SAT stress - a mild rant!

This week Erin has been doing her SATs (Statutory Assessment Tests). They have these tests in Year 6 to determine a child's level of education so they can place them in the right set when they move up to High School. It also shows local authorities how well the school is performing based on the children's scores.

Her primary school sent home the usual letter about the kids getting enough sleep and having a good breakfast etc etc so they can be in a peak test-performing state. So we made sure Erin got to bed at a reasonable time and got up early to make a big cooked nutritous breakfast each day to set her up for the SATs.

As the week progressed I saw friends on Facebook saying how stressed their kids were about the SATs and Erin would be saying she was worried about the tests because she hadn't done any revising.

SATs don't seem to be anything to get stressed over to us. They're not like GCSEs where you have to reach a certain level to be recognised as proficient in a subject. You can't FAIL these tests. It's just an indication of how much you know.

We've explained to Erin how really SATs should be more stressful for her school/ teachers as they're the ones being tested on their ability to teach these subjects. She should try her best to do well to show what she knows but after that it's not worth worrying how she did or comparing herself to other students.

I don't know how much her school has been pushing her class to work towards SATs but I do know they've been working on practice papers for months now as well as after school sessions to work on certain subjects. I understand that the school wants to do well and wants the children to do well but it does induce a stressful feeling that I feel is a bit unnecessary.

Anyway whinge over! SATs are finished now and Erin seems to have got through them without too much stress. I feel annoyed about GCSEs as well, since Leigh is doing some of those this week, but that's for another post so you've got something to look forward to. ;)