Anyone want to flap with me about SATs?

[EllenJaneisnotmyname]

DS2 had just started his Y6 SATs today. Reading test, got through it with only a minor wobble about there being no assembly. Tomorrow is just horrible, though, short writing task, long writing task and spellings. He hates writing, and it's all on the same day. He can use his Alphasmart and gets some extra time but aaargh! He doesn't want extra time. Very stressed boy this evening, even though I'm playing it down completely. I really don't care how he does, but the school do and I care that he will hate it.

my DD(7) got sent home on friday with a note in her home-school book.

XXX was misbehaving today during her science SAT test. This meant she lost playtime. Could you please sit her down for a chat about how important these tests are for her.

for starters, they know she misbehaves, i cant help that, just like they and DD cant. DD told me she got bored. DD was actually sent home with sweets and 2 stickers for doing good in the test

hello ellen, I'm afraid I will decline the flapping today as ds1 is unphased and unbothered by the whole thing but I'll certainly serve up Ds1's school are having them all in for breakfast club this week and he's been more interested in breakfast than any thing else. He's surprised me really, normally he gets a bit more stressed as he knows it's going to be hard for him. This may not last the entire week though . . .

He said today was something about caves but that's all I got, and he's got maths and literacy tomorrow.

Hi Janets. You telling her now won't help, silly teacher! And missing playtime just makes behaviour worse in my experience.

Thanks for the , Ninja. I think I'll be going on to soon! I got a slapped wrist for talking about the reading paper earlier on Chat. Didn't realise different schools did them at different times. But caving, yes. There were questions about how the writer was feeling etc! But DS not bothered by short answers, it's the long writing task that really gets to him. He can't organise himself to plan, then only writes about 8 sentences. Then he gets upset with himself. The TA will have her hands full!

tut tut ellen (no I'm not stalking you ) didn't realise it was such a big deal to talk about it

No, nor me! Lots of teachers telling me off. Felt like I was in Y6! Maybe I was a bit silly, I am a TA!

As far as I know there is a strict timetable for SATs.... I'm a Y6 teacher and there is a timetable in the test admin book.

I'm suprised different schools are doing them at different times....!

Blooming things! Wish they'd go away so's I could do my proper job!

My SN pupils aren't taking them. Hurrah!

DD1's school made such a fuss about SATs when she was in Y6 she got in a terrible flap. She was in tears every night, couldn't eat breakfast, didn't want to go to school, and this was weeks beforehand. They missed all their PE and other non-SATS lessons for weeks too so they could have booster lessons.

I sent notes in her diary about how stressed she was and just got replies telling me she shouldn't worry because she'd do really well anyway. Unfortunately the message in school was that everyone needed to work harder and in the end rang the school and threatened to keep her at home til the tests were over. They pulled their head in straight away but she was still stressed. I hope they've got a better attitude by the time DD2 gets round to them.

Why aren't your SN pupils taking them? Are they working below a L3?

Thanks never. My DS is expected to get a 3 for literacy, he might just get a 4 if the questions aren't too 'inferential' and don't involve too much 'theory of mind' stuff. His mechanical writing, for want of a better word, is ok. Correct punctuation, spelling, makes sense etc. It's just a bit, well, boring!

He's expected to get a high 4 for maths, maybe a 5 if it's a good day. Wish he could just opt out, but he's too able, really. Just really hates writing!

Our school are doing all the rest of the literacy papers tomoz, no maths like Ninja's DS's school. How about you, then, never?

if ds1 gets a level 3 in anything I think I may just pass out school wouldn't withdraw him from the tests and they've done nothing other than maths and literacy since before christmas, apparently they'll cram the rest of the curriculum in between next week and the end of term I'm so relieved he's leaving!

ellen, just because that's what ds1 said doesn't mean that's what will happen, he's not the most reliable with passing things on, that's part of his problem! We shall see tomorrow . . .

It's an odd old system, Ninja. Your DS shouldn't be doing SATs if you don't think it's appropriate. It will be better for my DS to do badly to get him more support in secondary, but I can't help wanting him to do well, to show them! But I don't know who I want to show. It's like I'm being a competitive parent, and if DS2's ASD has shown me anything, it's that that's a load of bollocks. Confused. Also going out now for a big or three.

Indigobell.... My SN kids are indeed below level 3 and it was decided (by me and the senco) that the stress of taking these manky tests, ruining their routine etc was waaaaaay not worth it when they would get a N and I would use my teacher assessment anyway. One is sitting the maths paper with a reader as he is strong on maths but I refuse to stress them out any more than they are already with the change to the day.

I'd quite like to use my professional judgement for the rest of the class too but that's another matter!

And, yes, its all literacy tomorrow.... all the writing at once! Aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!

Well, thank God the literacy is over. The teacher told me that DS2 couldn't do the short writing task, persuasive writing to get support for a charity, (ffs) and kept shouting at the TA to help him. He managed 4 sentences. This may be a bit late to wonder whether having a 1:1 TA hasn't helped his independence! Oh well. All over now, only maths left.

poor lad, hopefully he can relax a bit now the worst ones are over. it's so crap the amount of stress transmitted from school to kids over these things. dim question, but are y2 doing sats at the moment, neither my DS nor the school has mentioned it if so .

Yes, but they are voluntary. Y2 tend to do them spread over a few weeks and keep them really low key. Some DC do more papers than others, eg if they do really well on a Level 2 test they will also do a Level 3 one. Hopefully the no info bit will be because there's no hype or stress.

DS2 is quite happy. He is only stressed while it's happening. Literacy is completely forgotten now! I'm trying to follow suit. [forced grin]

Don't start me off about the bloody Sats. First of all,when sm was agreed and nothing had been put in place for months, I asked when ds would be getting the recommended support (this was 4 months ago). Senco said that they couldn't do anything until Sats were over as didn't want to take him outside class! After I complained they begrudgingly did a few things to show willing but keep threatening ds with exclusion if he's not doing what they want him to. He is extremely anxious about the tests but they have given him longer and a reader to say the questions. I think this is more for their benefit than his and am disgusted by how they have been with him. Thank goodness he leaves soon. Dh and I are betting that HT will try to exclude him again once the tests are over so we shall see.

bet ds is relieved that's over then ellen! I asked ds, no maths today, that's tomorrow but at least I know what todays was about now, he was going on about the largest lego collection [clueless] relating that to charity now makes sense! We can't get near the junior teachers at ds1's school without a prebooked appointment so have had no feedback at all and won't until parents evening in a couple of weeks. Did I mention I was pleased he was leaving soon?

I'm not sure everyone is doing the y2 sats, they are here but they're optional, some areas don't do them at all now I think.

DameEdna, at least the statement is in place for secondary. Hopefully they will be a bit more proactive! Only a few weeks to go.

Ninja, the short writing task was a charity persuasive piece. The long writing task was a newspaper article about someone getting a world record (of your choice.) Your DS into Lego by any chance?

I have the advantage of sneaking a peek at the papers at my school. I knew that the horrid persuasive piece would be a nightmare, but his teacher is really nice and chatted to me in the playground at pick up. Like DameEdna, hope secondary is a better bet.

Total, I meant the Y2 SATs are optional for the school. Ours opts for them?!

hi ellen, how did yesterday go? Ds1 was again incredibly vague, him and a couple of other children did one of the maths things seperately from the rest of the class, was one of them something they could have a reader for? No idea how it went other than mental maths was very hard for him, no surprise there! Last day today I think he said?!

can i ask a question. i know its too late for DD2 now (yr2) but what extra provision could i ask for in future with tests.

DD attends mainstream school that has a language resource base attached. She has a statement and is getting between 75-100% 1-1 help. she accesses speech therapy 3 times a week maybe more if there is time. She has dyspraxia, speech problems and possible ASD. its in her statement and all staff know that she wont stay on task if she doesnt like it, hence her losing playtime earlier this week.
punishment doesnt matter to DD. she can always find a positive from it - getting sent to the heads office was ok, DD at least got to sit on a chair.
if DD is disrupting others during tests, could she be taken to a quiet room with her helper to do the test alone. could she get extra time to do it?

Just seen this thread wish I had seen it earlier in the week!

I had a phone call from DS's school after he finished his first Yr 6 SAT exam on Monday to say would I take in some clean clothes as he had had a "accident", I asked if he was ok as this has never happened before and they said oh yes.
Got to school and he was sat in the medical room in hysterics covered in faeces, I was so angry they must have known what he had done (the medical room did not smell pleasant!) and yet they told him to put his PE kit on so he dutifully did (he is so black and white wouldnt occur to him to say I need to clean up!) despite being covered so they were then soiled as well. In the end I took him home to shower change his clothes and generally calm him down.

I ended up in tears as well as him as he was so distressed, we havent long had a dx (aspergers/high functioning asd) and this is something that hasnt happened before but I stupidly thought that school might have tried to go through the process of the sats and how the school hall has been changed into a bloody prison cell!!

Already I am in panic mode about how he will cope in september at secondary school this has just magnified it all by 100% :(

Oh no, joecaitlinsmum, how horrible for your DS. and for you both. It's too late for the bloody primary school, but you must get in contact with the secondary and make sure that they put in a good transition plan. We have a support thread for DC going up to secondary in Sept over in SN education, here , please read to get some ideas.

janetsplanet, with a statement DC get 25% extra time without the school having to specially request it. May be a good idea to discuss this with the school as ours didn't know about this, I had to tell them! They should have the tests administered in a seperate room, so they can have their extra time undisturbed by the others, when they finish. My DS uses an Alphasmart keyboard, like a simple laptop/wordprocessor in his lessons and could use that for the writing tasks. The maths questions can always be read out to any child. You can also have a scribe arranged to write for the child if arranged.

Ninja, hi! DS was much better with the maths, but ran out of time even with his extra 25% and got a bit upset about that. He processes quite slowly, so the extra time is useful. Hope your DS wasn't too stressed out with the whole thing. Poor old joecaitlinsmum's DS, everyone's worst nightmare.

It's DS2's last annual review in primary school tomorrow, new school are coming but after our transition conference I don't have much to say. That's really not like me....

sep a rate, I can never spell that word.

thanks for that :)

Should also mention, really, that the Key Stage 2 SATs are more about assessing the school's performance that the child's. So giving them extra time etc benefits the school more than the child, also. When they go up to secondary, if the school even takes SATs into account, they need to realise that your DC only did that well with extra time etc, or they might not get the support they need.