Yesterday I was reading an article on the BBC website saying that parents are planning a stay at home protest over SATs exams that thousands of children should be taking next week and I have to admit that I was quite surprised.
I was a child of the 70’s and have very fond memories of school, but I also have memories lots (and lots) of tests in school and from the age of 6. From spellings, lovingly kept in my Grandpa’s old Golden Virginia tin, quick fire times tables in a classroom to general knowledge tests, it was something that happened on a weekly basis.
Teaching styles have evolved and the emphasis has gone from testing children’s knowledge in the way on which is was done when I was young but I do still think there is a place for testing in primary school children, provided it is done in an unpressurised way.
I am confident that our school has got it right as the Year 2’s that are due to take these tests next week are blissfully unaware of any pressure the teachers are under and just know they have been revising some of the things they have already been taught in preparation for these tests.
The older children are more aware but the school makes it fun for them with an early start for a nutritious breakfast, provided by the school for the week and a party to look forward to once the tests are finished at the end of the week.
I look at Kian, who starts his GCSE’s next week, and am thankful that he did his SATs. Not only did it help choose the ability sets for secondary school, but it helped teach him about taking exams and some of the pressure he is having to deal with now, but on a much smaller scale.
As a parent it is natural to want to wrap your child in cotton wool and protect them from the real world, however, we are better off introducing children to life and helping them to deal with it little and often which will turn them in to well-rounded adults who are more likely to cope with everything that life throws at them.
It’s a similar thing with sports day, children need to learn the feeling of disappointment of losing a race and how to deal with it or feel the exhilaration of actually achieving something they thought they could not do. There will always be those who excel at sports, but maybe they struggle academically and vice versa.
Not many people, young or old, enjoy being tested, however it is part of life and is a skill that needs to be learned. I am sure all the tests I did at school as a child has prepared me for not only the exams I have done throughout my life (and there have been a lot due to my job choices), but also helped build my confidence in myself and the knowledge I hold.
Will you be keeping your child off school next week?
When my older two did their year two SATS it was handled really well – they had no idea it was important to anyone and there was no pressure on them. I hope this remains the case when Syd gets there! I think the current objections stem from some of the things they are now required to know in year 2 and year 6 – I have to say as someone who studied English to A-level, I have never heard of some of the grammar terms they are being expected to understand! I also think ‘re-sits’ are a bad plan at that age as I don’t think children as young as 11 should be told they have ‘failed’ , more test results should be a guide to help teachers know where gaps are in kids knowledge. I won’t be keeping Syd home as am not convinced it will make any difference, but I do think that the current tests need looking at to make sure they are set at a reasonable level for the age and that no sense of failure is conveyed to the kids. When Betsy was 11, due to the results of some tests I was told she wouldn’t pass any GCSEs, thank fully that information was not passed to her and she actually passed 13 GCSEs, with mostly Bs! I think if she had been told she had failed the outcome may have been different as she may have just given up. I don’t think tests per se are bad, in fact the opposite, but I do share some of the concerns about these particular ones!
I agree about the re-sits, but if a child has failed, it highlights to the teachers where the gaps in knowledge are. I can see that a resit will show that the teacher has revisited the gaps in knowledge but I wonder if there is another way that this can be proven. It is a tough one isn’t it?
I agree Kara, its all ‘training’ for later life. My children’s school don’t make a big thing of the SATS either, the children aren’t stressed out and they don’t see their teachers’ stress either.
Interesting thoughts and I agree with you. I did consider keeping my seven year old back though – and probably would if my OH didn’t think it was important to go ahead. The reason I wanted to was in support of the teachers who are under pressure with these tests and should be able to teach the subjects they want to, not simply teach to pass and I do feel strongly in support of this.
I’m in Ireland so things are different here but I agree that children shouldn’t be wrapped in cotton wool. Everything seems so very PC these days. We used to love sports days, no one cried when they lost, it was all for fun.
My T is only 5. But I think that tests are good too, but I find it confusing as an outsider how they keep changing it. And I don’t think I agree with 7-year-olds having to sit exams, I think it’s too early. I agree, it is a difficult call to make. x
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Tests are a part of life….It’s better that children learn this as young as possible. It’s no good shielding them and wrapping them in cotton wool as it’s only going to make it harder for them later in life….
My eldest did her SATS a couple of years ago and she actually enjoyed doing them.
Totally with you on the sports day thing. Really gets my goat. I partly agree on the SATs thing but as a teacher I have watched year twos, although blissfully unaware of the tests, miss out on the fun side of the curriculum. It isn’t so bad in year 2 but certainly year 6 do so much maths and English that they miss out on that well rounded curriculum. Not all schools are the same but so many do feel that pressure to succeed that they toss away subjects like art or PE for months. It is only once the tests are out of the way that fun learning is brought back in. I’m not sure where I stand on boycotting them altogether though, but then how else will anyone listen. x
My kids aren’t school aged yet but I sort of agree with the parents objecting to the tests. Kids seem to have tests and exams every other week. Surely one a year would be enough?
I don’t have kids right now but I do want to agree. Humans are competitive and some strive in stressful situations – exams being one of those. As you said, it’s part of life and they’ll need to know it sooner or later – so if the government want to teach kids about things like sex education earlier why not put them under exams earlier too. If anything they should be teaching ‘how not to be stressed’ rather than remove exams completely.
Alina from The Fairytale Pretty Picture
I don’t have children, but I totally agree with your post, I’m from Estonia, one of the toughest education systems in the world, finishing from there with a great stress and only 2% of knowledge I remember until now.
