SATS grandchildren sitting this week

Another one

Gingster

For all grans who have GC sitting their SATS this week.
My DIL teacher sent this to all the children in the family.

Thank you for this, I've forwarded it to two of my minded children's parents.

The one in year 2 came out telling us she'd been doing a "quiz" today, which I thought was rather nice 😊

What a waste of time.
They should be scrapped.

Sago this is the last time year 2 children will take SATs.

Thank goodness for that.

Poor kids, it's their school being tested as much as them and laid on their shoulders.

Its parents and teachers who worry about SATS and then pass that worry onto the children.

Most children quite enjoy something competitive, whether spelling tests or General Knowledge tests, when just left to themselves - and do better if not worked up into a froth of anxiety by the elders and should know betters.

Thank you for those, Gingster

Although none of mine take SATS I think the message is worth passing on regardless!
🙂

Teachers worry because their school will be judged on the results. Ofsted are all over SAT outcomes.

They seem to have been unpleasantly tricky this week. A lot of Y6 teachers seem to be saying their most capable pupils didn't finish, several heads saying they've never had so many kids crying at the end of their paper.
I've seen several comments along the line of 'questions designed to trip pupils up'.

I dislike Sats. Teachers generally know where their pupils are functioning. The reports of year 6 pupils weeping as a result of the paper I knew as comprehension feels outrageous. The headteacher of one school said his high achieving year 6 pupils were reduced to tears. What’s the point of that?

The whole thing just makes me angry. We’ve been doing more and more damage to our children since SATs were first introduced in the 80s . And telling their parents that they have failed to meet national expectations is cruel and unhelpful at such a young age.

SATs are a test of the school. They were "sold" to teachers as a diagnostic tool to identify pupils' strengths and weaknesses, but they're nothing of the sort.

Secondary schools don't take much notice of them because they know which primary schools spoon feed their pupils and many do their own testing anyway.

It's time to abolish them completely.

Yes, exactly.

I don't think there is anything wrong with testing as such; we all took regular tests at school and of course the dreaded 11+. I think my older DC took Richmond Tests.

However, there seems to be so much pressure on the children to perform well in the SATS and no tests should be designed to catch children out.
Nor should they be an indicator of how schools are performing.

I can remember ( long ago though it was) knowing we would have our eleven plus but not when and just sitting it one day with little preparation or angst. I went home and told my mother very excitedly as I had enjoyed it. There were certainly no tears from anyone or home tutoring before the event.

I agree with Monica most children enjoy test if there is no pressure. We had maths and spelling tests every week so it was a normal event. It is Mums and teachers who promote such anxiety though I am sure unintentionally.

I told Y6 children that truth, that SATs were a test of the teachers and the school, not of the children. It’s sad to see them stressed unnecessarily. Secondary schools often carry out their own assessments in September before putting pupils in sets anyway.

growstuff

SATs are a test of the school. They were "sold" to teachers as a diagnostic tool to identify pupils' strengths and weaknesses, but they're nothing of the sort.

Secondary schools don't take much notice of them because they know which primary schools spoon feed their pupils and many do their own testing anyway.

It's time to abolish them completely.

Secondary schools were setting targets based on KS2 results - another stick with which to beat individual teachers.

But I actually came onto this thread to say that I'm hearing Thursday's maths was an awkward test too. As if the current cohort of Y6s haven't been through enough...

I heard on the BBC's breakfast news that children were leaving in tears because the paper was so hard, some of them couldn't complete it.

Too much importance is made of exam results - ok if you’re good at them.
One of my sons was no good at SATs and ‘failed’ all his GCSEs. His self esteem and confidence were in shreds by the time he left school. Lots of people like him are late developers and my son has done fine - a job he enjoys and a degree as a mature student.

One of the best pieces of school transition research I was involved in was when Year 7 teachers spent time in Year 6 classrooms. There was always a tendancy for secondary teachers to under-estimate what the children knew and could do and they were forced to raise their expectations as a result.
I think some of the Michael Gove reforms to KS2 SATS were absurd, but I have no problem with much of the content.

My 10 year old grandson has really enjoyed them this week apparently. I think this has been mainly down to the free breakfasts of pancakes, waffles and sugary cereals that the school have laid on. Apparently they were told last week that if they were ill this week there was a possibility that a member of staff would come to their home and they would have to sit them at home, dreadful!

Having been a teacher for many many years and dealt with SATs, and the unbearable stress placed on young heads.
I am now lucky enough to be old enough to see the adults these young and struggling children became and I can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, SATs or any exam does not define the people they have become and I’m proud of them all.

From Ben Fogle.

I failed my exams but exams also failed me. I find it astonishing that in 2023 we are still fixating on exams as the medium of defining peoples intellectual potential and capabilities. As a philosopher once said, ‘everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live it’s entire life believing that it is stupid’
Like a fish. Some people are better at swimming than climbing. Some people have exceptional ability to retain information and regurgitate it under exam conditions. Others fall apart under pressure.
Exams are heavily weighted to perpetuate the continued opportunity of the few not the many.
I have spent a lifetime healing the wounds of my early childhood failings.
Fail enough and eventually you’ll concede to those failings and once you capitulate, they became inevitable.
From there, it’s a slippery slope to self loathing that strips you of your confidence and self esteem.
The wilderness has been my rehabilitation. There is no failure in the wild.
Just life and death.
It is black and white.
The wilderness does not care about race, colour, religion or politics. It is uncomplicated and unforgiving.
This is what makes it so therapeutic. Without the complicated nuances of society, we are empowered to make decisions based on immediate circumstances rather than perception or reputation. Rather than viewing the landscape and those within it as competitors, we see them as collaborators. It seems strange to me that the single hour of pressurised decision making during my A-levels aged 18 affected me more than the split second decision at 8500m on Mount Everest when my oxygen bottle failed aged 46. One was an artificial indicator of supposed ability. The other a split second life or death decision. I only passed one of them…..
……and lived to tell the tale

I think every teacher should read this and every politician and everyone who employs other people.

My sister was useless at exams but did well in her lessons and homework, I was the complete opposite, messed around in lessons and gave the barest minimum to completing homework, however, a quick read up of the subject the night before an exam and I could pass with ease. I always got 100% in calculus but still have no understanding of it whatsoever. It's time to give kids a break from all this constant pressure.

I would always prefer school based formative assessment plus some externally moderated summative assessment, but not sure that is likely to happen soon.
Some people on Gransnet even seem to think the 11+ is still a good idea.