How to support your child through Primary School assessments

The children have been back at school just over a week and the month of May is just around the corner. The month of bank holidays, The King’s Coronation, the Whitsun half term break and … SATS. As a parent, school governor and former primary teacher, I could write you a very long article bemoaning the current assessment system employed in our primary schools, but I won’t do that. Instead, lets take a few moments to consider how we, as parents, can support our children through this short season of their lives, which may, right now, loam large on their horizons.

What Primary Assessments take place?

Throughout their time in primary school, children will undergo and ongoing process of assessment. As you might expect, teachers make judgements on children’s learning every day; what can they do now? what are their next steps? how can I help them to get there? Much of this is held in the teacher’s head and helps to inform their lesson planning on a day-to-day basis. Alongside this, there are national requirements set by the government for assessments which ascribe ‘levels’ to achievement, and in some cases, pass or fail judgements. In order to fulfil these requirements, teachers may use a range of methods, including some commercially available tests to offer ‘mock weeks’ to help children prepare for what is expected of them, and assess children’s ongoing progress. Across the primary years, the statutory assessments undertaken are as follows: