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

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

Primary education

SATS - anyone doing them this week?

48 replies

Eve · 10/05/2010 13:19

We are... DS not really bothered by them, but has been revising for them.

OP posts:

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annh · 10/05/2010 19:23

ConDemNation, If you haven't heard about the tests and the school haven't brought them up, then I think it is highly likely that your friend's DS is worried because he is being pressurised by his mum!

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mrz · 10/05/2010 19:24

ConDemNation if you weren't aware of the national tests (SATs) at the end of KS1 & KS2 you probably aren't aware but your child is being assessed and tested continually throughout the year.

SATs have been all over the news for the past month so I'm surprised you didn't know.

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HSMM · 10/05/2010 19:24

My DD is doing them. Her only concern was getting something boring to read in the comprehension

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annh · 10/05/2010 19:25

Also, the Y2 SATs do not have to take place in a specific week, unlike Y6 ones which are this week. Our school told us that they don't call them tests, they do a number of practise papers and somewhere in among them is the "real" test. The children should not be aware of it and they are relaxed about time. They even said that if the children got tired, they would just let them go to break and finish them off afterwards!

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mrz · 10/05/2010 19:25

It was about Gold (Midas & mines) I think

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ConDemNation · 10/05/2010 19:30

Thanks...I saw a thread about a lot of teachers boycotting them, but hadn't realised they were happening now. I assumed school would have let us know either at the beginning of the year or as the test bit approached.

Not that it matters much, to me - I am just concerned if the kids are getting anxious about it. Ds hasn't mentioned it so opefully he isn't.

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HeavyMetalGlamourRockStar · 10/05/2010 20:02

DS spent today doing 3 tests - spelling, reading comprehension and a maths test and that for KS1...

I don't get why they do tests for KS1 given the results are supposed to come from assessments. Is it because the assessments are too subjective?

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spudmasher · 10/05/2010 20:08

The comprehension was not too bad. It had a lot of 'empathy' questions in it, so if a school does lots of drama the children would have been quite comfortable.

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atomicsnowflake · 10/05/2010 20:13

My son is doing them all week. The school have been cramming them since January and my son is stressed to death.

I don't agree with them and I'm disgusted that the school are using my son just to boost their ratings. They shouldn't treat children like this.

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Feenie · 10/05/2010 20:46

"I don't get why they do tests for KS1 given the results are supposed to come from assessments. Is it because the assessments are too subjective? "

Purely because we have to. Most teachers pay lip service to them, using them only to comfirm their final assessments and hardly mentioning them to Y2 children. Some LEAs won't even allow the test results as admissable evidence when asking to see how teachers have arrived at their judgements. But at a governmental level they just can't bear to let go of them entirely! And as long as some schools still cram for them for entirely no reason, they're likely to stay.

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sunnydelight · 11/05/2010 06:25

DS2 is doing NAPLAN which is the Aussie equivalent. It annoys me so much that Australia takes the crappest bits of the UK education system and rolls them out as if they've discovered something new and revolutionary. They've just started publishing the results as well so in effect we now have "league tables" too. At the moment every child here has an absolute right to a place at their local school and can choose to go to another if there's a space available. I can see it going exactly the same way as the UK in time with people ignoring their local school and scrambling for the "good" schools. (Sorry, rant over!).

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FrogPrincess · 11/05/2010 11:56

Dd is doing SATS this week, they have been kept pretty low key so the girls don't seem too stressed. They're more concerned with the fact they also have sex ed all week which is 'gross' . And they're all looking forward to their residential trip next week as a reward.

I don't mind her doing SATS because the school is not geared towards them, they do many subjects and keep things interesting all through the year so it just seems like one little bit of the year, rather than a huge deal.

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treas · 11/05/2010 12:04

My Yr2 dd is due to do them but won't be doing them until next week apparently. I only know this as dd told me that this is what her teacher told her.

The school does not usually inform the parents in an attempt to reduce the pressure on the children.

My dd is actually looking forward to doing them as she says they are more interesting than anything they usually do in class!

