Today is the start of 4 days of SATS tests in primary schools.

Do you have children taking the tests and what is your opinion of them?

From asking around at school it seems that parents of the brighter children think that the tests are acceptable and a good idea while parents of mediocre/less able children think that the tests should be stopped. A wild generalisation I know, but that seems to be the pattern.

I have mixed feelings about them. It's always good to know where your child stands against the average and it does show whether schools are doing their job but is 7 really too young to be subjected to testing of this sort?

My elder child sailed through SATS with no worries and well exceeded what was expected for a child of her age. My younger child is sitting them this year and is worried sick about them.

I don`t agree with them at all.

My daughter is terrified of getting it wrong and I tell her that she has 4 years at senior school and then exams, don`t panic now.

Each child matures at different rates, I have had 3 go through SATS and my opinion has not changed. They are tested to see how the teaches teach, as when they go into senior school they do their own tests months later, as learing at senior level is much different.

I think it distinquishes those with a less mature level. especially as some that are considered slow are not taking them at all, how does that make them feel.

They should scrap them and give them good education which is fun to learn.

I have no experience of SATS so it is difficult to judge.

However I still recall arithmatic and english/vocabulary testing once or twice a year between the ages of 7 & 11.
No big deal was made of them and so nobody worried. Results were reflected in the terms report.

It was only in the last year that we realised that the tests were the same every year! and that we were expected to complete more and perform increasingly well as we got older.

I can still remember my year 6 sats... We were told that we had some special tests coming up soon and that they werent anything that we should worry about etc...

Mind you, we took a test listening to a recording of violin notes and then we had to write something down about them.... I didnt pass that one, so obviously I wasnt clever enough to play the violin lol!

I came out of my year 6 Sats with a 5 in maths/english and science... 3 years later in year 9, I got 7's in English and Maths and a 6 in Science... Hmm!

pupils have just completed the KS3 SATS, personally I hate teaching for them. Instead of getting pupils interested in science during year 9 we are turning them off by chucking exams at them.

It helps me fill in forms on their progress easily and show progression to pupils and parents and we also use them to predict what grade they might get in GCSE's and to set them for year 10. It also gives the goverment and LEA's some figures to mess about with.

I've been speaking to pupils older brothers and sisters who said that their younger siblings had been in tears every night as they thought they had done badly. I guess they get a lot of pressure off staff, we have been revising solidly for 6 weeks before them!

I suppose it lets them have a practise for the real exams two years later as it is the same type of progress they have to go through.

Having worked in schools during SATS time I have the opinion that they are a waste of good teaching time, especially for the 7 year olds. The poor children become worried sick, they are completely thrown when the classroom is all set out different and the routine is different. And half of them don't even perform to their best because they are so confused with what is going on.

All this when the teachers could be doing their real job...teaching! The level of testing in this country is ridculous and in my opinion it doesn't help the children at all.

I am totally against the SATs and was involved in the campaign to get them scrapped.

My daughter was devastated when she came home with a bit of paper that said in black and white for her to see that she was below average. Her confidence was already low and that really knocked her.

As for my son, He did his SATS last year (Y2) and because of learning and other disabilities he could barely even write, let alone sit and do those stupid tests. They couldn't tell me anything that I and the school didn't already know.

It is too much pressure on children who are far too young to cope with it. And the increased work and stress it puts on the teachers is unfair too.

Originally posted by FetishFairy
As for my son, He did his SATS last year (Y2) and because of learning and other disabilities he could barely even write, let alone sit and do those stupid tests. They couldn't tell me anything that I and the school didn't already know.

I totally agree...the children that I work with can bearly sit at a table for such a long space of time! So it all just results in behaviour and yet there is nothing we can do because these children have to sit the same tests as the other children in the class. I think SATS are ridiculous....especially in the case of SEN children.

Originally posted by Lucy_Smith
Having worked in schools during SATS time I have the opinion that they are a waste of good teaching time, especially for the 7 year olds. The poor children become worried sick, they are completely thrown when the classroom is all set out different and the routine is different. And half of them don't even perform to their best because they are so confused with what is going on.

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I think that the class teacher can influence how a child perceives these tests, which would explain why my two children, who are both alike personality wise, reacted so differently. Both had different teachers with different styles and approaches.

A teacher doing a good job will treat SATS as just another assessment (which the children are all well used to as they are assessed termly anyway). Handled sensitively there is no need for the tests to be so hyped up.

