DGD worried about her SATS

You know her best so probably know how best to approach it. The results are important as they will follow her to her next school and teachers have been known to hang labels on children which stick. I wouldn't say that to her though.

I don't understand how SATS can have gone so terribly wrong. Children have always been tested but no one seems to complain about grammar school testing. They do need to learn to be tested and deal with it because we are tested in one way or another all our lives. I think the pressure comes from teachers and parents and it is them who should change. They are adults and should be able to support children without pressurising them.

My dgs school keeps things very low key. It has a stable staff and is very caring and nurturing. But how much harder for schools in areas with multiple problems, high turnover of staff and shortage of resources. They are just set up to fail no matter how hard they try

What a lovely post qq

Several years ago, I was asked to help a young girl prepare for her SPAG test. The poor child had felt the pressure at school to such an extent that she had developed acid reflux. The school had taken children out of art and music classes to stuff them full of grammar and maths. I never heard how she got on. At the same time, GS2 was taking the tests and his attitude was quite insouciant, so his school wasn't applying similar pressure. He did well and has, by now, in Y9, probably forgotten all the grammatical terminology he had to learn then.

Just read quizqueens post and I couldn't agree more. We are a family who love quizzes, and, yes, I loved tests and general knowledge quizzes when I was at school. About the only thing I shone at academically because (although I didn't know it at the time) I am dyspraxic, which meant my writing was atrocious - still is - and all my school work was constantly marked down for poor handwriting.

Children only get into a state about tests like stats because the adults around them build them up and neurose themselves.

My primary education was beset with tests and exams but none of the adults around us seemed bothered by them so we took them in our stride.

I even did my 11+ without knowing anything about it, other than that at a new primary school (my 8th) for the last term of my junior school education ( no school at all the previous term) a teacher asked me if I had done it and when I asked what it was took me into a classroom with about 6 other children and sat me down to do some tests.

I am sure the reason I passed well was because everyone around me was unconcerned and I was in complete ignorance of what I was doing or why, so totally unbothered.

There really is no need for primary school children to be tested in this way. The teachers should know what each pupil is capable of, just by observation. It is just for the benefit of government statistics and to produce league tables. Parents know which schools are better than others anyway, just by having local conversations!

My granddaughter does have a Monday weekly spelling test and has the words to revise and make sentences with over the weekend, but she never got the results from her SATs, taken in year 2. Her school calls them quizzes anyway and, as she knows I love quizzes and am in a pub quiz team, so she is very pleased to say she is now doing quizzes too, to be the same as me and is very relaxed about it all.

We are all very positive about all sorts of education in our family and I feel that, if all parents acted in the same way, then children would be less stressed about school, in general. I hear so many people say to their children/grandchildren that they hated school/weren't any good at maths etc. I always exclaim enthusiastically, 'Oh, a (spelling) test, how lovely- I loved tests when I was at school; it's so fun to get them all correct.' I wasn't lying either, I loved everything about school but then my father always instilled in me, the importance of doing as well as I was able. He saw education as the only way to get out the working class, council house background he was from.

I was just talking to someone of my own age the other day and they said they thought learning grammar was unimportant. That is a bad attitude to pass on to the younger generation.

How can schools talk about mental health problems when this sort of thing's going on ? It's nothing short of psychological abuse to have young children worried to the point of sickness and their hatred of attending school !

Academies, SATS, all absolute rubbish in my opinion. No room to learn anything that isn’t strictly timetabled. We need a revolution!

I so agree with you Luckygirl. What are they about anyway ? Another way of unfairly dividing those who " weren't born academically-minded " and who'll feel as though they're on the scrapheap before adulthood has even started ?
No wonder some children have complexes ! It's all wrong.

My heart goes out to all these stressed-out children (plus parents and g'parents) suffering in such a cruel system!
Buffybee's GS has the right idea. Stultifying repetition achieves only frustration.
No SATs in Scotland.

Thanks for that maryeliza, I've never understood exactly what they are all about but unfortunately worse than I thought.
I have read that teachers also get really stressed about these Sats and really good ones are leaving the profession, which is very worrying.
Why is the Government so out of step with everything?

Actually Buffy it’s far more evil than a box ticking exercise. League tables are used as sticks to beat schools and teachers and have facilitated the breaking up of any meaningful system of state education. The recent story of excluded pupils has much to do with league tables.

It's such a shame that children are being made so anxious about these Sats. It's ridiculous and just a box ticking exercise for the Government.
If I was you gilly, I'd do some revision with her and reassure her how well she's doing. Then spend the rest of the day enjoying yourselves and relaxing. Bless her!
We've got the opposite with my Grandson, who is so laid back, he's horizontal. I've asked him if he's worried about Sats and he says that they're just boring and he's fed up going over the same things all the time and not learning anything new. He's told me that when they have an afternoon of revision on the computers, he plays about instead. I've told him that it's naughty but he just shrugs and says that it's a waste of time because he's done it all a hundred times.
Luckily he's got into the best school in the area, which is literally 100 yards away, he says that he can't wait to go, then maybe he'll learn something new.
By the way, his twin Sisters were exactly like your Gd and needed lots of reassurance, up to the point of crying and being sick.

It's possible that all her friends are worrying too and, between them, they may have worked themselves up? She's worked hard. The balance of probability is that she'll do fine.
Perhaps you could just matter of factly provide her with a nice normal Sunday and chat brightly about the summer holidays or whatever else is looking like being the next high spot for her?

Bloody SATs - not only making children unhappy and anxious, but wrecking true education. Makes me furious. How dare they?

You’re right - she will worry whatever you say so as long as she knows that you understand why that’s supportive. As for today if she wants to revise, let her but make a little timetable with her - x time for revision followed by y time for her.

I worked in a High School where the Principal used to get all the young people sitting waiting to take exams, to do deep breathing and calming exercises which had previously been advised in class. He knew that many of them had confessed to 'going blank' from anxiety during exams and wanted them to have a chance to over come this.

This would be done for 10 minute before the adjudicator came into the room.

I believe he also provided Rescue Remedy for those who wanted it - very calming.

Perhaps you could try this with your DG?

www.anxieties.com/57/panic-step4#.XNfX7xT7Tm4

The very best of luck to your lovely, clever grand-daughter.