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kitkat1967 · 11/05/2010 12:30

Yep - both mine I'm afraid - and that's 2 different schools.
DS in yr 1 - had to do a comprehension test yesterday and DD in yr 5 had 2 maths papers.

and before anyone asks DS is in a State school - although I am planning to move him as I have discovered that SATS is all that school live for. The yr 6s have had 'revision club' after school and spent all year preparing for these tests. When DD was in yr 2 at the same school they didn't do any PE all year - spent the time on SATS practise .
Suffice to say they get 100% 4s & 5s in yr 6 every year.

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Clary · 11/05/2010 13:02

Yes my DS1 is doing them.

He had reading comp yesterday (I asusme everyone does the same across the country!). He struggles with that so he was very stressed but then when I saw him in the afternoon he was much happier. Relieved it was over I think. Bless him.

Writing today which he also finds hard. Just told him to do the best he could and try to read over his work. Feel all tied up inside over it. Didn't realise how much until I wrote that and burst into tears!

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PestoEatsBallotPapers · 11/05/2010 13:07

DD2's school is boycotting this year's SATS, but the children are taking a previous year's set of SATS instead. I think they were doing 2007 paper yesterday.

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Builde · 11/05/2010 16:39

Don't like to say it, but pressure put on year 6 children by teachers is really parents fault.

Most middle class parents follow the league tables and this makes schools very nervous about sats.

So, if parents accepted that a school position on a league table is probably more to do with the type of children who attend the school rather than the quality of the teaching, teachers wouldn't have started putting so much pressure on their year 6 children.

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Madsometimes · 11/05/2010 16:59

Dd2 is doing her Y2 SATs this week. She is OK, but was a little tired and tearful when I collected her because she did not get a sweet when everyone did. I think this was because her teacher missed her out by accident, and she did not say anything.

Dd1 is doing Y5 tests. AFAIK these are her banding tests, so in many ways are more important for her than Y6 SATs. Our school is one of the few schools in our LEA that are doing Y6 SATs. My children have told me that this is a good idea because tests will help them secondary school . I think there has been some indoctrination in assembly!

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Madsometimes · 11/05/2010 17:08

On a positive note, dd2 did not have any homework last weekend, which made a refreshing change from when dd1 was in Y2. Her teacher crammed the children with practice tests, silly woman.

I do think it is very silly. Both my children were still 6 when they sat these tests. No-one cares about the results, so why do them?

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summer111 · 11/05/2010 17:24

Ds (YR 6) has been doing his this week. So far, so good! The school take a pretty calm approach to preparation - revision starts after Chrismas and consists of revision in it's purist form - going over a topic in class and getting a practice sheet to do for homework.
I may be in the minority here but I actually think the Sats are a good thing, if approached correctly by the school. Ds is a bright child but can be lazy and with minimal homework, does as little as he can. The revision has been really helpful in identifying what he has forgotten or not fully understod and the practice sheets have been a relatively 'fun' way to engage him. I do think that it is a great preparation for secondary school, otherwise the workload they hget there can hit them like a tonne of bricks.

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WynkenBlynkenandNod · 11/05/2010 17:33

Year 6 DD doing SATs, high pressure from the school and some of her friends in a bit of a state. They are doing activities in the afternoon which is good and distracting them and doing a Year 6 have talent Friday afternoon which is being looked forward to. DH is 40 today so the morning was taken up with that before school so that took her mind off things. I am just looking forward to it being Friday.

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Doobydoo · 11/05/2010 21:14

My ds is.He has a high temp and insisted on going in yesterday and todayeven though we have said we are not worried about whether or not he sits them.The school has been giving them practice tests for about 2 months.

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Jux · 11/05/2010 21:28

DD's been doing them. Personally I think it's bloody silly. There are parents who are saying "Oh well, they've worked so hard for them, it seems a shame not to do them". NO IT DOESN'T!! How many kids would be disappointed that exams are cancelled? How many Hermione Granger's are there in real life?

Interesting that it's only the parents of kids who are projected to get 5s who are saying it