S illy A wful T ests (SATs)

Member Name: jo1l

Product:	SATs
Date:	21/05/08 (521 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Teaching to pass tests, 10 year olds wondering if they'll ever get a good job if they fail the SATS

"I know I can read, you know I can read, Miss knows I can read so why does someone I've never met have to decide I can read?" -Niamh age 10 after sitting a 2000 word hour long SATS reading paper.

Every May children aged 6/7(Key stage 1 - Infants), 10/11(Key stage 2 - juniors) and 13/14 (Key stage 3 - High school) sit SATS ( Standard Attainment Tests) in between these officially published tests children sit optional tests. Children in England can expect in their educational career to sit over 70 tests making them one of the highest tested school children in the world. But does it work? Does testing our children at various points in their educational career actually mean education is improving? Recent government figures show that some 20% of children leave Primary school unable to functionally read and write - but hey the SATS results are going up so surely the schools most be doing something right? Unfortunately it's been proved on numerous occasions that schools teach to the test, the recent Parliamentary Select Committee in their deliberations said as much. The all important place in the league table appears to be all that matters for some schools. When a 10 year old believes that her whole future educational achievement is based on a series of 45 minute papers then surely something is wrong? When Year 6 is spent doing "Literacy, numeracy, literacy, numeracy oh and we did PE as well Mum" then surely this is about test results and not about education? I was mortified to find Niamh's history book contained one subject up until Easter; my love of history came from studying the Victorians at primary school. But never mind she also learnt exam taking skills - apparently if you go and answer all the 1 point questions first you've got enough to scrape a level 4. Seeing as they don't do multiple choice papers for Key Stage 2 SATS I didn't add my handy tip of if you don't know the answer just make a pretty pattern - it worked for me when taking O level Chemistry.


I'm not against the Government testing children and spending over £156 million to have the papers marked what I'm against is the fact that SATS results are the be all and end all to some schools. That league tables matter more than producing children who want to learn, enjoy learning and believe that they can achieve something. Not ever child will walk out of High School with the government target of 5 GCSE's which include Maths and English.I walked out of high School with 8 O levels one of which was not Maths -luckly we didn't have league tables back then as I'd have pretty much buggered up the scores! Surely it's time to look at targets and perhaps set more realistic goals. Lets remember that not all children are academic geniuses but nurtured in the right way they can achieve - it's time schools catered for the pupils and not their position in the league tables. I personally wouldn't allow the publication of results into league tables maybe then some head teachers would actually remember why they came into the job to teach children and produce well rounded individuals who believed in themselves. Nor have pushy middle class parents fighting to get their children into certain schools just because the league table show that school is apparently better than the one in their catchment area. One of my LEA's highest achieving High Schools has one of the highest dentition levels in the area, non high flyers are automatically put into the lower GCSE band with no hopes of getting out of those sets, a distinct lack of achievement in non academic areas e.g. sports and after schools activities that lead a lot to be desired. Another school that the league table shows is average in GCSE attainment has a great sporting record, a wide range of after school clubs to the point a parent actually thought the children must finish at 4.30pm as her child never got home till about 4.45pm due to joining a club every night plus going to two lunch time clubs.Which school is the better school? If you believe the league tables the first one obviously! Education to me isn't about children walking out of High School with a clutch of certificates it should also be a time to learn other skills needed in life, to be able to learn in a safe secure environment where every pupil is valued and not just those that will secure the schools place in the League table.

During Niamh's time in year 6 I didn't pay much attention to SATS - it wasn't going to be something that was going to stress up this household thanks very much. Niamh's teacher at a parents evening said she'd have no problem getting a level 4 in literacy and if she had a good day she might get a level 5 I bit my tongue and didn't retort "and if she has a bad day she'll get a level 3?" As the recent Panorama programme stated SATS results are a snap shot of a child on a particular day working under stress. I have to agree and would prefer that SATS results included an element of continual assessment. Niamh might well have rambled her way throw a biography on a Victorian Funfair Ride inventor as part of her written exam but no one will know that when she gets time to actually write about things that matter to her, when a clock isn't ticking she can produce far greater pieces of work. I found some of the poems she wrote at home and school and was amazed by them.Yes I'm her Mother and of course I'm going to be biased but I know it would be doubtful that at 10 she'd be able to reproduce work of that level with a clock ticking. To me an element of class work should be sent for assessment. Instead of a 10 year old being made to sit two 45 minute science papers, two 45 minute maths papers and a mental maths paper plus an hour long reading paper, long and short writing papers plus spellings over a week in May. Is it no wonder children get stressed up about it? Had Niamh shown any signs of it all being too much for her then I wouldn't have hesitated on taking her out of school for the rest of the week the High School Niamh is going to in September doesn't set children on the basis of their Keystage 2 results so whether she took them or not would not have made any difference to her sets in High School. Thankfully Niamh walked out of the Science tests announcing they were pips, enjoyed the literacy writing paper, probably managed to get a few of the spellings right -so much for her level 5 literacy boaster class where she did nothing but spellings! Thought the reading test was a waste of her time. And did ok on the first maths paper but thought the second paper was pips!

As for the results of Niamh's SATS, the new marking body is having a few problems and rumour has it they might not be able to deliver all the results before the end of the summer term. I told Niamh on the morning of her first paper what ever results she got I was very proud of her and all she had to do was her best for herself and no one else. And if someone who's never met her decides on the basis of her answers to a 2000 word hour long reading exam on the weather that she can indeed read to a standard higher than is expected of her I'd like to point out that this was something we all knew ages ago!

Summary: Another waste of tax payers money!