Year Six Sats ..

[HenleyFamily]

My daughter and I have just finished a mound of homework together and I've just realised that if she sits the Sats later this year that it is going destroy her confidence in herself.

I'm at a bit of a loss .. I've looked through the archives and was actually shocked that so many people are prepared to defend them.

Does anyone have any practical experience as to how we can withdraw her, not from the revision, but for the actual hours of the exams. Or for her to do an "unmarked" paper?

My son had the option of being disapplied fromsome of his SATs, in the end he decided he would rather be like all his friends and sit them all. He did better tan predicted (e.g. got at least 3 for everything).
But he goes to a school which keeps SATs preparation to a minimium. And which goes out of its way to make SATs week fun. So half a banana brain food before every test, lots of extra playtime, special sittings for lunch and lots of arts etc. in the afternoon.
Also no secondary schools around here take SATs too seriously, all retest in September, when the children tend to have forgotten a lot of what they knew in June.

My son now sits his first GCSEs this June (modular exams) I wouldn't say from my experience of secondary schools that gettting over the fear of exams is the big problem, more getting them to take them seriously when they are so used to testing, and believe they can re-take everything endlessly.

TO the OP, don't do homework, its my biggest regret about primary school that I made my son do homework. Give her treats during SATs week, and make sure she knows it is the school being tested not her. If they don't have fun activities, ask if you can take her home after every test, and take her to the park or some other treat.

Good luck!

Ime you can do a lot as a parent to minimise stress by making it absolutely clear that this test does nothing for the future, that noone is interested in his individual results, that it is the school that is being tested on its achievements as a whole. When dd did hers, there were pupils who were totally stressed out because the head had told them that this was a vitally important exam that would determine their future. I informed dd that the head was telling porkies .

Ds will be doing them next year and I don't expect him to do very well as he is in lower sets and struggles with writing. But I will do my best to make it clear that noone in the family is interested in SATS and that exams that matter don't happen until much later.

By the way, the head teachers responsibility is 'to ensure eligible children take the test'. A parent who says no immediately makes their child ineligible - so if you write a letter to the head you may want to mention this.

cory - I did the same with DD2 (tell her that her teacher was misrepresenting the truth somewhat), and fortunately we knew for a fact that the senior school she was going to pay no attention to the KS2 results whatsoever.
Did have to sit on my hands and hope it all worked out when DD1 decided in Year 9 that she was going to treat the KS3 SATs as a trial run for GCSE and see how she did without any revision whatsoever, then she'd know how much work woudl be needed for GCSEs . Partly it was because she didn't thnk her rubbish English teacher deserved any credit for her work mind (he started the Shakespear topic by announcing "this is really boring and you won't enjoy any of it" ).
SATs (despite what many teachers and heads tell their Y6s) are completely irrelevant to the pupils themselves - yes, it's nice to see how you're doing, but IME they know that anyway, on each piece of work they do.

I don't think you're right, pontynan. In the ARA document for 2010, it states that headteachers must 'ensure all eligible and able pupils take the tests.' But under the section which describes which children are eligible, it clearly states 'All pupils working at level 3 or above must take the tests'.

Further on in the ARA document 2010:

'6.7 What if parents, carers or guardians do not agree with the school's decision about whether their child should participate in the tests?
Some parents, carers or guardians may ask a headteacher not to enter their child for the tests. Schools should not agree to this simply because parents, carers or guardians are opposed to assessment or feel that their child would find national curriculum assessments stressful.

Parents, carers or guardians may also ask a headteacher to enter their child for a test when the school has decided this is not appropriate. Headteachers should explain the school?s decision to parents, carers or guardians.

The headteacher?s decision regarding participation is final.'

When is SATS week?

My son is at an independent school (yr6) but moving to state secondary in September.

They do end of term assessments each term and in year 6 they take the SATS tests instead of end-of-year exams. They are being so low key about it that we're barely aware of it, but of course they don't have to publish their results!

I am worried that we maybe should be panicking at least a bit more since I've also heard that secondary school will set based on the results, and if DS's marks are compared to the SATS-obsessed feeder primaries he'll end up in a lower set than he should be and that won't help his self-esteem.

SATs week in KS2 is the week beginning Mon 10th May.

In some parts of the country secondary school sets are based on SATS results, so I don?t think it?s correct to state categorically that they are completely irrelevant to the pupils.

This can be important because for example our local school only permits children in the top science sets to take triple science, and this was a big factor for DD.

If you know for a fact that your children?s secondary school definitely doesn?t use SATS results, then of course they are less important.

Pontynan, don't get me wrong - as a primary school teacher and a staff governor, I am also very anti-testing. But I find the advice you are giving strangely inaccurate coming from a governor and former director of education?

For a helpful resource for Year 6 Maths SATs, visit www.compare4kids.co.uk/maths.php

• it has all of the topics and the SATs quesitons from past papers, to save you scrambling around trying to find them!

Henleyfamily, did you mean that if parents had boycotted the SATs, the SATs would have been abandoned? I can't see that happening! I think the SATs are dreadful; badly written questions and inconsistent marking mean that the tests could give a false impression of my daughter's ability, but I'd never take her out of school to avoid them - what sort of example would that set her?

Message deleted

Interesting that you've upped 2 SAT threads today to advertise your website (which costs £9.99 to join), susie12.

Two things:

1)These papers are available free.

2)Mumsnet charges for small business adverts - I have reported your post, and I expect they will be dropping you a line shortly.

One thing does interest me regarding the 'SATS are rubbish and should be banned because the DCs are tested again in Y7'... argument: I'm now searching for the 'Y7 tests are rubbish and should be banned' thread!

MUST be here somewhere. Or is it that as parents we just aren't 'allowed' to be anything like as involved in our DCs day to day education once they reach secondary? So they can SAT and CAT the DCs all they like and we don't whimper?!

For those who understandably haven't trawled this whole thread, I am pro SATS but anti League Table publication. Yet I also glance through the LT to see where the DC's school 'came' so I plead guilty.