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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Has anyone ever boycotted SATS?

27 replies

memoo · 02/02/2010 20:59

DD is in year 6 and so is due to do her SATs in a short while. I hate the fact that all they have been doing in class lately is pratice for the SATs.

I hear so many parents talking about how much they disagree with SATs and it just occured to me that nobody can actually make our DC do them if we don't want them to.

So now I am seriously considering keeping DD off school during the tests.

Has anyone else ever done this?

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annh · 02/02/2010 23:37

I'm not sure what that would achieve tbh. All the practice will continue and your dd will presumably still take part in that. The school will put pressure on you to enter her and she herself may well feel like the odd one out if she is the only child not doing the SATs. I understand your reasons for not wanting her to do them but don't think that you will actually improve hers or your situation by boycotting them.

serenity · 02/02/2010 23:43

I didn't boycott the SATs themselves (because DS1 didn't mind doing them) but I refused to send him to the after school revision classes and I was quite clear to the teacher why he wasn't going.

LittlePushka · 02/02/2010 23:59

My sister withdrew her daughter from maths sats in year six..and she is a primary school teacher. She voiced similar concerns (and many more to boot) about the efficacy of the sats generally but also n the detrimental effect the concentration on them has upon the other subjects generally.

LittlePushka · 03/02/2010 00:03

(Meant to also say that I feel it is worth making a stand. If you do not belive in a thing then a passive acceptance of it is wrong IMHO...so I would boycott, and I would be very open about it to anyone (parents and the school alike) - ok, one voice against a mass, perhaps, but all change starts with one voice in dissent

skidoodle · 03/02/2010 00:07

Go for it, you're dead right.

lisata · 03/02/2010 11:01

Might be worth finding out what her next school does if they don't have a SAT result. I have heard that they use SAT results to place them in classes (this may not be true everywhere). They must have a policy because there must be kids from other countries who come without a SAT result.

So in some ways not having a SAT result might be an advantage because they will look at the whole child and not just a statistic.

Anyhow worth finding out what the consequences may be. Also make sure DD is on board - don't want her blaming you for the rest of her life (-;

Other than that go for it!!

LynetteScavo · 03/02/2010 11:06

DS1 chose to boycott his Y2 English SAT by only writing "Boring boring boring".

You go first, memoo, and tell us what happens....

aSilverLining · 03/02/2010 11:14

LynetteScavo! Did they just not mark his paper?

I disagree with SATs too and know most teachers do too. My DS not old enough yet, only in Foundation Stage so would be intrested in how it pans out if you do boycott them.

LynetteScavo · 03/02/2010 11:24

As it was Y2, they could get a mark form teacher assessment. At the time his teacher was not amused. He's due to do his Y6 sats this year. He still chooses not to work at times, the the school is on tender-hooks to see if he "performs" during the SATs, as he's predicted 5's. I explained to the head what he'd done in Y2, and I'm pretry sure I detected a smirk.

cece · 03/02/2010 11:38

I know headteachers who have collected ill children from home during SATs week so they can come in and do the tests... They go home once they are finished!

flummoxednow · 03/02/2010 12:27

My son did the SATs but he did not revise for it like most people did ( extra tutoring etc). In the local comp, children are grouped according to SATs results although they are re-tested after a few months.

I do not agree with Year 6 SATs since all teaching was geared towards it. It was a 'wasted' year for some.

Original poster

memoo · 03/02/2010 12:28

The SATs are only there to measure the teaching standard and I have found out that when she goes to high school in september they are placed in sets according to teacher assesments.

I hate the fact that for the next few months all DD is doing is being taught how to pass her SATs. She is really upset and stressed about it.

The school are evening asking children who are behind to come into school at 7:30am on certain days so that they can have 1-2-1 help from the teacher.

From my converstions with other parents I have come to the conclussion that most parents don't support SAT's and so think that if we all boycott them the Govenment will have to listen!

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 03/02/2010 12:45

So it seems "most" parents get in extra tutoring for the SATS, where as "most" parents are also against SATs.

So basically we don't want our chidlren to take them, but seeing as they "have" to, they may as well do well.

There is no way I'll be giving DS any out side school tutoring for SATs. It's not that long ago they all took the 11+ and had to cope with the presure and uncertaintly of that. I'll let DS sit the tests, and if he doesn't do very well, I shall be blaming the teacher. After all, I know DS is genious.

bellissima · 03/02/2010 12:51

As I understand it, primaries say that the secondary school will set/stream them on their SATS results, but actually secondary schools give them CATS when they arrive (less swottable and more in line with future results).

(And then maybe later on they have BATS and RATS - who knows? Or even, yes, as memoo suggests - a good, old fashioned teacher assessment!)

ellokitty · 03/02/2010 12:52

I have never worked in a school which has used SATs to any great extent. Generally, they are considered to be too unreliable as they tend to reflect the school's emphasis on SATs rather than the student's actually ability. So, for example, I have had a student from school A (which made them work hard in preparation for SATS) getting a higher score than student B (whose school didn't emphasise it anywhere near as much) despite the fact that child B is much brighter than child A, for example. This type of scenario can be quite common - particularly as one school I taught at, took children from over 40 different primary schools!

