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The papers have arrived, the teachers are stressed. The kids probably don’t have much clue of the pressure the school is under to ‘perform’ acceptably, nor that their results will be published nationally and their school judged accordingly.

This week, Key Stage 2 children, aged 10-11 will be taking their tests. Key Stage 1 children aged 6 and 7 will take them over the next few weeks as determined by the individual school.

What are SATs?

They are ‘standard assessment tests’. They are the way that the government determines the level of ability of our children based on a standard they have set in relation to the national curriculum.

Should we care? As parents, tax payers, school employees, simply as human beings?

The good

Testing children can give an assessment for schools and parents about the level of ability. It can also highlight areas that children struggle with which can help children to develop a personalised study plan and make the teachers aware of areas of the curriculum that might need extra support.

It shows us as tax payers that the millions of pounds our government spends on education is being used effectively on staff and resources to create the next generation.

For school employees it can show how effective their work is. The interventions that are put in place to support children and their learning, the lesson planning, progress meetings, endless paperwork, all whittle down to these tests and their results.

It is good practice for the children to learn about the preparation for tests ready for their secondary education. Some of the children in the GCSE exams I invigilate should have paid more attention!

The bad

Tests are only conducted in English and Maths. They stress out the children, parents and teachers. They bring out an unpleasant competitiveness.

Matthew was only 6 when he sat his KS1 SATs: that seems so young to be making judgements about his ability. The school downplayed the importance of the tests but some children had been told about them by their parents and it soon went around the whole class.

SATs don’t take into consideration special circumstances such as special educational needs and disabilities or social/emotional issues. In the data analysis that is produced, these details will be present to those who care to look, but the narrative behind the results is marginalised.

The ugly

We are teaching children that we only care about their academic ability, not about their personal development as people of the world. Schools are expected to cover this but then not rewarded for their dedication to creationg positive human beings that will go out and face a world that we cannot imagine, doing jobs we may not even understand.

This may give children a skewed sense of what to value in themselves which could have long lasting mental health implications.

At every parents’ evening, I always ask about how my children are getting on socially and am more concerned with theis than the state of their handwriting or use of fractions. I want to know they have friends, have confidence and know how to resolve problems.

Should we scrap SATs?

A resounding ‘NO’ from me!

It can’t be denied that there are flaws in the education system. However, despite this, keeping track of progress and achievement is a crucial part of our children’s lives and good preparation for their adult life (perfomance management, anyone?!)

I would personally prefer a broader and more diverse series of tests across the curriculum so that we teach our children to value their accomplishments in a range of subjects. Remember that Einstein struggled in his early years to even speak fluently but was an excellent violin player and excelled at sciences later in life.

What do you think about SATs and testing children: too much too soon or an essential part of growing up?