Many parents make the decision to keep their children off school on SAT test days or have told their school that they do not want their child not to take the tests. They realise that this isn’t a perfect solution but feel it is the only action left available to them… waiting for political change will be too late for their child and they want to make a stand against what they know is wrong for so many children across the country.
Schools are sympathetic to this moral objection – many headteachers share the concerns we have as parents and see our objection as being key to changing the system:
HEADTEACHER BANS RIDICULOUS SATS TESTS
EX HEAD – TEN REASONS TO ABOLISH SATS
Primary school should reflect a board curriculum and allow children to develop a love of learning – sadly this is not happening in many schools in England because of the SAT tests. We hear stories of children missing science, PE, Art and Music for months in advance of the tests and schools on ‘curriculum lock down’ in order to focus solely on test preparation.
Schools over prepare children in this way not because the tests are important for the child’s future, but because the school will be measured and judged according to the test results. In some case your child’s class teacher may have his / her performance related pay linked to the results your child gets in the tests! This HIGH STAKES system leads to unfairness, over preparation, excessive homework and a massive amount of pressure on our young children.
Children sit exams for a week in May – these are full-on, hour long exams and there is no excuse for no attendance! We hear tales of children who have been vomiting being made to take the tests with sick buckets by their desks and children who are seriously ill being asked to take the tests from home! Not taking the test means that the school receives a zero mark – that would really mess up the results and sadly data has become more important than child well being. This is a disgraceful situation for our education system to find itself in.
Children who take the tests either PASS or FAIL. Children who fail start secondary school being told they are not good enough – as if changing school and approaching adolescence isn’t hard enough! It’s also bad news if your over prepared, homework club attendee, extra tutored child passes with flying colours though – because these over inflated results will be fed into a data system used by secondary schools to predict GCSE results and give targets to every child… not just in maths and English but in ALL GCSE subjects! Your child gets a great mark in their English SAT after months of doing nothing but prepare for the English SAT and suddenly they are expected to ace their GCSE Science exams in Year 11 too! And guess what? It gets worse! Secondary schools are measured by how well your child meets these target grades – so if that data is flawed they face the next 5 years being told they are failing to meet their expected target grade! No wonder there’s a mental health crisis!
We’ve are waiting for the profession to act in unity with parents to stop this system and offer something new. In the meantime we completely understand that parents feel there is no alternative but to take matters into their own hands and act for what is right for their child to protect them from the madness of SAT testing.
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.
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.
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 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! 