The end of this current term he was sent home with 12 papers to complete.
Obviously, I was horrified at the thought of A) The tears, tantrums and pleading I'd have to go through to get him to complete them B) The tears, tantrums and pleading from him begging not to do them.
So I made an executive decision. He's not done them.
Here's my letter to his teacher explaining my choice.
Dear Teacher,
As 10 year old's parents we decided he didn't have to complete the 12 sets of SATS practice papers he was sent home with at the start of the Easter Holidays. We felt due to the amount of practice papers they have already completed in school time and the undue amount of pressure the school has put on the pupils to pass these tests, he deserved a break which we believe the school holidays are meant to do.
As we spoke at our Parents Evening meeting, I said I felt the SATs hold no meaning or worth to the children. You pointed out they will not be fazed by the exams when they happen as they will know what to expect and yes, to a certain extent I agree. However they have been doing test papers since January. They know what to expect by now. They have been told if they fail they will have to re-take them in year 7. That is as maybe, however, it's not constructive to put this pressure on children to pass a test that will have no bearing on their future.
The 10 year old has attended four sessions at Explore Learning so has had four hours of education throughout the break. I will return the blank papers for you to use.
We have explained to the 10 year old that although it is our choice he didn't complete the work he will probably get a code for this.
Yours sincerely
Am I right to give him a break during school holidays? What are your thoughts on how your school deals with the SATs?
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