S.a.t's!

[shazzam]

i have a 10 year old doing his sats in a couple of weeks, poor thing he is soo upset and stressed already!! his teacher gave them 3 peices of revision style homework (test paper type) taking about 45 mins a piece to do over the easter holidays. i thought this was a bit off as its holidays but got him to do as much as we decide appropriate. yesterday he arrives home in tears as he and one other were humiliated in front of the class because they hadn't done another piece of homework which they'd forgotton about!! he really didn't want to go to school today but rightly or wrongly i told him that the SATs didn't really matter.

i feel so bad for him....though as i believe it the SATs are to show how well the school is performing?? so pressurising them to do some much now in the last weeks before the SATs seems a bit off

[Guest]

My 11 year old son also had this kind of homework over the 2 weeks break. He doesn't find school work easy anyway so something like this really puts the pressure on him. Although the school try to emphasise the fact that the children are not pressured about SATS and that they don't know they are actually doing them!!!!!

 

I too tell my son not to worry about them...and yes, they are really for the benefit of the schools table. I say get rid of them!!

[Beau]

Shazzam,

 

That is terrible and unforgivable of the teacher. If it were me I would put in a complaint about it but then it seems like I am turning into a perpetual complainer nowadays, no longer willing to sit back and let things ride. Perhaps its a sign of my age!

[Guest]

Hi Shazzam,

I think SATs are awful. I am helping in a Yr2 class at the moment and we have started practising the comprehension papers. Some of the children can't read the story and get so dispondent and upset and they can't understand why I can't help them, as I do when they are doing their daily reading. The ones that are really poor readers have no chance to achieve at that level.

I know that the children and schools need to be assessed but this pressure on the children is rediculus (sp?).

We all managed perfectly well without them, the local community knew which were the good schools and which were not so good. I am definetely in the "get rid of them" group. Let children be children and learn through experiance- whatever their age!!!!

 

Sal

[Guest]

SATS are just to see how the teacher performs and the school such awful pressure on the kids my daughter was so stressed i just told her not to worry abouth them and do what she felt she could.

[Guest]

I also think sats should be banned. All of my kids were really stressed in yr 2- they were doing practice papers etc for weeks before the actual tests so when the schools say that the children dont even know they are being tested, I beg to differ. As for homework in the holidays, dont get me started on that one!!

 

Sally

[Shiny]

I have a year 2 boy and he is under immense pressure at school at the moment. We have had SATs papers home over the last few weeks. One of them had the words 'flotsam and jetsam' in it. He couldn't read it and that got him really stressed and upset. The following morning I had a parent from Preschool approach me and ask what flotsam and jetsam was (has a yr2 child herself). I too can understand that children need to be assessed and that teacher/school performance needs to be recorded, and I know most Yr 2 teachers agree they are under pressure, but why should such young children be tested with such papers etc. Do we not trust teachers assessment??!!

[Guest]

With all my children I have had the attitude that SATs dont matter as long as they enjoy learning and being at school. My youngest (year 1) is not particularly academic and the school she is at has such a focus on how they do in literacy and numeracy. She is expected to do homework every night and I have said she will do it only if she is not too tired (she goes to breakfast club and after school club - 7.30 till 5.30 every day) So I feel that this is enough for her. My nursery feeds her school and the staff are really surprised that I don't push her more academically but I am just not driven by what score she gets in her SATs or what level she is at in their reading scheme, I feel it is a lot more important for her to enjoy reading. I know that with the right attitude to learning and confidence she can achieve what she wants. My oldest 2 are 18 and 15 and both of them love reading and will be responsible adults (hopefully). This to me is much more important. I have however come up against their schools in the past about them being allowed to be children. My son's teacher got really upset with me when he was in Year 2 and I can remember her nearly shouting at me saying ' but these are his sats they are important' and I said 'not for me they are not. He will do what he does on the day' and I know she thought I was an irresponsible parent.

 

My own parents (both teachers) were really pushy and used to tell their friends how intelligent I was and how I was going to go far and I ended up being a huge underachiever. So I don't particularly believe that pushing children to do well at a young age has positive benefits.

