Can I withdraw my child from SATs next year?

[pinkrocker]

I'm not sure if there's a definitive answer. I've searched all over.
DD is 11 and I think she possibly has maths anxiety? she has extra help at her school who take her and a few others out of PSHRE and French lessons and do an informal maths club.
We are doing maths homework right now and she's so stressed, she's left the room to calm down. It's awful. We are trying to work out what half of 5 is.
SATs will be dreadful for her.

I honestly don't think you can, except keeping her off school that week. If you do that she may need to sit them on her own when she goes back though.

You've posted in secondary. Which SATs are you talking about?

And what does she currently do during maths lessons?

I would have thought working on her anxiety would be a better strategy than removing her from an exam.

How do you think she'll cope with money and everything else adults need to do which requires numeracy?

You probably wanted to post this in Primary, not secondary really.

You can withdraw her, but only by keeping her at home for 2 weeks over the SATs week and the week after. Plus she will be doing all the build up and the stress. And SATs are a 'right of passage' and it may knock her self esteem even more if you don't show you have faith in her.

You are probably much better off working on the anxiety and helping her managing that. She will have 5 years of maths at secondary with regular assessments (DD has them every half term).

My DD was getting stressed by maths early in y6, as it doesn't come naturally to her. I explained that no one expected her to be able to answer all the questions and just to do her best. We sorted out what type of questions she could do, which were out of her reach and which were ones worth having a go at. When SATs came round she managed them fine in terms of stress.

She needs to be praised for having a go. That is more important to start with than getting the right answer.
Practice stuff she can do to build up confidence.
Use physical objects, eg chocolate bars would be good for halving 5.
Bring maths in to every day life, eg when cutting up a cake, or sorting coins.

Confidence is so key in maths. Now DD has started secondary her confidence is really improving as she is setted, and no longer with children who can get the right answer really quickly. She feels more capable, and hence she is.

Where we live we have a 3 tier school system, primary, middle and high school so wasn't sure where to post on here.

DD is in lower streamed maths set in her year at her school.
Thank you for the advice.
We'll try it step by step and try to stop the panicking.

My eldest gets quite panicky in maths tests too but I think ultimately you'll be doing her a disservice to let her think she can opt out of the tests because she will need to sit GCSE maths and like others have said, she'll have lots of assessments and exams once she gets to secondary.

DD missed SATs for a combination of reasons: independent school and also home-educated for last term of Y6. DD was however confident in subjects so it wasn't about avoiding the subject it was about extending her experience. When I did this I was shocked at the number of parents who had also home educated for end of Y6 and were asking me about it with a view to doing it themselves. DD is now at secondary and despite the doomsayers saying she had to sit the SATs she is happy, thriving, being assessed for progress etc - and not linked to the SATs.

"She will have 5 years of maths at secondary with regular assessments (DD has them every half term)."

At DD's secondary school they have regular maths tests - far more often than every half term.

Have you considered a tutor? When DD was doing iGCSE maths I sent her to Kip McGrath and saw loads of primary school age children there, obviously being tutored for the SATS tests. The tutor was brilliant and DD achieved a very good A*.

DD also did practice paper after practice paper and by the time the exams came round she found them quite easy.

So, I don't think withdrawing form SATS is the answer, but I do think you need to talk to school about the maths anxiety.

You cant ask the school to leave her out of the SATs but you could choose to keep her home and 'home school' for the 2 weeks it covers. Speak with your Head about this as an option.

Yes they will be regularly tested at high school but they certainly don't put them under the same pressure as they do to pass the SATs at primary. Some students just cant do exams at primary age and forcing them to take part at age 10/11 really can put them off for the rest of their life (I am terrified of exams despite being a consistently straight A student all my life I have never achieved higher than a C at exam level in any subject due to anxiety and utter panic that sets in during exam conditions) . If she really doesn't feel ready to be tested in this way then absolutely do whats best for her.

At the end of the day the SATs are really nothing to do with the students ability. Their main aim is to assess how well the teacher/school teaches the children. Almost every high school will do their own form of testing in the first term anyway and only consider SATs when working out the progress 8 score (the improvement of the students levels between SATs scores and the grade gained at GCSE). Children change a lot between sitting SATs in May to getting to high school in September. It would be complete madness for high schools to purely rely on SATs grades to place their students in appropriate class ability levels.

Students who do not have a SATs grade/score will be allocated a national average grade/score for the purpose of high schools working out how much that student has improved. It really makes little difference to your child whether they gained SATs or not.