Headteacher blog 13/5/22

This week we have had formal Y6 SATs (and Y2s have begun less formal equivalents). The assessments went well, although more stress was evident amongst some children than I recall previously. This is the first time that we have done SATs since 2019 and I think the children will have done well despite the disruption of the past few academic years. Most children have actually quite enjoyed the week and they have lots of exciting things to look forward to in their remaining 8 weeks or so in primary school.

SATs can be most stressful for the children that find it most difficult. Some children, e.g. those with dyslexia, find some of the papers really difficult and delivering the spelling test and the reading test to those children was, at times, excruciating. My own son is doing GCSEs and there tend to be two tiers of papers at that age: a foundation paper and a higher paper. Surely there is a case for something like that too at primary school if SATs are to continue? If we did, we could show achievement and progress more readily amongst our less highly attaining children and they wouldn’t experience so sharply what they perceive to be a humiliation at the end of their primary schooling.

Ironically, the Department for Education promoted ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’ in schools as we were delivering the SATs: was this a joke, irony, or are they just tone deaf?

My Monday KS1 assembly was about Spring and nature and it wasn’t hard to find some lovely photo opportunities around school to illustrate my message: