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SATs destroyed my son's love of reading

Once upon a time there was a boy, let’s call him Child 1. He loved school, he loved learning he wrote beautifully. Then one day he started to get upset at the thought of school. He cried on a Sunday night. He complained that his day was spent completing dull comprehension and soon he began to hate reading.

Then along comes child 2. He loves school, he loves books, he writes beautifully. In fact he spent his summer writing a journal about his adventures. His idea of fun is snuggling up in bed and reading a book. He is seven. He reads paper back novels and begs for another chapter before he goes to bed each night.

These children have similar life experience. They are brothers. They exceed ARE in all subjects. But there is one significant difference.

Child 1 has had his love of learning squashed. His writing is stilted and awkward. He hates to read. But why?

SATs.

Every piece of writing (including his letter to Santa) has a ‘Did you know’ fact. To demonstrate that he knows how to write a question. Santa doesn’t have time for questions, I scream.  He uses Nick Gibb’s beloved fronted adverbials in sentences where anyone with a basic grasp of English would put the adverb at the end. His writing has been destroyed and worse than that his love of writing has vanished along with his confidence.

His confidence vanished completely at the end of Year 2. Despite his best efforts he was never going to get more than ARE in his writing SATS. Why? Because he was born premature (my fault, not his) and he has a number of health issues including extreme hyper-mobility. He has had extensive intervention, daily physiotherapy and ongoing pain. The content of his writing was excellent. His pencil control however was not. He could not join every letter in the Victorian inspired cursive style, therefore he was restricted at best to ARE before he had even picked up a pencil.

Child 2 is yet to go through the torment of SATs but I’m waiting for the tears. The fake Sunday night illnesses. It breaks my heart. His writing is beautiful, his reading is fluent and expressive but his creativity is about to be squashed by teacher’s performance management targets and league tables.
As an EYFS teacher I have spent hour after hour finding ways to engage boys (including my own) in reading and writing only to watch them flounder as they enter Key Stage 1.

SATS destroyed my son’s writing and reading but even worse than that, they destroyed his love of school and his love of learning.

SATs are destroying children and teachers, but children are not failing SATs. SATs are failing our children.

Lou is a parent and Early Years Teacher




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