SATS - why???

[Stav]

What is the point of doing SATS in year 9 (age 14?) at secondary school? What purpose do they serve? Does anything happen if you 'fail' them? Or do very well?

[tracymort]

they are a way of the government monitoring the "success" of schools. they actually do sats at 7, 11 and 14 but i'm not letting my son do it. i'm horrified that they give homework at 5! if only there was a steiner school where i live! there's the rest of their lives to stress in and worry about, leave 'em alone while they are young and innocent i say!

[andy hughes]

Tracy is absolutely right - education has stopped being about 'education' in its true sense, and become a cramming course to satisfy 'league tables' with which this Government is becoming totally obsessed. I have just spent a frought week with my 14 year old daughter who has worried herself to distraction about her SATS, and what will happen if she 'fails' - I have assured her that nothing at all will happen. If the Govermnet applied such rigourous monitoring to the performance of large corporation chairmen, and rated them on a STATS system, maybe the national pensions system would not be in its current melt-down situation! Comeptition is all well and good in moderation, but this constant meaningless comparison of schools and hospitals and police forces destroys the morale of all concerned, with no meaningful result to show for it at the end. When Tony Blair says "Education Education Education", I have to be restrained - our TV was too expensive to destroy, however satisfying a reaction that may be. Parents - confirm to your children that they are are loved and valued and respected, regardless of how they perform against a national average (as if such a concept can exist!) and remember to pass that message on to your child's tired and demoralised exam-crammer - or teacher as they were called in my day.

[DavidUK]

Well said, Tracy and Andy. My son absolutely loved school when he started and he is very advanced in maths and reading. But now, at 9 years old, I think he is already becoming burnt out and he hates school. He complains about all the work he has to do and he gets some very difficult homework. At such young ages they should be learning more through play and not continually doing tests and SATS etc.

[anthomson]

The National Tests(never have been SATS) have to be done because none of the public supported the teachers when they opposed their introduction by the conservative government.

[jonumba1]

Hi

Right i think all of this SATs is silly. I am 13 years old and i have already done my SATs because our school does everything a year early. So know i am doin' my GCSE in year 9. So can i just say that you are lucky if you started them later than me. I had a hard time doing the SATs but after i did them i was happy with what i had done. Just be cool about the whole thing and you will do fine and i think that they are really easy so anyone about to do them think about what i have wrote and study hard. GOOD LUCK