General Chat

3 of my kids are left handed Stray of 5 and 2 are dyslexic,

Caz x

The government tests werent what showed my kids progress errol, it was teachers who were experienced and aware,

But I accept that not all schools have such good teachers,

Caz x

yes errol hun

as a teacher of pre skool children in the past thats how we assessed them

and to be honest spendign every day with them u see their strenghts and weaknesses or u should !

altho my daughter teacher 2 yr ago didnt no she was left handed and she had been in her class 10 month

so u may be ryt

Surely Errol there is no need to keep putting kids in *boxes* like this? group them according to their performance last year and assess them as they go along.

My girl has weekly spellings, times tables test and reading assessment. Coupled with all the other work she does, surely a good teacher can assess them as they go along and make relevant changes accordingly? xx

But how can you continually assess each child over the year?
A standardised test is a good way to discover strengths and weaknesses before it is too late.

as young as the children are surely assess them over the year is better not put them in exam conditions for things they havent been taught

the system is rubbish

but to be honest the teacher hav so much pressure now from the top dogs their hands r tied

I ama gainst children this young having constant exams. By all means test them on what they know but not under extreme exam conditions, and certainly not on things they have not been taught. No wonder the poor soul's confidence has gone. Whatever happened to playing when children? Not much chance of that if they are always worrying about exams.

Ann
Glos

It sounds like the school introduced the "exam" somewhat prematurely although some do set it this term to see what level the children are at individually.

I don't disagree with sats Errol. To a point. Every couple of years maybe. What I fail to understand is why the kids were given a paper with information they have yet to learn! Surely they should have tested them on what they have been taught and made sure they fully understood that rather than breaking their confidence with things they can't possibly understand? xx

Caz, voluntary SATS are not used by government and the only targets set at this level are by the individual establishments.
On-going and regular assessment is very good for the individual child so long as it is carried out in the proper manner. Sadly, we have far too few teaching staff to do this another, meaningful way!

I am in favour of voluntary SATS because they provide a benchmark means of on-going assessment.
Many schools use them although maybe not under quite such draconian conditions!
They help to gauge a child's progression because they are standardised and provide a means whereby teaching staff can decide whether an individual child needs further help in certain areas.

I agree Muffy,


I feel the system is placing ridiculous pressures on little ones who should be learning how to socialise, learn basic literacy, numeracy and IT and not be tested at such a young age.

Its all about government targets and statistics. We too had parents evening tonight and my youngest has been diagnosed with dyslexia like Will is. These tests would be impossible for them!!


All the best to a good Mum and your lovely lass,


Caz xxxx

Too much preausre on the little ones and not enough on the teenage ones who are allowed to seemingly come and go as they please, perhaps its easier to control the small ones but hey we're nicking their childhood

Omg I deleted by mistake instead of editing

But I agreed with you Muffy

It's abotu league tables and not our kids, it's unfair on the kids at the end of the day

I wish our kids were allowed to be just kids. The exams aren't for the childrens benefit at this age in my opinion.
Hope your little un soon gets her confidence back. I'm sure there's better ways of assessing what each child knows in a more informal setting. My 2 younger children are 9 and 6 and I'm sure they aren't doing formal exams, they do some at the end of the year but not in a pressurized way.

no i think the skools hav introduced some very silly things

my 6 year old imformed me the other day that
if i drank mucky beer i would say norty words fall over and be sick and do things i wldnt if i didnt drink it
i was horrified ans ask her hu told her that n she said oh mum we been learning about drugs at skool now im all for teaching kids bought drink n drugs but she is 6 years old she has nvr came into contact with anyone hu has taken drugs and the only tym she sees people drinkin is at family party in a pub
and they are always tuk home b4 people get drunk
they never see us drink in the house
i think their far to young at 6 to be told stuff lyk this

so yes muffy i think sumtyms the skool get things wrong

stray
xxxx

I'm absolutely livid with all this I really am. I need to rant so apologies in advance. My eldest did her sats last year in year two so I assumed this year the pressure would be off somewhat ...........

Just been to parents evening and two weeks ago they gave the kids exam papers with things they haven't even learnt yet - stuff they are not expected to learn until the end of this school year ! All in proper exam conditions.

As a consequence my girls' confidence is shot to pieces. Having made a blinding start to this school year, since this exam , she's no longer participating in lessons in the way she was. The teacher herself admits it's the exam and said though she hates it she has to do it as it's just the way things are done these days.

I think it's appalling to constantly pressure kids like this for no reason. She was happily tripping along and BAM we're now on a confidence building exercise. FOR WHAT? I just don't understand what possible benefit it is to do this to kids that age.

We had a long chat about it tonight and I told her that she wasn't supposed to know the majority of what was in the exam paper and that she wasn't to worry and I think I reassured her. I also stressed that the teacher was impressed by her attitude to work up til the exam and that I was proud of the work I had seen tonight.

Sorry to run on but I am so angry about this. Does anyone agree with this system or am I alone in thinking these constant tests are doing more harm than good? xx