 

THEY ARE CHILDREN FOR GOODNESS SAKES!!

 

Sorry rant over

 

Sue

[Guest]

one of our local schools does lots of revision and some expert help for some children. then when they are on it is a free breakfast before school starts and the odd bribe of a trip if things go well and depending on the childs ability dare I say predicted levels refuse children permission for family hols.no pressure there then.

[Guest]

I used to teach year 6, and I did not give the children any SATS homework at all. We used to have a look through past papers together and look at possible answers.

 

I did feel as a class teacher in year 6 I was measured by my class's performance somewhat, and I used to kick myself everytime the 4 letter S word came out of my mouth in front of my class.

 

Tn the positive side, the children usually have a pretty good week during SATs week, as in between each test there is lots of time for fun things.

[Lou]

This makes me so mad. I am with everyone else, I do not think there is a place for tests in infants school. Our children spend so much time behind a desk that when they come home they should be allowed to be children. I would think the teachers feel the same as well it must be a huge pressure on them as well.

To be honest I am against formal schooling until year 3.

I hope your son copes alright, it is easy to say don't worry but you know they will. Just let him know you will be proud of him no matter what he gets.

Do they have to do the sats?

[Annie-pops]

Hi - as I sat reading this thread, my 11 y.o. son is sitting in the next room working his way through a practice SATS maths paper, whilst a practice science sits in his bag for dessert! On Monday he also had to hand in another science practice paper!! If they need to do revision, I wonder how much use the tests are as they are not necessarily measuring what the child has learnt over the key stage, as much as what they have been reminded of or crammed during the preceding few months!! I don't know how they can tell good teachers anything they don't already know about the children's ability or progress; they appear to be just a way of producing statistics to feed parental hysteria about "good" schools and "bad" schools, "good" areas and "bad" areas!! Pah!

[dublinbay]

My daughter sat these deplorable tests last year.

Her class did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING but practice sats papers from Christmas until May when the tests were held. What a pathetic waste of nearly a whole year!!!

 

I don't believe any sats tests at any level are worth it and I make sure my children know this.

 

They will have enough stress when they do their GCSEs and A levels.

[Guest]

I agree with you all, after having 2 sons that have gone through school and the youngest is heading for GCSE's next year. The only thing I tell my sons is that each one is a stepping stone to the next, and by the time you get to last lot of exams the first ones don't matter any more. The SATS both of mine luckily took with a pinch of salt attitude, more with the idea to see how well they could be but not to the point of sitting hours doing revision test. The revision tests at home any way are not the same as sitting in a hall taking them.

My oldest took things more seriously but not the younger one.

I used to say if they want to do the revision tests that was ok if not don't worry.

We seem to have become a nation of testers. My phylosophy is what will be will be, and put of what you can until tomorrow because you usually find by tomorrow you don't need to do it. I think that comes of too many years of living in Italy.

[Guest]

Piaget...an excellent theorist, but, because his methodology was not suitable for it's purpose, this brilliant man has since been somewhat discredited by subsequant theorists.

SAT's is also an unsuitable methodology for gaining an insight into teacher performance, the teachers have to impliment this method thus putting themselves up to being discredited (like Piaget). Yet every academic spouts about the benefit of 'reflective practice' yet the practitioners (teachers) are not enabled to use this method to assess childrens learning to inform on their performance and subsequant league tables. BAH HUMBUG.

 

The testing is inadequate because it doesn't suit all learning styles, or individual childrens abilities. My son aged nearly 9 yrs, has special needs and is in a Yr 2 group, he couldn't read his 'comprehension' homework, let alone complete it, which until now I didn't realise was 'in preparation' for upcoming SAT's. How then will he affect the schools performance rate (and all the other low achievers in terms of national norms, but who have achieved and progressed very well as individuals).

