Scandalous SATS fail Y6 students
Exam season has been upon us and I wish all fellow students the best of luck for any remaining exams and for a successful results day in August. To all Year 11s – enjoy your extended break! You’ve all worked tirelessly for the past year on GCSE exam build-up and you’ve deserved every second of your break and of course your exciting prom! But this exam season my primary focus is on the 11 year-old SATs students, who have recently taken their primary school exams. These exams give secondary schools an idea of what children may be able to achieve, but for some mind-boggling reason the standards have rocketed sky-high this year to levels that are beyond ambitious and border on the ridiculous.
Honestly and openly, I took various English quizzes and tests based on the KS2 papers and tested my own capabilities. Before I tell you about my experience with these tests, here is a personal insight into my abilities. I am an English Language and Literature A level student at this college, and I achieved As in both subjects last year in my GCSEs. Yet I got 70% as an average on these tests aimed at 11-year-olds. Six years ago, when I sat my SATS, you needed average reading and spelling capabilities, basic knowledge of punctuation (full-stops, question/punctuation marks, apostrophes, commas, speech marks) and how/where to apply them, basic word classes such as verbs, nouns and adjectives (maybe adverbs) and general common sense.
When I took the new sample test – I was outraged. Within this test, I noticed a sudden presence of complex terminology that I had only come to know around eight or nine months ago purely due to my English Language A-Level course – a course understandably rich in linguistic detail. Terms such as: noun phrases, prepositions, subordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns, present continuous verbs and all sorts of other pointless and genuinely ludicrous mumbo-jumbo that only becomes relevant at an A-Level/degree stage. These are mind-curdling terms to digest at the age of 10/11. This has stretched too far, and even newspaper input had pupils saying that they wanted to “give up”. It’s not only students, parents and teachers who were angered by this sudden leap in expectation as pupils were obviously struggling. Most (if not all) of my English language classmates were struggling looking at the paper themselves. Picture this, a class full of A-Level pupils, many of whom are predicted A grade at A level, struggling with a SATS test meant for those six years younger than them – does anybody else see the problem?
Even at the age of six, there are tests being put in place asking questions based on word classes. Aged six. Yes, this is out of their limits, our government will soon find, and future generations of students will pay the cost of their changes as they feel a sense of unnecessary failure or underachievement at an age where they should still be enjoying learning through play. This immense pressure is further stripping children of their joyous childhood and stressing them – one of the blessings of being a child is being free from the responsibilities of academics and overall stress in general – and now even that is being robbed from them. The happiness of being a child will implode into dull and revision-filled mayhem. The Government can sit back and have a giggle with their changes, but it makes me wonder could they have completed this kind of paper at such a young age?
As Einstein rightly said: “If you judge a Fish by its capability to climb a tree it will spend its entire life believing that it is stupid”. The tragedy is that not all students are or will be academically brilliant – but that doesn’t make their skills or talents any less important. The narrow focus on academic subjects can only harm the self-esteem of those whose talents lie elsewhere. Take art, design, music or sport – none of which require a knowledge of relative pronouns. Think of the cartoons and films you enjoy, the music you listen to, the sporting heroes you watch. Success cannot only be measured by academic achievement.
Allowing students to feel success in a range of subjects gives them self-confidence, reduces low self-esteem, allows students to challenge themselves and be brave. Of course, basic literacy and mathematics are important, but if the Government continues to prioritise a narrow academic measure of success above all others, individuals may struggle to find their feet or develop the confidence they need to really shine as they grow.
Lauren Smith, Year 12
Honestly and openly, I took various English quizzes and tests based on the KS2 papers and tested my own capabilities. Before I tell you about my experience with these tests, here is a personal insight into my abilities. I am an English Language and Literature A level student at this college, and I achieved As in both subjects last year in my GCSEs. Yet I got 70% as an average on these tests aimed at 11-year-olds. Six years ago, when I sat my SATS, you needed average reading and spelling capabilities, basic knowledge of punctuation (full-stops, question/punctuation marks, apostrophes, commas, speech marks) and how/where to apply them, basic word classes such as verbs, nouns and adjectives (maybe adverbs) and general common sense.
When I took the new sample test – I was outraged. Within this test, I noticed a sudden presence of complex terminology that I had only come to know around eight or nine months ago purely due to my English Language A-Level course – a course understandably rich in linguistic detail. Terms such as: noun phrases, prepositions, subordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns, present continuous verbs and all sorts of other pointless and genuinely ludicrous mumbo-jumbo that only becomes relevant at an A-Level/degree stage. These are mind-curdling terms to digest at the age of 10/11. This has stretched too far, and even newspaper input had pupils saying that they wanted to “give up”. It’s not only students, parents and teachers who were angered by this sudden leap in expectation as pupils were obviously struggling. Most (if not all) of my English language classmates were struggling looking at the paper themselves. Picture this, a class full of A-Level pupils, many of whom are predicted A grade at A level, struggling with a SATS test meant for those six years younger than them – does anybody else see the problem?
Even at the age of six, there are tests being put in place asking questions based on word classes. Aged six. Yes, this is out of their limits, our government will soon find, and future generations of students will pay the cost of their changes as they feel a sense of unnecessary failure or underachievement at an age where they should still be enjoying learning through play. This immense pressure is further stripping children of their joyous childhood and stressing them – one of the blessings of being a child is being free from the responsibilities of academics and overall stress in general – and now even that is being robbed from them. The happiness of being a child will implode into dull and revision-filled mayhem. The Government can sit back and have a giggle with their changes, but it makes me wonder could they have completed this kind of paper at such a young age?
As Einstein rightly said: “If you judge a Fish by its capability to climb a tree it will spend its entire life believing that it is stupid”. The tragedy is that not all students are or will be academically brilliant – but that doesn’t make their skills or talents any less important. The narrow focus on academic subjects can only harm the self-esteem of those whose talents lie elsewhere. Take art, design, music or sport – none of which require a knowledge of relative pronouns. Think of the cartoons and films you enjoy, the music you listen to, the sporting heroes you watch. Success cannot only be measured by academic achievement.
Allowing students to feel success in a range of subjects gives them self-confidence, reduces low self-esteem, allows students to challenge themselves and be brave. Of course, basic literacy and mathematics are important, but if the Government continues to prioritise a narrow academic measure of success above all others, individuals may struggle to find their feet or develop the confidence they need to really shine as they grow.
Lauren Smith, Year 12