Are parents allowed to withdraw their children from SATs?

That's an interesting one, I'd never thought of that. I suppose that you can de facto withdraw them (at least from the formal ones) by taking them out of school on the relevant week of the tests, but then you're at risk of it being seen as truancy and no one but you will know what you're doing, unless you make a real public song and dance of it in the local press or whoever.

I'll watch with interest!

I thought of that, but its actually the 'being taught for the tests' that I disagree with, so it wouldn't really help ?

I'd want the teacher to know from the off that my children weren't sitting the tests so not to bother teaching them how to pass the test iyswim.

I don't see how that's possible, I'm afraid. If my son's experience is anything to go by, the whole of year six is about how to "pass" your SATS.

I was going to suggest that you could really set the cat among the pigeons by withdrawing your child(ren) for the summer term of year six - just write to the LEA and say you're home educating - then take up the secondary place. I can guarantee no one would hassle you about it, except maybe the school, as the LEA wouldn't react quickly enough to send out an "advisor" before September ?

Doesn't really help though, from what you say.

Dependent on how much time is given over to the child being "taught for the tests" that child could potentially miss hours of lessons, and as the tests are part of the NC I doubt that the teacher would have the time (or indeed be allowed) to plan a different set of lessons purely for your child. For that reason I doubt you could withdraw.

You couldn't really withdraw your child from the teaching element of STATs as you'll have to withdraw him/her from the entire year 6. My son is in year six at the moment and all they have done this year is SATS work, his teacher pratically bangs on about everyday. I've already been into the school and spoken to his teacher about it but really what else can she do as her hands are tied.

We have withdrawn our eldest twice from the sats, at 11 and 13. Our reasoning for this was that he has a learning difficulty and we applied for him to be dis-applied but because his knowledge of science was good they just gave him extra time and a reader, our son was a pre-reception level reader.

We felt that it was putting pressure on him that he didn't need, he was already refering to himself as "thick" "stupid" etc. It was really hard work as I made it known that he wouldn't be doing them and our reasons, we were told we could be prosecuted for un-authorised absence etc, but we stuck to our guns and he didn't do them. It was pretty stressful though as schools are really put under pressure about sats.

Thanks all. My eldest doesn't even start reception until September but already I seem to be kind of anti-prescribed-learning, must remove chip from shoulder. Having to earn a living rules out home ed for me, although I do love it in theory.

What I'd actually like is if the SATs were in things like climbing trees and playing with toy soldiers, my son would really enjoy the lessons then!

We had a perent withdraw their child last year. The LA were contacted and the EWO (Educational Welfare Officer) got involved. Unfortuantely most of year 6 is about getting ready for the SATs which most teachers do not agree with.

Year 6 was a horrible and stressful time for my son. He did well in his SATs but has done so much less in year 7 because he is demotivated.

From a secondary teacher perspective, KS2 SATS are very valuable in terms of setting / challenging students, even at GCSE level. We are monitored on progression from KS2 to KS4 results. When we have students with no KS2 SATS results, they invariably end up in middle sets (average) which after a few weeks always ends up being the wrong sets so you have to cope with the poor behaviour from not being able to cope / bored, then the child has to settle into a new class after a few weeks and then is noticed as a 'boff' or 'thick' by their peers. Whilst I am not in favour of the testing, there are other consequences beyond.

Emma, doesn't your school assess them when they start year 7? All the schools I work with do because they tend to think that primary teacher assessments are overestimated (sorry, primary teachers) This then gives them their base data from which to set or stream, if that's what you do.

Hi Clairy - no we don't. We have a very strong transition programme from the Oct of Y6 and someone from school will go into our feeder primaries on a week regular basis from then. We also have shared Y6/Y7 gifted and talented / enterprise visits etc. We use this plus the SATS.

Our feeder schools do not assess in year 7 either, not until the end of Y7. They use the Y6 SATs as a base line.

My son is Year6 too. The whole year so far has been taken up with Sats.