Changes have been made this year which gives the teacher much more scope for their opinions of pupil progress to be taken into account.

We put far too much pressure on children at an early age. In Sweden children don't start school until they are seven, as a matter of interest they inly have a third of the occurence of dyslexia that we have in the UK.

I personally don't think you help a child education by testing them, you don't fatten a pig by weighing it. In recent Government guidelines they have suggested that teachers shouldn't be present when their pupils are sitting SATs as it is a waste of their time. Surely having someone they know their would ease their minds.

My daughter is at KS2 and has been subject to weeks of "Pre-Sat Tests" and she's even been on the Revise Wise website. I have no idea how that will help her in the least, unless her tests are multiple choice answers.

The SATS only started yesterday and already she's come home complaining of feeling unwell and headaches. Surely 11 year olds are too young for this kind of stress and pressure?

You can withdraw your child from these tests. However, the school will put immense pressure on you not to as an absent child scores zero and brings the schools overall percentages down. There are also issues regarding the work your withdrawn child does whilst the rest of the class are doing practice papers.
My sister was withdrawn from KS1 SATs (before the changes). This was not due to her ability (she is gifted and talented and extremely bright) but more of a protest against the national testing of 7 year olds.

Originally posted by Mo
I think that the class teacher can influence how a child perceives these tests, which would explain why my two children, who are both alike personality wise, reacted so differently. Both had different teachers with different styles and approaches.

A teacher doing a good job will treat SATS as just another assessment (which the children are all well used to as they are assessed termly anyway). Handled sensitively there is no need for the tests to be so hyped up.

Changes have been made this year which gives the teacher much more scope for their opinions of pupil progress to be taken into account.

I am sure some teachers can handle these tests better than others, but teachers can't stop children talking in the playground about what these tests are. Teachers can't stop the worry when the younger children come into the classroom to see it all arranged differently. And I have even witnessed some parents put pressure on their children, telling them that they need to do well. I'm not really talking about SATS from 11+ here but SATS for the 7 year olds. These children are far to young to be engaging in this kind of national assessment and to put under this sort of stress. Yes they are assessed every term but this is done in a very informal way during classroom time, so the children aren't really experiencing any changes in their routine. But when they sit their SATS everything is different. Having had witnessed such young children sitting these tests time and time again I can only conclude that they are a waste of good teaching time and do nothing for the children themselves. Whatever happened to childhood???

I thought SATS weren't to test the individual, but to test the school that teaches them? The pupils aren't meant to revise.. Or am I thinking of other tests?

Originally posted by GazB
I thought SATS weren't to test the individual, but to test the school that teaches them? The pupils aren't meant to revise.. Or am I thinking of other tests?

Exactly. So they serve no purpose to the actual children whatsoever, except stress them out and waste their learning time. The sad fact is although some children can't technically revise for these tests (they tend to assess skills rather than knowledge) some parents spend hours practicing with their children as they all want their child to be "the best". It's sad, these children should be enjoying their youth not sat inside practicing how to sit exams.

Originally posted by sanman
We put far too much pressure on children at an early age. In Sweden children don't start school until they are seven, as a matter of interest they inly have a third of the occurence of dyslexia that we have in the UK.

I personally don't think you help a child education by testing them, you don't fatten a pig by weighing it. In recent Government guidelines they have suggested that teachers shouldn't be present when their pupils are sitting SATs as it is a waste of their time. Surely having someone they know their would ease their minds.

I think most people already know my views on the way children in England are educated, and I agree with the above mostly.

Children shouldn't be tested in this way at all, it's too much head work and not healthy for thier overall development.

I am currently part of a group in south yorkshire ( syssi_enquiries@yahoo.co.uk) who are setting up a new initiative. I say new but the form of education I'm talking about it is nearly 100 years old.

If you would like to know more or get involved then please PM me.

Just remember.

Give you children loads of encouragment and tell them they have years yet at school, teachers can stress over the results but they don`t need to. It shows the school what they are NOT doing correctly.It does not show you what your children are learning as this is only 4 subjects and each child learns a different subject at their own pace.

It really does not matter, as when they get into secondary school they will grow in confidence and learing and they will be ok.

My daughter came home yesterday and she was more concerned with play out that worrying about SAT`s so my talk to her was worth it.