Why was my Y1 ds doing "science tests" today in the staff room, without me knowing anything about it?

[Greensneeze]

My ds1 (6) has just told me he did "science tests" today, on his own, in the staff study - he was given 45 minutes. He says he was given just a pencil, and was alone but the teacher popped in and out a few times.

The questions were things like "How does the heart work" and identifying rocks from a list of characteristics, ie chalk "smooth, pale, can be scratched with a coin" etc

Should I be bristling at the fact that they are testing him when a) he's not meant to be doing any 'official' tests until Y2 SATS (and I don't approve of those!) and b) nobody said anything to me!

There are many ways to establish where a child is educationally. However, that is not really the point, the point is that this child has a different situation to the other children in his class, this needs to be handled sensitivly and appropriatly. It should be in conjunction with his parents and any others who are involved, ed psych etc. Not just sticking him in the staff room with a year 6 paper. Being told he is clever like that was wrong, even worse, what if he had been told he was clever but struggled to comprehend the questions (Y6 sats papers are often not clear to parents of Y6 children, never mind Y1 children)? A mixed message like that could have really knocked him.

Gosh I presumed it was a yr 2 science SAT!

There isn't a Science test in the Yr2 SATs, it's levels based on teacher assessment. If a teacher chooses to use a pre-written test format, then that is down to the school. As a Yr 2 teacher, I would not consider given a Yr 1 a SAT paper for Yr 6. It's not very professionally ethical, IYKWIM.

i think it is important to remember that the teacher knows him very well and will be aware of his limitations and additional needs. she would have taken all that into account when deciding which manner of determining his ability was the best one. she is, after all, a professional.

i do understand that greensneeze feels a little concerned, but tbh i can't see much of an issue with it. teachers do occasionally get infant kids to sit the end of KS2 papers with little or no fanfare, and this school seems fantastic at going the extra mile to differentiate for high ability children. so many schools don't really worry about the more able, and are concerned with those at the other end of the learning scale.

i would be thrilled that they were paying attention tbh. i suspect that he was actually given a little bit more 'supervision' than he noticed though. there may well not have been anyone next to him, but i bet they were within notice if anything untoward had happened or he had been unable to cope.

well done ds!

I know him a damn sight better than she does madwoman - she should have consulted me!

I am getting more and more narked about this as time goes on.

I think they probably did it in advance of telling you so they could back up what they say to you with facts.

So rather than saying

he is excellent at science

they can say

he is excellent at science and working towards a level X

Hmmm, maybe. It's just odd, and uncharacteristic of his teacher - we all know he is good at science and reading, we've been communicating for months about it in connection with his AS dx

dh thinks it's weird too, we are going to have a word with the teacher tomorrow.

yes always worth asking them

you may find it's so they can tailor work for him or even perhaps find out if there's some specific extra curricular programme he could follow or that he's got to age where they felt they needed to try and quantify what level he's working at as it's so beyond the normal yr1 level

of course - but she knows how he reacts in a classroom/ learning situation. and she knows what are his limits in that environment.
not a competition as to who knows him best...

tbh she's probably never met a mother who wouldn't be thrilled to find that her child was doing so well lol, so go easy on her. she'll be far more used to mummies whinging that little johnny never gets work to his ability.

there's been a lot of hooha recently about how to manage children with as/asd who are also on the yg&t lists, so she's bang up to date as far as 'this week's special' is concerned lol.

apologies if i offended, not my intention. but i'm uneasy about the concept of the teacher requiring to ask your consent for educational matters. as far as his sn is concerned, yes, you should be consulted in advance for assessments etc (and have the opportunity to turn them down), but not for academic purposes as far as i am aware.

your feelings about sats etc wouldn't have come up with the teacher at all yet, for obvious reasons, so if you are intending to discuss it with her i would go easy lol. both you and the teacher want the best for ds - it just appears that you have come up against your first disagreement about what the best might be

Given what you say here,
" It's just odd, and uncharacteristic of his teacher - we all know he is good at science and reading, we've been communicating for months about it in connection with his AS dx"

I would have thought that she would have consulted you about something like this. At least brought it up.
Very odd if it's out of character with her. I'd make an appointment to speak to her to find out what's going on and let her know how you feel about any further testing.