The schools I have worked at tended to use CAT tests which were given at the start of year 7 to determine which sets students would go in. This and teacher assessment. SATs have been used to highlight anomolies - such as Child X got a level 4, but is doing really badly now, why is that? type thing, but that tends to be about the most I have seen them used. But that's just my experience in the secondary schools I have taught io (3 different schools).

I'm not a fan of the SATS and haven't got there yet. Whilst I'm not opposed to them in principle, I do not particularly like the way they are managed and have always said I will see how my DDs respond to them. If she takes it all in her stride, then she'll sit them alongside everyone else, but if she gets stressed about them, then I won't let her suffer (she can be a bit of a worrier about things) and I'll happily take her out of school for the week if needs be. I will not let my DD suffer for something that will not really benefit her.

bellissima · 03/02/2010 12:55

I think ellokitty just confirmed, in somewhat more informative terms, what I have been told.

serenity · 03/02/2010 13:23

DS1s secondary school has an entrance exam (puts results into 5 bands, and takes 20% from each band so ability is spread evenly throughput the school) and the sets and tutor groups they are put in reflect the results in that rather than the SATs results (as they would have offered a place before they even take the SATs!) End of first term report compares SATs with current teacher assessment, but more as a point of interest than anything else (although I'm sure they would look into it if there was a huge anomaly)

GrimmaTheNome · 03/02/2010 13:39

DDs headmaster doesn't approve of SATS. AFAIK hey haven't started doing anything specific relating to them yet - DD certainly hasn't mentioned them. I didn't know that they were doing SATs at the end of yr 5 till after they'd done them.

But they still seem to get excellent results. Maybe because they spend the time, er, teaching?

Wouldn't dream of DD not doing the tests, she usually enjoys that sort of thing.

WynkenBlynkenandNod · 03/02/2010 13:44

My friend is seriously contemplating this, her DD is in a complete state about them. We heard a rumour that the Head had given permission for someone in Year 6 to go on holiday during that week but I don't believe that is true and the Head is very into Sats. And they've done so many practice papers that they might as well do them now really.

tootiredtothink · 03/02/2010 15:52

If the SATS don't bother the child then I see no problem with them tbh.

They are used to doing tests every year so this really is no different for them - although I agree there does seem to be a lot of revision during yr6. Better that though than having to do it at home too.

We don't make a big thing of them at home so I think that helps too. Do your best is all you can say.

liesauk · 03/02/2010 15:58

I have just found this thread, and it is a relief to think that there are other parents out there that are having the same problems. My dd2 is a very able child, she is achieving 5a's across the board so I am not worried about her performance. But she is!! She is hating the preperation for the SATS and has just came home from school to say that her usual lessons on a Wednesday, R.E, Spanish and ICT have been cancelled to enable more help for SATS!!!! I am so angry with them, she is so upset and I just am thinking at the moment she has another 4 months of this!! How is this a rounded education? I want to do something about it but wonder if anyone else has done anything and if they could help me?
liesa
xx

Builde · 03/02/2010 16:14

I would love to boycott Sats but our school (which has a very mixed intake and an autistic centre to boot) needs all the help it can get to move up the league tables.

Original poster

memoo · 03/02/2010 17:22

Liesauk I could have written your post! My DD is exactly the same. She seems to have learnt very little recently as all they have been doing is SAT practise papers.

OP posts:

SE13Mummy · 03/02/2010 18:55

From what a lot of people posting on this thread are saying it seems as though it's not the SATs that need boycotting but the schools that need challenging on their delivery of the National Curriculum!

Schools should not be cancelling other lessons to make extra time to teach hoop-jumping and those of you with children in schools where this is the case could approach the Head, Governors etc. and question precisely how this is addressing the NC. I'm a Y6 teacher and hate league tables, SATs don't bother me because I don't let them get in the way of my teaching and I definitely don't cancel things like PE and art. I've spent 6 years in a school where the LA would love us to be in school 24 hours a day ramming methods, exam technique and level 4 answers into the heads of tired 11-year-olds but we've refused because that's not actually our job. I suggested to the advisors that they could run the night/weekend/holiday classes if they felt the need but they declined... my class beat their overall targets by 20% in reading and 30% in maths and every single one of them left Y6 knowing that the level they received in their SATs was an accurate reflection of how they performed one day in May. They also left having had a fun Y6 learning so much more than how to deal with SATs.

LJBrownie · 03/02/2010 19:17

In my local school the extra sessions for struggling Y6 kids are not just about SATs, they are about giving those kids individual time to make improvements before they leave primary school. Yes, they'll hopefully also get better SATs results but the real focus is on helping them.

Sometimes I wonder whether all this SATs stuff has turned a bit urban myth/hysterical. Given SE13's comments, how true can it be that most schools are only teaching to the SATs test? (not disagreeing with OP and other's personal stories but generally...)

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