May 03 SATS protest

[Enjoyingthejourney]

Hi, just out of interest, did anyone not send their child in today as part of the SATs boycott proposed by some parents and teachers?

[tian]

Hi enjoyingthejourney,
no, I sent my child to school as normal, and the other parents from our school too. I know that in my son's school they don't care about anything. I arrived to the stage where I am counting the days he gets out of this school. Did you send your child at school? And is in your child school somebody boycotting about the SATS?

[Amber]

My daughter said to me, 'what a shame we have left primary school; you would have had chance to keep us at home'.

I kept mine out of school for more than a year of primary school to avoid the oppressive curriculum and testing regime, and this was years ago. I had two of them start late to comply with the letter of the law, and the other one went part time for as long as the school would tolerate it. I refused to allow them to do SATs practice at home, and tried very hard to stop my youngest doing level 6 SATs but felt sorry for the teacher in the end who would have been downmarked for not 'stretching' (hate word) the 'most able' (2 more hate words).

There was such a lot of guff being spoken from right wing think-tank types on R4 yesterday about children 'needing' to be tested at 6 or they would 'never' be able to cope with their GCSEs at 16, and about parents 'over-protecting' their children (age 6 - whatever next!) that I had to turn the coverage off or I might have either hit something or had a blood pressure crisis.

If I had a primary age child now I would home educate, absolutely without a doubt. I fear for the mental health of these young people, and at a time when mental health provision in this country is beyond inadequate. Nicky Morgan and Nick Gibb will go down in history as worthy successors to Michael Gove.

[loobylou]

I still think different schools cope better/worse with the SATs stuff. I had been worried about a fairly new regime in my ds's school, coming in on the back of a very relaxed regime (new head, deputy and mostly new teaching staff). But actually they have been fabulously laid-back and, as a governor, I know that, despite the fact that the leadership team is stressed, they are genuinely working hard to reduce the stress on the children and are adamant that they are not sacrificing the children's creativity to the current testing mania.
Although my ds finds the work itself stressful at times, he is not stressed about the concept of the SATs and is just hugely looking forward to the fun times being planned for the following Friday/next week.
But I know of schools which ran SATs sessions all day every day throughout the Easter holidays. If my ds was in a school like that I would seriously have considered withdrawing him from them.
I agree that the news coverage yesterday was ridiculous.

[PurpleDuck]

It was business as usual in our school. The teachers have been very reasonable, they didn't set any homework for Easter holidays and they don't expect children to do endless practice tests at home. DS in year 6 does not seem to be affected by all this nonsense at all.

I feel sorry for DCs in schools where there is significant pressure surrounding SATs, it's so unnecessary and, frankly, wrong in my view. The children are far too young for having to cope with this. I can't see the point of formal testing for 7 year olds when a teacher assessment can shed more light on a child's learning than a one-day snapshot.

As for keeping DCs out of school for just one day in protest against SATs, though, I'm not sure whether it does not add further to their anxiety as they end up getting drawn into the politics of it all and arguments between grown-ups.

[Rugbylady13]

At my Year 6 dd's school they haven't had excessive amounts of homework. They have carried on including other aspects of the curriculum such as music, art, pe and computing. They have planned breakfast sessions in the morning of SATS week so the kids can chill and relax before the tests. When my 2 both did their ks1 tests there was no build up at all by school so the kids didn't really know they were doing them.

I know that it is a harder curriculum now but I have told my DD that as long as she tries really hard and does her best I'll be proud of her whatever her results. I think some kids do get pressure from the school but I think some parents have to take responsibility too. If you tell the kids it's all too hard etc that can have a negative impact. If our school was piling on pressure I would be having a word with the teachers but as I said we are lucky as it is all very laid back.

[Enjoyingthejourney]

My sons' school had a SATs meeting to update parents of KS1 pupils on May 5th. Nobody, as far as I am aware, boycotted school on said day. The KS1 SATs week will not be for another week anyway so that would be pointless as the child would still undergo testing.
As far as prep went, the teachers were just looking forward to the end of May when they may then allow the 6/7 year olds enjoy more of the creative elements of education. I am not against testing altogether but the formal approach is not something that will encourage a young child to enjoy learning. My son will not be 7 until the end of August and it is sad that his imagination is not being nurtured whilst he is young.