SATs Boycott - what would you think if it went ahead?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We've been asked by BBC Education what Mumsnet's reaction would be if the headteachers' vote to boycott SATs meant the Key Stage 2 tests (due in early May) were now abandoned.

If your child is due to be taking SATs in May, would you be relieved/cross/not bothered if the boycott went ahead?

Please tell...

I would be delighted. I think that all this test test testing is meaningless.

Children are now taught to pass tests instead of being educated.

All that matters is ticking the boxes. Getting the result that means you pass.

I've told it before, but there was a cartoon. It was about a target to be met - 10 tonnes of nails. So they made one 10 tonne nail.

Totally useless to anyone and a complete waste of time, but it passed. Got the tick, got the approval. nails. 10 tonnes. job done.

NHS targets, schools.. it's all a ten-tonne nail.

Our school is still doing the yr 6 SATS.

Overall, I'm not against testing, so personally am not bothered either way. It's just unfortunate the way most schools put far too much emphasis on them.
My older 2 DC had excellent experiences with the old KS1 SATs - one had no idea he had done them (!) and one knew he was doing a very special piece of work because the Prime Minister wanted to see how well all the children were doing.

Actually i've just realised my dd is KS1 not 2 but my answer stands.

I am not concerned either way. DD's class seem quite blase about it all TBH but it would be nicer if they could relax and enjoy their last term in primary. THe school she is going to stream the kids according to CAT tests that they do in July so it's pretty irrelevant as far as she is concerned.

I wOuld be extremely annoyed if SATs wer cancelled at my DSs school. It is a fee paying Prep school.

gramercy - thank goodness someone sees sense.

"Prior to the testing many schools were coasting along, and some teachers were for various reasons (laziness, idealogical) not teaching the basics of literacy and numeracy."

I want something better than SATs - something like the old 11+. Teaching and testing the basics is essential before anything else can happen. I utterly failed to get this very point on teaching the basics through on the other SATs thread.

Yes I do think a lot of undermotivated teachers would just stop teaching the basics at all if SATs were stopped and there was no monitoring. Not all teachers or even the majority of teachers - but a sizeable minority. Yes there is far too much ideology in teaching.

And a lot of well-motivated teachers could go back to true teaching not ticking boxes Who know good teachers like my SIL might even return to the class room.

I thought independent prep schools didn't do them?

Delighted.

• DD is stressing about them
• teachers use Teacher Assessments. There is no need for the tests. It would be better to do standardised reading tests, etc if the testing is to be useful
• they are only for the government's league tables
• some school's cheat and some parents pay for private tutors so the results are not valid

Some do SATs - even the ones very high up in the league tables. The ones that dont tend to prepare aggressivley for 11+ OR 13+ exams though - especially in areas where there are Grammar schools or where they feed the top private seocndary schools. It is what parents want and what they pay for. Just look at the threads on the Tiffin entry exams.

Annoyed. DD is looking forward to them. I guess she's already won her chocolate for getting 100% in one of the maths tests so maybe she'd not be too gutted but she'd definitely feel cheated.

She's enjoyed the preparation - which I think they started not long before easter. But they are still doing all their usual history, geography, science, elocution, french, games etc - and a lot of work for the Year 6 play at the end of term. The english lessons are including the creation of a 'Year 6 gazette' - they are definitely not just doing SATs work.

And guess what, this school usually gets very good sats results.

I (and she) wish they were still doing the science SAT. And that they properly assessed the other subjects - its too narrow.

Some independents do, others don't. It is voluntary for them.

We deliberately chose one that didn't. And despite not doing SATs the schools till performs extremely well, all children pass their entrance exams for their chosen high schools, and there are always at least 1 or 2 (sometimes more) of the small classes getting scholarships, inc for some well known/top end independent high schools.

So many people are talking about being pleased they would be scrapped to avoid the months of narrowed 'teaching to test' time that happens in Y6 and I agree with that but for the current Y6 children it's too late, they have had that time and most of them have worked really hard in normal school time, in booster classes and in homework. If the teachers now turn around and effectively tell them 'we've changed out minds' then it is going to completely knock the wind out of their sails.

My ds is in Y6 and I know how crushed he'd be to have done all this work for nothing and I am worried it will leave him wondering what the point is in doing what the teachers ask.

I agree with muminbeds. I'm not in favour of yr6 SATs at all. But ds2 has worked very hard towards them, and will be very disappointed if they don't go ahead now!

I'd be happy to see them go away. My year 6 DD is bored of the practices and would like to learn new things in year 6 instead of rehashing what she already knows. She was already a solid level 5 by the end of year 5 so it really is a lot of wasted time for her.

What do we need testing of our 11 yr olds for?
We trust the teachers to give a fair picture of attainment every school year. The Government has trusted the judgement of schools when children are 7 yrs old and at the age when they would have once taken Keystage 3 tests - so why all this external pressure for an 11 year old - which messes up the final year of primary school for our children?
My child has already had to sit a selection test for secondary school this year and will no doubt have tests on transfer to secondary school as they will not trust SATs results.
Let the boycott go ahead.

I would be happy for SATs to go away. They are not good for children or teachers.
I do not judge a school by the SAT results.
Or by Ofsted reports for that matter ...

"a lot of well-motivated teachers could go back to true teaching not ticking boxes"

Indeed. My sister (as a head) was always furious about the way stats were being compiled and "improvement" expected but comparing one group of children with a completely different group the following year, and not based on progress made year by year on an individual basis. Some pupils made good progress, some needed more attention from teachers, but collecting numbers and so on was definitely time wasting as far as she was concerned.

Her school did OK with OFSTEDs but more by luck (better attainment by subsequent years) as it could have been the reverse in terms of scores, just based on the annual intake and how well (or in some cases, badly) they did in SATs.