I would be really pleased - my YR1 DD can't hold a pencil properly yet He is obviously a genius.

Maybe hang on a couple of days greeny. You are obviously hot under the collar at the moment, and there are quite a few posters on here (me included) who can't see the harm in what has been done. Maybe think it over for a couple of days?

Then even if you do still decide to speak to school, you'll be calmer, more logical and more able to get the result you want. You've got to work with the school for years yet.

I would not be annoyed by him doing a test.

I would not necessarily be annoyed by him doing a test in isolation.

Based on the information on this thread and the factt that it is (I believe) Yr6 SATS week I would be fuming at the fact that he sounds as though he has just sat a Y6 SATS paper without your prior knowledge. I would most certainly take it up with teacher - and probably sooner rather than later in case he is expected to sit any other SATs papers later this week.

Oh and there is another Science paper later this week

could you simply ask tomorrow if it was a yr 2 or yr 6 sat?
Then ask more about it,rather than go in all guns blazing as it were?

He isn't a genius, he's a quirky little boy with AS who is really good at some things and endearingly bad at others.

I don't like the idea of him sitting a Y6 SATS paper at 6yo without my knowledge. I don't approve of kids going to Cambridge at 14 either - fwiw I don't think those children ARE geniuses, I think they are bright kids whose parents and teachers have decided to screw the maximum academic kudos out of them.

As I said though, I have a sky-high opinion of this teacher - I can't fault her on anything else she's done with him and I like her personally as well. I just need to speak to her and find out exactly what she was thinking. I don't want to sour relations but I do want to make it clear that I should have been consulted about this.

think you're being unreasonable (Yes I know it's not AIBU thread, that is just the word I have chosen)

nothing wrong with a test
nothing wrong with finding out what kids know
nothing wrong with singling him out

why would they tell you? do they consult you about everything they do with regards to your son? That would be v time consuming in a class of 30 children. Am a teacher btw

calm down (said nicely not aggresively so don't take it as that)

you ask 'should I be bristling..... etc etc'

don't you know how you feel?
do you need to consult others and then make up your mind?

hope you resolve it and how fab to have a curious young scientist in your midst

(and I can spell aggressively oops)

No, they don't consult me about everything he does and I neither wan tnor expect him to (I'm sure I said that in an earlier post)

But when he is singled out and something unusual done with him - like sitting a Y6 SATS paper by himself - then I think I should be consulted. I consult his teacher if I'm thinking of trying anything new in terms of his AS, behaviour management etc. I'm his mother, not some menial custodian who feeds him and washes his clothes so he's ready for school every day

now now, you don't have to get snarky tho with the

am off

IU didn't ask others to tell me how I felt, I asked them whether they thought I should be feeling that way - "should I be bristling?" as opposed to "am I bristling?"

Is there any reason why you are being adversarial? Or is it just your manner?

I would hope they won't have him sit another one. (It def sounds like the Y6 Science paper I was involved with today btw).
Both Science papers were today and the second one was difficult for some of our Y6's to understand!

I don't think it is a major incident that he sat this one today though. I would be asking questions in the morning though. To sit a Y6 SAT in Y1 without a reader / support is a big undertaking imo, though he obviously managed it .

Greensneeze - I agree with you that kids shouldn't be going to cambridge at 14 etc. Thing is though, it does sound like your little boy is very talented in this field and it is likely he will get very bored in class if his needs are not met. Maybe teacher should have run this by you, but I do think it is great that they are trying to assess you sons capabilities - presumably with a view to better meeting his educational needs.

I can understand why you would be upset with this.

I'd have wanted to know before if my child was doing an assessment totally out of the norm, esp in such conditions and esp if my child maybe likely to react to that in some way.

I'd ahev wanted to know the benefits to my child of the test and the reason why they needed to give him a Y6 SATs test. Was the benefit to them to say x is in Y1 at level y. Or is the purpose to provide x with an enriched curriculum based on the outcome. Either option is a possiblility.