 

Unfortunately parents are ill informed of the 'substance' of league tables and how they have been devised, to the point of moving home, pushing up house prices etc all on the basis of league figures to enable their child to attend what is deemed a 'better' school. Thus making access to 'education' means based. It makes you wonder what extremes these high scoring schools have put their children through to get to and stay at the top of league tables. Or maybe these schools have done no more than others but I'll never know because the methods are questionable. ( there you go... guilty / discredited, in my mind, because of this method of measure). HOW SAD.

 

Peggy

[fizzy]

I vote ban SATS. i hated my son doing them in yr 2

[shazzam]

thankyou for all the replies/comments. i let my son read some and he's gone to bed a happy boy tonight!! much more relaxed!

 

he then went on to say he wasn't so upset that the teacher ripped 2 pages out of his maths book today because it wasn't neat enough!! first i'd heard of it!!

[Guest]

My eldest son is in Y2 and has his SATS in about a fortnight. What a waste of time! He will do as well as he possibly can as he is conscientious.

 

Both my husband and me believe strongly in local schools, even though loads of people in our village have sent their children to the schools in neighbouring villages with better OFSted reports. We both went to university but both are not bothered if they want to go on to further education. We want them to be happy and what will be will be.

[Guest]

I have one daughter doing keystage 2 SATs and one doing keystage 3 SATs-its not a pleasant house at the moment and hormones don't help!!!

 

The youngest takes it all dreadfully seriously and will be terribly crushed if she doesn't achieved the results SHE has set herself.She's already bought and packed her pencil case, teddy and ordered bananas to take! She updates us daily on her practise paper results.The eldest is usually terrible laid back about things and never does homework but even she has mentions SATs.

 

I'm dead against them.

 

In my school staff have been told their proposed year groups for next year but the year 5/6 teachers have been told the decision will be made later depending on the SAT's results!!

Edited April 23, 2008 by Guest

[Guest]

thankyou for all the replies/comments. i let my son read some and he's gone to bed a happy boy tonight!! much more relaxed!

 

he then went on to say he wasn't so upset that the teacher ripped 2 pages out of his maths book today because it wasn't neat enough!! first i'd heard of it!!

 

 

Extensive holiday homework

Humiliation in front of class

total disregard to effort

distruction of property

and exhibiting excessive negative response to work handed in.....................

 

this teacher's stressed, but worse she is taking it out your child ( the children )

or she values SAT's results over and above your son's self esteem/well being,

and if not stressed definately needs his/her performance measured, but this behaviour wouldn't show through any SAT's results, would it.

 

Peggy

[Rea]

I've been reading wth the same horror as every one else. My only regret with my lads is that I didnt take them out of dschool during SATs week. They would have learned a lot more if I'd taken them out during the months running upto them too. Richards teacher told me 'we cant do the stuff I want to do in science because we have to practice for SATs'. That meant they werent doing actually science, just test papers. Richards love of science fell apart then and never recovered.

 

 

Shazzam, your sons teacher is in need of a chat. I cant believe there are people out there who profess to be 'teacher' and then use ripping books as an example.

I'm like Beau, the older I get the more likely I am to speak up.

[Guest budgie1]

Shazzam,

I was horrified to hear what your son is going through. Humiliating a child is definately not acceptable behaviour no matter how stressed or pressured a teacher is. I would definately ask for a meeting to discuss this.

My own children are yr 6 and yr 2 but they are really lucky as the yr 6 dont start revising until next week, until then it is very much " buisness as usual". We have been told that they will have 6 revision sessions in each subject and will be expected to spend twenty minutes each night going over what they have done in the day. The result = happy, un stressed children! Therefore happy parents.

I cant understand this need for loads of homework. Surely the teachers must realise that working and studying for 5 hours a day is enough for such young people and they would be so much more refreshed to continue the next day if they had spent the evenings playing in the garden, following any interests or even ( dare I say it?) "flopping out in front of the telly!!"

I say ban the stupid SATS, lets trust the teachers judgements and let us let our children be just that.... CHILDREN!!!!!!

Rant over!

[Guest]

I LOATHE SATS - and the schools that push, push, push our children to achieve, just to get their place in the league tables!!

Two years ago our daughter was sent home in Y6 with a letter asking us to sign a form to say whether she would be attending "booster" classes for 6 Saturdays (yes, 6 Saturdays from 9-12) from Easter onwards.

The form was either "yes" or "no, despite having been made aware of the benefits to my child..." Amazingly all the kids attended and were thoroughly fed up and sick of SATS long before the b****y things came round!

From Y2 I told my daughter that SATS were to see how well the teacher has taught you - not that the teacher usually appreciated this!

The retired headteacher at the parents meeting to explain SATS told us they were a waste of time for staff and pupils and the money would be far better spent on educating the children rather than stressing them out - what a wise man he is!

Good wishes to everyone suffering them - I found Rescue Remedy for the whole household a great help.

Nona

 

AND - when she started High School they explained they don't stream the kids based on SATS as the levels are so unreliable. Some kids perform well on the day and get a level they can't sustain or have an off day (hayfever, illness etc) and coast along for the next term!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[catma]

My nephew is doing his YR9 sats and my neice her Y6 sats at the same time!

Have told the child that Sats make no difference to what school she is going to and what she'll do when she gets there!! She's cool about it and has inherited my brother's famous indifference to exams!!! Thank God.

 

As for Yr 2 it's teacher assessment that takes priority and should be based on ongoing assessment.

 

Unfortunately England is stuck with them.

Cx

[Guest]

I've only just spotted this post but had to reply.

 

I never really had an opinion about them until I spent 20 minutes holding back the hair of a year 2 child who was throwing up with nerves. I was so utterly utterly appalled, I was in tears. Not entirely professional of me I know but I was so incredibly angry at the 'system'.

 

Like others I can't abide SATs. Hubby and I have had many a conversation about them and have already decided that if they're still around when our girls go to school, then they shall be spending SATs week by the sea, rock pooling and having fun.

 

We've chosen their school because it felt 'right' when we walked in, the staff wern't trying to impress us and the head had a take-us-as-you-find-us attitude which suited me just fine. It wasn't a tidy school, the equipment wasn't neatly organised and everything wasn't labelled (what is it with labelling?). But every child we saw looked content. We didn't ask about SATs results or league tables, we hung around at hometime and asked the parents what they thought of the school.

 

They loved it.

 

Fluff x

[Guest]

Just a late addition to this post. My son is in yr3 now and did his SATs last year, but I found out today that he has been doing SAT's again this week as an optional thing.

I didn't realise that this happened, has anyone else heard of this. The only reason I found out was because the supply teacher told me she had given him a cuddle because he was in tears over the maths paper (a subject he is really good at).

I'll have to find out tomorrow what's been happening.

 

Sal

 

I hope all your children that are doing them are not getting stressed by it all.

[shazzam]

its funny really, all that build up and stress! my son is doing them this week and is totally relaxed in fact he's not had such a good week in a long time!

it just shows its the pressure of the teacher in the build up which does the damage rather than the tests themselves.

still say ban them!

[Guest Wolfie]

Yes, my children were given "optional" SATS in years 4 and 5 -

[Guest]

Optional SAT's are available for all KS2 year groups.As the title suggests they are an optional assessment tool schools can choose to use if they want.At my school all our KS2 year groups do optional sat's for tracking.I'm not going to comment if I approve or not as its a headteacher/key stage 2 decision I'm just aware they are mentioned and going on in school.

 

My own daughhter made a big mistake in her long writing yesterday and I'm trying to play down her distress.They had to write a biography-she wrote an auto-biography instead of using the information provided .A key mistake in any exam to read and understand what is being asked.She realised just before the end and crossed out her personal dates and replaced them with the dates in the information.

 

On her paper today she says the teacher said there were 5 mins left and she had 3 questions to do so she chose to do the one with the highest point value obviously trainned in some exam skills

[Guest]

Did anyone see the program on BBC1 on Monday night about sats? It was so sad. In one school Ofsted told the kids they were underperforming by the time they left the school. How dare they say that to children? What about value added?

The whole thing makes my blood boil! I had to move out of year 2 because of the pressure put on me from the top. I wasn't prepared to put that on the children in my class. I was even asked to change some scores one year!