The infamous SATS have been in the news a lot over the last few weeks and we have also gone through SATS this week as L is in Year 6. I have to admit that this is the first year that I have really had a reason to think about SATS. Both as a parent and a teacher, I can see both sides of testing. Ongoing assessment is a necessity for teachers as it allows them to plan and teach to the needs of each child in their classes. It can be stressful. Not all children like testing but it is firmly part of our education system and end of year tests are a normal part of the secondary school system. SATS are slightly different. Because the SATS results are a national assessment, they reflect more on the school than the individual children and this puts huge pressure on the teachers involved and also for some of the children.
Most children aren’t that worried. It is a test. They are prepared for it in class, they can revise if they want to but at the end of the day, no-one will ever ask them in the future what they got in their SATS.
Until this year, I was never worried about SATS. I didn’t necessarily approve of the system but my eldest two children thrived in school and sailed through the SATS test without any worries or problems. This year was different. My ten year old son is going through a difficult time in his little life, for whatever reason, the change to middle school this year has caused levels of anxiety that I have never seen before. We are working hard to manage his stress levels but the thought of the SATS tests made an impact on his anxiety a few weeks ago. They worried him because he thought he wouldn’t do very well, They worried him because it meant a change of routine. They worried him because he didn’t know what to expect.
Suddenly, I could see SATS through the eyes of a child who was worried and it really changed my perception. It didn’t help that there has been so much in the news about SATS this year, it seemed that everyone was heightened about the whole process. His brother making comments about it being much harder this year didn’t help either. I tried to reassure him that they were different rather than harder.
He needed constant reassuring that it would be okay, that he had the correct equipment, that as long as he did as well as he could, it would be fine.
L is a clever young man and I have no doubt that he did well. He survived the week but he was more anxious that we had seen for a while and it made me question how these tests affect some of the children. I also know how the tests can affect teachers too.
I have no doubt that there are many teachers quite literally tearing their hair out trying to get their pupils ready for the tests and often feeling frustrated for those kids who have made such huge progress but because of the way the tests are designed, the tests won’t necessarily show that progress. They don’t want those children to feel as though they have failed when they have come so far.
Some parents are wondering if they should be helping their children with the tests. Is a tutor necessary? Should they be revising and doing past papers at home? Obviously that is a personal choice. As a parent, only you can decide what is best for your child and I think you need to talk to your child’s teachers before you make any decisions. Personally, I felt that reassurance was all that was needed as L was doing lots of preparation and revision in school and I didn’t want to make him more anxious than was necessary.
So who are the SATS really for? Are they for the teachers? The scores can be interesting and the data can help with setting, planning and how the children are performing overall. Are they for the pupils? For those who do well, it can be motivating an good to know that your hard work with paying off. Are they for the parents? We all like to know how are kids are doing in school but for me, I want the whole picture not a lot of numbers and grades. I want to know that they are behaving in school, getting on well socially, enjoying lessons. SATS tests don’t show that. I imagine that most parents have enough faith in the class and subject teachers to give them the best idea of how their child is doing in school.
They do give the government an overview and it flags up important information such as the number of children leaving primary school with a poor level of literacy and numeracy and that is something that needs addressing. My argument is that there are so many talented and hard-working teachers who work so hard to teach our children, why can we not accept a teacher assessment of their levels rather than putting everyone through such stress. After this week, that method of testing would certainly get my vote.
I don’t have any experience of SATs yet but I already don’t like them at all. If they are making children stressed out then they can’t be right. Why make them harder? How did the government know how schools did in years before? I never did SATs at all and our generation turned out fine. The insistence that these tests give them a firm good education base is just rubbish isn’t it? It implies that anyone before their new regime is somehow a thicko and they are “fixing” the children. I’m not sure how I’ll handle it when z does it but I do hope they do a U turn. I also hope whoever is leaking papers, continues to do so!
My eldest normally excells at school but the pressure they put on the whole class (Y6) really affected everybody and even he was worn down and worn out by it all and wasn’t able to sail through in a way he would the way you suggest they should be assessed. Like you say, end of year tests are normal, but these are not and if they reduce confidence then they are self-defeating.