Its so demoralising when the teacher is saying you'll ahve to do better. The majority of high schools don't actually use the Sats levels and assess when they are there around here.

At the end of the day the Sats are ONLY there for the flipping government and not for the kids.

My daughter is Year 10 (last year's Year 9) and they lost some of her results and they have been now scrapped.

Teacher assessment is much more acurate - anything could happen on a day of the test - they could have a really bad day!

Also as fat as I am aware you can withdraw your child for the actual tests but you ahve to put it in writing and the child will still have to attend school. I think they would be put into a Year 5 class. I know this because last year a child in year 6 did not do the tests at my sons school as his parents did not agree.

Good Luck x

I could be wrong on this but I seem to recall that SEN kids can be removed from SATS. The policy at my childrens school is to remove the SEN kids on the day of the tests and take them out 'for a trip'. Laughably they don't seem to count my daughter in the SEN group (though she is because she has Aspergers) when they apply this policy because it doesn't suit them. She always hits the top level.

I strongly disagree. The NCTs (see, I even have a bee in my bonnet about what the bloody things are called) are over-inflated by schools who either spoon-feed or over-inflate because they have targets to meet, leaving us at KS3 and KS4 with nigh on impossible CVA targets. I hate the tests with a vengeance, and am hating the fact that our management won't let us leave the legacy of the KS3 tests behind even now. Our poor kids have had to sit 'mock SATs' - yeh - mocks of a test that doesn't exist!

No idea about the original question though Fimble - in essence the tests are supposed to assess what's in the NC anyway - I agree with you about teaching to the wretched things though, it sucks.

But not all SEN affect academic progress - the opportunities offered to your daughter are (the whole tests issue aside) supposed to be the best for her - it's personalised learning. If she's doing really well in the tests she's coping perfectly well with them. Kids with physical disabilities would also be on the SEN register - it wouldn't give reason to exclude them from tests. On the other hand, I had several rows with members of the senior team when I was co-ordinating KS3 English, because they wanted kids who were working at levels 2 and 3 to sit the Year 9 tests, which only awarded level 4 upwards. That was a GOOD reason for withdrawing them - the don't need to be taken out of school, there's a code for the entry sheet that means they're not working at a high enough level to sit it. Cruel to make them, imho.

(There might be arguments for extra time for your girl, or a different environment if that would suit her better - we have children with ASD who work in classrooms for exams rather than in the big hall, which is more likely to freak them out.)

At Boy1's school, they are 'practicing' SAT papers in year 5. Not impressed.

They were saying that about KS3 this time last year.

Lumpy - I take your point completely about CVA - we have the same problem in KS2 though. We have children coming to our school in Year 3 who have achieved level 3s across the board in their KS1 SATs. It soon becomes apparent that there is no way most of these children are functioning at level 3 - more like 2c in some cases. Getting an acceptable CVA in Year 6 is therefore a nightmare as most of these children need to be achieving level 5 in their Year 6 tests. Hence why so many Year 6 children spend the year being taught how to perform well in the SATs. In my current Year 6 class, I have a number of children who supposedly achieved level 3 in Year 2 and in some cases, I am barely TA them at a 4c. Not good.

Yep, I know everyone's under pressure because of league tables and the like. You can imagine how it is when the Year 9s who got 5s at 11 and shouldn't have don't get their 7s though? We can sometimes squeeze a 6 and we then are supposed to get them to Bs and As at GCSE. And then they struggle with A levels because they've been dragged kicking and screaming to C grade and are encouraged to stay on, and we wonder why the universities are all complaining that undergrads aren't up to scratch... it's not because exams are easier, actually, it's because we 'help'* them to get grades that we wouldn't have got when we dd our GCSEs (or O levels) 15/20/25 years ago. We just wouldn't have had the help, and it does mean that the whole system is skewed. It frustrates the hell out of me and it's absolutely not what I came into teaching for.

*I don't mean that any foul play or cheating is going on, but kids are taught how to pass a test and/or coached for coursework. They're not taught to transfer the skills.