SATS in Easter Hols

[z-g]

That's true, I should have said we were going away..... don't think it would have worked.
Zainab

[Brum Mum]

We had no choice but to say yes, it was either getting more homework or going in for extra booster classes, DS1 decided to go as he didn't want extra work. southbucks3, My DS1 goes to our local state primary school.
This whole thing with SATs is just ridiculous!

That's awful - poor DS!

[Yamin151]

That's true, I should have said we were going away..... don't think it would have worked.
Zainab

You know though, if it doesn't come up somewhere like this, for example, or you have quite verbal and confident friends with children, then you don't necesarily feel that refusing in any way is an option for you. And worse still, you can feel as if you will disadvantage your child.

[Brum Mum]

That's true, I should have said we were going away..... don't think it would have worked.
Zainab

You know though, if it doesn't come up somewhere like this, for example, or you have quite verbal and confident friends with children, then you don't necesarily feel that refusing in any way is an option for you. And worse still, you can feel as if you will disadvantage your child.

Absolutely - also, if you have a child that 'wants' to do well, then they will take the extra work if the others going for the test are too and saying that they can't / you won't allow them to go in during the holidays will add further pressure.

[z-g]

Thing with DS is that he is very competitive. I told him to get the extra work and we'll help him, but no, he said he'll miss out and not know anything, which is not true, because I know he'll do well. Also he has to have the highest scores!

[Brum Mum]

Thing with DS is that he is very competitive. I told him to get the extra work and we'll help him, but no, he said he'll miss out and not know anything, which is not true, because I know he'll do well. Also he has to have the highest scores!

Sounds like my DS - he's always done well at school and in this latest L6 maths test, he got the lowest score...he's never scored the lowest at school ever.

DH suggested some L6 SATs practice papers for him - I really wished that he hadn't - I know he meant well, but I'm trying to reduce the pressure on him and I worry that this will increase it.

[z-g]

The teachers at our local primary telling kids to do extra SATs papers at home. DS was looking on the internet for some SATs papers, which he found and told me to buy, honestly! DS doesn't need the extra papers but I didn't want to put him down, so we bought some.

[TigerMum]

I believe private schools don't have to do SATs.

We have extra homework over the Easter hols, and a revision timetable drawn up by school to help them manage it. The timetable does help my kids put into perspective how much / little they do actually have to do, but I'd rather they didn't have to do any revision. Learning, yes. Revision for SATs, not so much.

In reality it's not so much work over 2 weeks (2 and a quarter hours in total, less than my kids did for 11+ prep) but it's the pressure that the school has applied over the course of the year that I'm unhappy about - we've had 2 weeks of mocks in the past few months.

I appreciate that most kids in our school didn't sit any 11+ exams and so have no exam experience, so that's why school is giving us so much "practise". But surely that is how it should be for SATs?! Also, we've just been given the timetable for SATs week and with my kids sitting level 6 papers, they're doing at least 2 sometimes 3 tests each day

I've told them it's all for the school's benefit and they are not too worry about them, but they're swept up by the whole environment at school and encouraged / expected to do their best. Ok, that's not a bad thing either, but it's about degrees isn't it? And it's not so much a measure of the child as it is of the school, it's not to the child's benefit... especially given that many secondaries will to their own testing once they get there!

We have one parent who is a secondary head, and at a SATs meeting last week our primary head said that SATs were used by secondaries as indicators for KS3 performance. This parent head was asked to back up this assertion, but he said actually they don't use them in his school because he didn't want children capped in their abilities by their SATs scores, kids develop at different rates etc. How sensible! Ok, rant over

ps how awful that a school is "asking" kids to go into school during the holiday for revision!!

[southbucks3]

Are the same schools that are organising level 6 Easter revision in the school, doing likewise for all the other levels, including any children that are struggling yo achieve level 4?

I am amazed that teachers are giving over their prep time to extra teaching to he honest.

I can honestly say not doing level six ( our choice) has not hindered son number one in the slightest at gs.

Son number two currently bikeing with friends, not a thought of sats on his mind, he got nearly full marks in his mocks for level 5 and is now enjoying his Easter. He would no more have wanted to do level 6, than I would have wanted to run a marathon. You can call us both lazy.

[kenyancowgirl]

My son is doing Level 6 SATs in both Maths and English. I can honestly say, if the school had even suggested giving extra work or coming in for extra sessions, over the holidays, I would frankly have withdrawn him from all the SATs, and the school itself. That is an absolute nonsense in my mind, and I would be very interested in the govt/Ofsted's take on it all. Ridiculous. If the Level 6s have to have extra tuition, then they are not Level 6 - no shame in that - Level 5 is above and beyond govt expectations anyway. I think this is a really very poor state of affairs. To see state schools feeling that they have to manipulate children and results in that way is just shocking and I would not do it to my son for all the tea in China, I'm afraid. It's bad enough that they have just had one week of mocks to do - that is plenty, as far as I am concerned. No wonder very few state secondary schools pay any attention to the SATs levels kids are coming up with - if they are "tutored" by the primary schools to achieve Level 6s then they patently aren't at that level. And, as someone else said - what about the kids who are struggling to achieve their level 4 - or the level 5...are they given the "holiday" teaching as well? Madness.