Please find below a suggested letter for parents to use to explain the exceptional circumstances that necessitate them keeping their child off school on 3rd May 2016.
Feel free to print and reproduce this as you wish and together hopefully we can make a difference!
PDF File:3rd-May-Absence-Letter.pdf
Let Kids Be Kids - Primary School children need to Play, Create and Move - not cram for tests! 
To be a little more positive and give peace of mind I would say… The thousands of excellent primary school children (who haven’t left!) will administer the tests in such a way that they will not feel stress or anxiety. They build confidence and resilience in your children through everything they do. They will rise to the challenge of doing this within a test (quiz) that they are required to carry out. Furthermore, it is the case that these talented teachers continue to deliver an engaging and creative curriculum in spite of these testing requirements because they are hardworking and passionate professionals. Finally I would say 99% of the time your headteacher will agree with the sentiments in the letter. I would therefore suggest this letter of absence is sent to the Secretary of state.
Children and families need quality of life and time to play. They are not robots like our Chinese neighbors. They have individual interests and opinions. We need well rounded children.
Chinese children, like all children everywhere are not robots, have individual interests and opinions, and need just the same quality of life and time to play as yours, wherever you are in the world.
Chinese children are actually robots? That is either (a) a stifling world expose or (b) misguided, xenophobic, ignorant b*ll*cks.
You are doing a great job but I wish this campaign was against all primary testing and especially the year 6 sats which are a nonsense (i am a teacher). Hopefully some year 6 parents will pick up on all this and you can work together so all the protests are on the same day. Apologies if this has already been done, no time to read through all the replies. Thank you so much for doing this. X
Please see https://letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/year-6-sats/
I hope that the UK parents will stand up and be counted for their children …because I foresee that NZ (who follow most of the UK standards) will go down the same route. Isn’t it enough for them that teen suicide is increasing as the years go by and surely the pressure placed upon children through testing is contributing to that.
It’s all getting VERY Big Brother in all aspects of our lives – we are being told more and more that we are less and less in control of how our children are treated and yet if children have problems the pointed looks are turned on the parents – who has my child most of their waking hours and has the greatest influence on their learning – the education system. How they apply that doesn’t have a an effect on our children’s mental health?
We vote governments into power and yet when they repeatedly fail us (their behaviour, self serving activity, and legislation that causes increasing harm as evidenced by things like this) they are not held accountable…I hope this is the start of something great.
I have shared in several groups for both children with additional needs and EHCP support groups lets hope enough join in a be heard
I also hope year 6 are included because these new sats are a joke. How do they expect our kids to forget what they learnt last year and try to cram all the changes alongside this years curriculum, its madness.
I will be supporting this , as a parent of a child who was in year 6 last year , and the stress it caused her ( and other pupils in her year ) is just not justified …. She is by all means at the national average level, but was made to attend extra lessons before and after school, specifically for revision for the year 6 SATS , she was also given extra support and a personal reader ( as she was deemed too slow at reading and this affected her scores as she could not answer all questions in time) , but all this made her feel like she was under par, inadequate and in her words “stupid” , I told her that she was not to worry, just to do her best and her education level should not be scored on how she performs in a test on one day, but should be measured by how she performs and her work throughout the year. My daughter was also under CAMHS at the time and her behaviour and stress levels worsened during this period , due to the pressure she was placed under …. She did come out with decent SATS scores and was where she should be for her age ( and above in science ) and yet , she still had such little confidence and had been pressed so much by her school , that she still felt that her scores weren’t up to scratch … Despite plenty of positive praise from myself and family ….. School should be remembered as good days of fun, friends and yes education, not looked back on as a stressful time and place that actually dented your self confidence .
Im totally for this but any ideas how to explain to your child why they are off for the week when most of their class mates are taking tests? My only concern is that my son will learn an attitude of if somethings hard – find a way out of it.
We are not suggesting taking any children out of school for a week but due to exceptional circumstances suggesting you could do other educational activities outside school on one day – May 3rd.
I will be taking my son out of school on May 3rd and will plan a fun day of learning with him. I have had 3 older boys and in NO way was it necessary to have these tests.
Quite ridiculous.
Personally I encourage these tests. They are not life or death tests and life is one big test. No idea what people are getting stressed about. Maybe less negativity from parents, Would lighten the pressure for the children.
Honestly find this laughable to boycott school for the day.
As an Ofsted registered childminder and Nvq Level 3 practitioner, mother of two, feel fully qualified to give my view. It’s utter tosh.
Have you read our FAQs area? https://letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/faqs/
To clarify, for me, as a parent and also a dyslexic I find it ridiculous that the way in which our children are to be tested now means that if they do have a problem, with spelling for example, but are great at everything else they are still going to be told the are not achieving age related expectations. They are, in all but that one area, if not exceeding them. This would have meant fore that I would never have achieved ARE and yet I managed to gain an Oxford degree…will Oxford in future take only pupils who are at ARE? Then I would have missed out and yet I was capable of this level of learning. These tests and the way in which they are graded are a nonsense. We are all gifted in some way but not all of us are gifted in every way, only few are. Why can’t we focus on taking what we are gifted in and extending our abilities in those more focused areas rather than being capped at our lowest common denominator?
The SATs system is in place partly to generate league tables and as schools rely on intake numbers for government funding the pressure is on teachers and pupils to perform well. Year six pupils are put through rigorous and demoralising revision and practice tests which in themselves invalidate the whole notion of assessment. We want our children to learn, be inquisitive and not just be taught to pass exams. Education is about more than grades, it is about learning who we are, achieving our potenial and being equipped with the skills that enable us to do so.
One government spokesman said that all children should be ‘above average’: you do not have to be a mathematician or statistician to know that such a statement is nonsensical as is much of the education policy.
That aside, my own daughter suffered severe clinical depression as a result of the pressures of the SATs and at ten years old, tried to kill herself. So if you will excuse me I do think that these tests are a matter of life and death. Our children’s lives are being tossed around like a political football and hardworking teachers are being pushed to the limit by ridiculous beurocracy only to be put in the firing line when it doesn’t work.
To finish, let our teachers teach, let our kids be kids and scrap the SATs.
I agree with you although I don’t know too much about these tests. Are they really so difficult? I’ve had 2 children (now adults), they both attended state schools and then private schools where the expectations were very high. Sometimes they were at school from 8.30 until 6 and never complained about pressure! My partner’s son is 11 and he has never complained about struggling. He’s a very happy child and made no fuss at all about his sats. I don’t understand all this. Have things changed so much in the last year? Are we encouraging a future generation of people who buckle under the slightest pressure and if so, how will they cope with life?
Yes the SATs have changed drastically – please see https://letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/faqs/ for more.
One of my gchildren is severely left handed, is probably short sighted and it hasn’t been picked up. extremely quiet child. I don’t know what these tests did to her she will not speak about them. But something is going on inside.
There is the ballot box ……….I guess we should use it for the local elections . Hit whichever party is doing this really hard and they may just may take notice in London
Assessment for learning, not assessment for measurement
http://www.aaia.org.uk/content/uploads/2010/06/Assessment-for-Learning-Beyond-the-Black-Box.pdf.
I am keeping mine off school as well the children have enough stress in life with out all SATS get rid and also they are putting the children under to much stress just so the teachers look like they are doing a great job for the government I know some teachers are under stress to most of do a great job but really let children be children xxxxxxx