It's that
time of year again. The SAT tests. Everyone seems to
be stressed about it. The head teacher wants good scores for
the national league tables. The teachers want to show how
good they are. And the children -
well, they have been told again and again how important
these tests are, so they are desperate to do well, and
terrified that they might do poorly.
Some children, of course, love tests and exams. But most
would be quite happy to do without them, and some get so
stressed by them that it can affect all areas of their lives
- and their parents too! So, if you child is one of these,
what can you do to help?
Actually the SATS were created to assess schools and
not students. The government wanted to know two things: how
well are children doing as a whole, and how well is each
school performing? In hopes of finding these answers,
children are tested when they are 7 in order to get a
baseline score. When they reach 11, they are tested again.
The difference between both scores is supposed to show how
much the children have learned in the four years. This score
is called the "value added". The goal is to enhance the
educational level of eleven year olds, and SATS tests give
that measurement.
So how is this
relevant to your child? It isn't! The SATS have almost no
relevance to an individual child. The secondary school will
not use the SATS scores in planning their teaching - they
will do their own assessment of each child. Besides, the
scores on the SAT tests, called levels, are so broad that
they do not really tell you how well your child is doing.
The average eleven year old is supposed to score at level 4.
But if your child is at level 4 you still have no idea if
your child is the high end or low end of average. If your
child scores at a lower or higher level, that too is
unlikely to be news to you. Even without the SATS you would
almost certainly have known if your child is ahead or behind
the rest of the class - and so should the teacher. So your
child's individual SAT scores will not affect his or her
education in any way.
How do you handle the situation if your child is stressed
out about the SATS? First, explain that it's the school
being tested, and not her. Tell her that her levels won't
matter. Tell her to do the best she can, but don't force her
to study or practice. She will have enough tests in her life
and doesn't need to stress out
about these.
If your reassurance doesn't t help, then talk to her
teacher. Find out how he handles explaining the SAT tests to
his students. Let him know that you have concerns about your
child, and would like to work out a plan of mutual support.
If you have concerns in general about your child's school
progress, then have a talk with the teacher. You may even
need to talk with the head teacher or the Special Needs
Coordinator (SENCO). Take action instead of silently
worrying.
You can
find Dr. Noel Swanson's highly acclaimed parenting book The
GOOD CHILD Guide at
http://www.good-child-guide.com
on his website. While you are there, make sure you also sign
up for his free newsletter and get his free parenting
articles.
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