Increasingly parents are asking what they can do to protect children from the high stakes testing in primary schools. There’s a mainstream awareness that the system is not fit for purpose and that the pressure children face in primary school is damaging.
It’s hard for parents to know what to do for the best. Parents are very respectful of teachers and headteachers and trust them with the well-being of their children. However, parents are also aware that the teaching profession is speaking out against SATs and being ignored.
- This Question Time clip shows the strength of public opinion against the high stakes testing and the frustration felt by the profession.
- This article shows that MPs are aware of the link between SATs and mental health.
- This report shows the severe impact high pressured testing can have on young children.
Everyone knows about the problem but no-one is taking action! Many parents now feel they can not stand by and watch this happen any longer… they want to take action to effect change.
In the past couple of weeks it has come to light that parents DO have a power to act against the tests. Research by Reclaiming Schools points out that “Heads are clearly expected to work in cooperation with parents and teachers.” and that “there is nothing in law to force a parent to submit their child to these tests”. This advice is reiterated in an answer to a parliamentary question regarding withdrawing from SATs within which Anne Milton MP states that ‘Children attending school are not legally required to sit the national key stage tests’.
So… if you want to use your parent power to stand up for your child, you can do. Read the research into the law, use this letter as a template if you wish… do what you think is right for your child, and all children, in a broken system.
Let Kids Be Kids - Primary School children need to Play, Create and Move - not cram for tests! 
Our children should not be subjected to these high pressure exams.
My daughter is already talking about them in an anxious mannner and she’s only in year 4!!! The pressure affects the teachers, the year 6’s and spreads through the whole school.
It’s horrible! And what is it actually for???? It doesn’t make a difference to the high school they go to, and they are re-graded at high school too!!
All that worry/ anxiety/ pressure on our 10/11 year old children…. AND FOR WHAT????
My child is currently in year 5 and I am becoming increasingly concerned about him sitting the sat’s next year. I work at the school he attends and have witnessed first hand the bullying, pressure and lies inflicted on these children and I know he will not cope. My eldest son took the tests last year and suffered the ceaseless teaching from September to May of nothing but literacy and numeracy. The school make the children’s lives a misery. They do not have any lesson or take part in any activity that isn’t directly related to the sat’s tests and they tell the children blatant lies about the importance of the results. The current teachers can only be described as bullies and their sole concern is the results the children achieve (for their own prestige) with no regard for their emotional well being. There is no point me simply withdrawing him from the tests themselves (by keeping him off sick etc) because it is the teaching and behaviour of the staff from the start of that academic year that I feel it is my duty to shelter him from.
This letter is really great but relevant to last year. Will you be updating the copy to encourage parents to use it this year? Thanks