and they nearly always succeeded in this by reassuring the parents there would not be any pressure etc

As the PE lead in a school my husband regularly experiences these types of emails and interactions with parents having an absolute fit about their kids not making the sports teams. He just tells them they weren’t as good as the other kids (in a nice way). I find it so funny and baffling people get so up in arms about it, surely people must realise you only put the best people in a sports team.

OP, you’ve clearly made your mind up and decided that it is better for your dc to miss all the fun of the end of y6, the chance to be the eldest, the rites of passage, the support in transition to y7, their friends just because of a few mornings of tests. It is our job to support our dcs through things like this, not to enable avoidance. I am a teacher dealing with hugely increasing problems with low attendance and school refusal (in very small, gentle school) and it starts with one day of missing school. I’ve also taught lots of children starting y7 or later after a period out of school and they find it hard.
You will hear anecdote so from parents who have done this and say it was fine, but that isn’t representative - and people tend to justify their decisions (to themselves and others) however they work out, so anecdotes need to be taken with a pinch of salt. These anecdotes don’t outweigh the majority who understand that it’s a bad idea.
If your dc is unusually distressed by SATs the first thing to do is to talk to the school!!!

The school is applying for it but yet to be confirmed. Hopefully!

Being practical and factual for a moment...

Yes, you can literally phone them in sick that week and face no consequences. If you prefer to tell them why you're doing it then you'll face many more headaches but the same result.

The only thing to bear in mind are the long-term consequences to your child of avoiding a test (i.e. it's a good opportunity to experience a test that barely matters when compared to GCSEs etc).

One of the beneficial things about SATs is the "communal trenches" feeling - everyone has to experience it and "you're all in it together". Hence, avoiding SATs may make them feel a bit alienated from their peers and far more stressed about their GCSEs and future tests when they come around.

It's also a total PITA for the school to have to deal with unexpected absences for statutory tests.

Basically, think carefully about it before you push that big red button.

As soon as they start secondary school they will be sitting tests, assessments, exams etc. I always find it funny on these threads that people say there is no point in SATS as the secondary will assess them anyway - I’m not sure why those assessments are okay and SATs are not. They certainly don’t get any extra play times or special treats, they are just part of the school day.
My daughter has ASD and is very, very anxious about SATS. But we’re not going to avoid them. We are going to try and do our best. If that means she just writes her name on the paper and then has to leave, then great. She went in the room, she sat down = she has achieved. Next time she might be able to answer a couple of questions.
The school are working out the best combination of room/supporting adult. They have practiced to find out what causes the most anxiety and how they can relieve it.
She is going to find so many things stressful in her life, avoiding them isn’t the way.

Do we ever wonder why our young people came out BOTTOM of the table in Europe for happiness/life satisfaction recently?

We put inordinate amounts of pressure on the from a very young age and tell them that exam preparation is the be all and end all of life. People on here saying ‘but it prepares them for future exams’ I call bullshit (and I’m an ex primary teacher who has seen the damage it does to drill them for SATs). It doesn’t! All it does is either stress them out or put them off learning. There will be a tiny minority who like the pressure of course but they are outliers.

This combined with the other pressures they face such as rising family poverty and even destitution, the pandemic, climate worries, constant threats of war and long waiting lists for the nhs, mental heath and send support.

500 children a day in England are being referred to mental health services. Increasing numbers are being pulled out of school every day, we have got it all backward!

Only schools can withdraw pupils from Sat's not parents. If you phone in sick they will have to do them when they come back.
If you deregister your child, they will miss out on all the nice after-Sats and leaving stuff.

The current Y11 didn't take SATS due to Covid. This is the cohort that are about to take their GCSEs.

DS is in this cohort. His streaming , and pathway through high school has been based on his Y2 SATS and his Y6 teacher reports. It has been hard work for him to actually get correctly streamed. Y6 SATS would have steered that path better, with more recent evidence. DS has had exams at the end of every school year since at Y8. Academic testing is a fact of mainstream state education. It's not perfect, but it is reality. Don't make your kids lives harder by not taking SATs. It takes a lot of time to build up the emotional resilience for 27 GCSE exams taken over 6 weeks!

Most schools will hold a special breakfast club for Y6 children during SATs week (partly to help ensuring children will be in on time and have some food before the tests) but children will see this as a special privilege for them. Snacks and games in the afternoon and many schools have a special treat on the Friday when there are no tests, like trip to the cinema etc. So much better fun than the week of practice mocks that they have already done. They will have done end of term assessments for every year group (how do you think they assess for the end of year reports). The actual SATs are probably the best assessment/test/exam time they are ever going to have!

Totally get that you are trying to protect your child against the anxiety generated by tests that are solely for the school’s benefit… however, in Y7 your child is going to be subjected to masses and masses of tests - end of topic, progress, subject knowledge. She’ll be told to revise for them so the anxiety will be constant. This is just the beginning.

Personally I would reiterate that these tests are totally not important and are just for the school to assess whether they have been teaching properly AND I’d take her to see someone who specialises in working with anxious children so that she can learn some techniques for managing her stress/anxiety. (Eg NLP etc is very good with the right practitioner).

Excusing her, or keeping her home, just teaches her that when life gets tough you can run away, and mum will aide and abet. It won’t teach resilience or help her in the long run. I say this as someone who did this, esp around/after covid lockdowns… it has taken years and lots of therapy to help rebuild my DD’s confidence and get her to where she should be (uni in Sept at 20yrs old, rather than 18). My act of love was actually quite perniciously undermining.

I’d dig deep for some tough love and look for a good anxiety counsellor.

They absolutely don’t.

Totally get that you are trying to protect your child against the anxiety generated by tests that are solely for the school’s benefit…

MN is full of posters who are thrilled that their children are in a school rated 'outstanding' by OFSTED. SATS results form part of that rating. What would happen if lots of children are removed from the SATS by parents?

And yet you’ve come here asking for advice ….

I agree with the posters saying removing will just make test anxiety worse. You’re setting your child up to have a fear of tests when they are a normal part of school life. Not to mention being unbelievably rude and nasty to teachers who are working hard. Your child is at school to learn, it’s not daycare.

They actually help your children to be placed in the correct sets in secondary school, and make sure they get support where needed. It helps the school work out where they're failing and succeeding in education which causes a positive ripple effect for all students who come after your child, and you child was positively impacted by the students who did SATs before them.

But sure, take your kid out of school and pander to them because schools and tests are evil or whatever

You’ve said what I tried to more clearly. DS was in the year that had SATS cancelled due to Covid. The first few years of secondary were tricky getting him, and his peers, into the correct streams and with the right support (aggravated of course by further lockdowns).