Should They Scrap SATs

[CristianoJones]

I think they should. They put too much pressure on people and basically there not very useful really.

[EAUK_Aurora]

They didn't have SATS when I was at school, but as far as I can see they give a good indication of how you are progressing and also the standard of teaching you are receiving (as long as you test well, which many people don't)

I am a little confused about the Key Stage 1 SATS though as the children sit the papers but their actual levelling is done on teacher assessment

[Mr A]

Well my school recently got rid of the 3rd year of KS3 SATs as part of some change in curriculum.

I thought it was a great idea. The 3rd year for me felt like it was a waste of my time because it was mainly a revision year.

I don't really see how KS1 SATs can be relevant later down line, nor do I think it's right to make children of that age sit exams. I never knew that I did mine. My Mum didn't tell me, so I just thought it was pretty routine.

KS2 I think is necessary. Getting a grade or level at the end of Primary School would give an indication to your prospective Secondary Schools to your ability.

They aren't useable qualifications, however they do give an indication to your ability and whether or not you've actually learnt something over the past years. So I don't think they should be scrapped, just changed slightly so that we don't have children the ages of 7 or 8 sitting exams or unnecessary "revision" years.

My sister who joined the same school when the new scheme came in, has 3 years to do her GCSEs and has the option to take a few a year earlier so that she has the opportunity to start A Level subjects even earlier.

[MizVoldemort]

I don't think they should scrap SATS - they are useful in making sure that everyone is on a competant level... Key stage 1, I don't really see a huge point of, but like noblead, I think that KS2 can give an indication of how accedemically able a student is when they join a secondary school, and the KS3s are also a good way of seeing which students are struggling before they move up to GCSE, so that the GCSE teachers can make sure to build the foundations before they move up to the more complicated stuff.

What I do think though, is that less of an emphasis should be put on SATS. In the end, they will never effect your future career, and they should be treated like any other school test.

In year 6, a large emphasis was put on our SATs... I hated it. We were expected to do some revision (for science anyway), and I just didn't want to. I had sat the 11+ in the previous January, and was enjoying the 'no exams, no pressure' feeling... Until it got ruined by the SATs, and me being pushed to go for a level 6 in maths (which I didn't get anyway).

My secondary school was completely different in its approach. the SATS were treated as nothing important. And we were all entered for the level 5-7 paper, even though the majority of us could have achieved level 8 in at least one of the subjects. Hence, minimal stress for the SATs (though I will not talk about the stress involved in the shortcourse ICT GCSE at the end of year 9...), and most teachers had started on the GCSE syllabus towards the end of the year. It also helped stop the competative atmosphere for a while, and it was nice to see everyone getting equal results, so no one felt like a failiure, compared to their high flying friends.

[Greatgirl934]

As others have said, I don't think that the SATs need to be scrapped...just the way school's approach them needs to be changed.

With the KS1 SATs, I honesly don't see the point. Why it is necessary to test children of about 6 or 7 with proper exams, I don't know. That said, my primary school tackled them in a very good way. I never knew that I was doing mine - they just split the class into two rooms and told us we were doing 'assessments'. We'd been doing assessments before so we believed them

At KS2, I felt like there was a lot of pressure being put on me to do well. We had to do revision and were expected to do very well. I think that everyone felt that it was a bit of a waste of time because we'd already been given places at our Secondary schools. That said, now that I look back on them, they're probably a good idea to have, but the pupils probably shouldn't be put under such pressure to do well in them in the way that I was.

I'm currently in Year 9, so will have my KS3 SATs in May, but so far, the teachers have been fairly good about it. Everyone is expected to do well and they are just treated like normal end of year exams. In that respect though, I suppose that maybe there isn't really a point to them as we had end of year exams in years 7 and 8 and these aren't really treated any differently to them.

[Living in a dreamworld]

I'm in Year 10, so from my perspective I'd love to be doing the SATS at the moment, after doing 3 GCSE exams last week, not to mention the amount of coursework we are getting. And it only gets harder from here. Anyone want to swap places?

[MizVoldemort]

Originally Posted by Living in a dreamworld

I'm in Year 10, so from my perspective I'd love to be doing the SATS at the moment, after doing 3 GCSE exams last week, not to mention the amount of coursework we are getting. And it only gets harder from here. Anyone want to swap places?

Yes please... You can have my AS exams... you're welcome to them.

*wants to go back to easy GCSE*

[Living in a dreamworld]

I don't blame you My friend is doing her A levels and currently has no social life. I've got all that to look forward too...

[Greatgirl934]

I've got even more to look forward to!

[chris louie II]

Yes they should...