3 million Flop 3Rs as SATS REVEALED!!!

[Warden 10]

200,000 not up to scratch - out of how many? And as compared to how many not up to scratch in previous years?

 

Nail on head.

 

What are overall literacy levels like now compared with in the past?

[Mo 10]

Children of primary school age should not be 'tested' anyway. They are far too young to cope with the pressure.

 

My lads school, under a new head, pushed and pushed them to study until it got to the point where I told my lad to stop worrying because the results didn't matter. He needed to know that even if he flopped them all, nothing was going to happen! He wasn't sleeping, hardly ate and talked about the sat's constantly, it drove me up the wall. Once I told him that his results weren't going to make a big difference to him and just to do his best, he was fine. He got the marks that he 'should' for his age which his teachers didn't expect him to.

 

At primary age a childs ability should be judged by monitoring the work that they do in school and if they have to have a 'level' then it should be taken from normal school work. The ability of children between the ages of 4 and 11 varies greatly from class to class. They should be allowed to learn at their own pace.

 

Don't you think that Sats are as much about testing the teachers and if so, then surely thats a good thing.

 

Before SATS came along how would you know whether or not your child was achieving what he should be or not or more to the point whether the teachers were doing their job?

 

SATS needn't be stressful and if school has done this to your child then that is disgraceful.

[kittenta 10]

Don't you think that Sats are as much about testing the teachers and if so, then surely thats a good thing.

 

Before SATS came along how would you know whether or not your child was achieving what he should be or not or more to the point whether the teachers were doing their job?

SATS needn't be stressful and if school has done this to your child then that is disgraceful.

 

Note the bold. Quite simply really. If other children are writing little stories, swapping phone numbers and doing well on their spellings whilst your child can't even write their name then there is a problem. If a classroom of pupils are still struggling after a year in the class then the teacher needs looking at.

 

They can still give children levels if they really have to but all they have to do is look at each childs school work to see what they can and can't do. It would also be obvious if one or two children in particular were learning slower than the others, in which case these children could be offered extra help, all without the need for tests.

 

When children do these tests they don't get second chances. So if they get nervous they will forget things and get a lower mark than they should. Likewise if they are feeling ill that day they won't work as well. It can also be the case that (and i've seen it) that children are taught the question and the answer without any detail inbetween. So as long as the paper says A and they write the answer Z it doesn't matter whether they know how to get from A to Z or not. Edit: A good example of this is a very popular site that schools use. My daughter used this and rightly said 'but why is that answer wrong?' It gives them a choice of answers and says whether the answer they pick is right or wrong but doesn't tell them why. I watched my brother sit clicking all the answers till he got the right one and then moved on but he didn't have a clue why one was the right answer.

 

It's no good saying that sats aren't stressful. I laughed at one teacher who said the school were keeping the sats tests a secret from the kids to spare them the worry. The kids were all whispering about them in the school yard! They noticed how the work had suddenly changed, the teaching patterns etc. Kids aren't stupid and you can't hide things like that from them.

[Heyesey 11]

It's no good saying that sats aren't stressful.

 

Nor it is; but it remains the case that they should not be stressful. It should made much more clear to the children that these tests are about finding an average for the whole country, and not about grading individual children. As such, individual results should not be released.

[kittenta 10]

Nor it is; but it remains the case that they should not be stressful. It should made much more clear to the children that these tests are about finding an average for the whole country, and not about grading individual children. As such, individual results should not be released.

 

But why can't they take the levels from work they do in a particular week? So the children are still working as normal, their work is looked at, a level decided and there you go. The kids don't have to worry about it, neither do the parents and they can still try and pretend that any child not achieving what they decide is normal, is behind (which is a load of crap IMO).

 

Why can't children be left to develop in their own time? If they aren't smiling by a certain age something's wrong. If they aren't walking, talking by a certain age send them to a specialist. It has all gone way too far. I can remember my sons nursery teacher telling me that they had had someone in to hear him speak as he couldn't pronounce a letter right . I told them not to bother and to leave him alone, he was only just three years old!

[Phanerothyme 12]

The children in the year above my son took their sats without knowing it, and more importantly, without their parents knowing it. So they can be "tested" without it being a "trial".