I haven’t heard about this “strike” but I can understand the concerns of some parents. My son did his SATS the year before last and while I worried about the pressures and the targets, he sailed through them with no stress, no worries and actually, although it didn’t matter to me either way, he achieved top grades in all areas. Had he not and had to do some kind of re-sit, I think he would probably have felt the pressure a little more, as would we. I agree with what you say about sports day though, my sons primary school no longer do competitive races, more just a “free for all” as they don’t want anyone to feel that they didn’t win. Well that’s life isn’t it? There will always be winners and losers, and the thing is that despite the focus not being on winning, the kids all know full well who won and who lost anyway!!!
My children go to an international school where they have equivalent tests but without the pressure. The tests aren’t made a big deal of, and parents get letters stating when they will take place, but advising all concerned not to stress about them. In a way I think you get a better idea of where the gaps in learning are then as parents aren’t making kids do all the extra study, and most importantly, children aren’t stressed…
From an outsider’s view (in France) it seems a big issue is the pressure these tests put kids under and the clever teachers/good schools/enlightened heads/whatever it takes who manage to get the tests done without anyone really making a big deal are doing the right thing. In France there’s continual assessment with a heavy focus on testing, but there aren’t any “big” exams at all until 15 and even then they aren’t that important. So kids are used to being tested but not under any due stress about it. However, the European country with the best results, happiest kids etc and generally considered the best education system is Finland where they have no homework, no testing and very short school hours; only 20 hours a week! There’s got to be something in that! It’s not an easy issue to resolve.
I don’t remember having any exams at primary school, whether they did them in such a way that I don’t remember them I don’t know, it is therefore hard to watch the stress of exams on my 7 year old son. I do feel there are too many and if it isn’t handled well then children become stressed and watching that in a child so young who should be so care free is difficult. I won’t be taking my son out of school because it’s life and you have to learn to deal with it but I am not sure I agree with exams for such young children.
My experience of year 2 SAT’s were the same as yours. However, Year 6 SAT’s seem to be a totally different kettle of fish, Maxi is only one of two children not attending any booster classes and the pressure on the children to achieve their potential (the schools words) is immense. I know children crying themselves to sleep at night and others not even sleeping. I have told him that there is no pressure from us at home and that SAT’s hold no weight for us. He is a strange child who is hugely competitive so loves exams and sees them as fun! I have made my issues clear with year six sats, it isn’t the testing so much as the shit they are teaching them to pass the test. SPAG is terrible. I told Maxi’s teacher and school I wouldn’t talk about it in public until they were finished after a brief facebook rant about them. I am in despair at the education system at the moment
I don’t think anyone is striking because they think there shouldn’t be any tests at all – just that teachers are no longer free to inspire a lust for learning, no longer free to follow avenues that the kids show a particular interest in, etc. I used to be a teacher, and if something wasn’t on the curriculum (which is very limited in itself), then we just plain weren’t able to cover it.
I agree with you that they prepare children for later life. I always say to my little duo to just try their best and that’s all that matters x
It really interesting, I remember lots of tests at school and the SATs but they just seemed to be something we did – not something that was agonised about or trained for… school seems a very strange place these days – and I am not sure what I am going to make of it when Boo starts school in a few years
My children are the wrong age to be kept at home ( teen & 2 toddlers) but even if they were taking sats this year I wouldn’t keep them off. I honestly don’t mind sats and when my eldest done them a few years ago she was not at all fazed by them xx
I always thought that SATs were used as a means to establish how well or not, a child is doing at school, you can tell I don’t have children ha x
Wilf doesn’t start school yet but I do think kids are under SO much pressure with SATS and other tests these days. I remember SATS first coming in when I was in primary school and my dad telling me not to worry or get stressed about it. We had been told to revise but my parents felt like at 8 I was too young for that, I used to find quick fire times tables SO stressful, the thought makes me shudder a bit at the memory. I guess it depends on child to child, I wasn’t hugely academic so it’s quite a lot for kids who might not be I think x
I’d never consider keeping my child off school because of tests. I totally agree with you when you say tests are part of life and a skill they need to learn.
I agreed wholeheartedly and then I read Katy’s post about kids missing out on some of the fun and that saddened me. We all know the real reason for these tests is so the government has statistics that it can bend to say how well they’ve done, or punish schools. It’s a shame that’s what it’s come to.
I only heard about the strike yesterday and it didn’t surprise me with the way a lot of people react these days. Tests are a part of life and so is learning coping strategies for stressful situations. Your school has a fab way of doing it with breakfast and a party x
The pressure that kids are under is unreal and I know what that feels like because it was only last year that I left education.
Not all schools use SATS tests for streaming and if they do what happens is the kids are hot housed to pass a particular test and when they get to secondary school many can’t actually live up to their test scores because they didn’t actually learn anything … they memorised and learnt how to take a SATS test. The local secondary school to us does it’s own streaming test because of this and the SATS are purely for the benefit of the primary school so tey do well in the league tables… It really makes me cross
I am getting goosepums only thinking of stuff like exams and the fact that the girls will have to go through it at some point…good luck to you and to your LO!
I think it is nice to strike a balance between the old and new schools of education (pun unintended) 🙂
I think some of it can depend on the school too, some seem to be totally relaxed about it but I’ve also heard a lot of parents talk about how stressed their children are. We need to prepare kids for grown up life, but we don’t need to compromise their mental health to do that.
My kids both went to school, I totally support our schools and they way they teach our kids and I completely understand both sides of the story.
I guess I’ve it all to come. I didn’t keep Emmy off but of course it’s not till next year her testing begins.
I don’t remember having so many tests in schools and I’ve of mixed opinions of them. They is a little too much pressure on our little ones though