How To Deal With SATS Stress – Our Guide

We’ve had many press releases from different places during the last few weeks, offering advice about how to deal with the stress SATS cause.

In fact, my own Year 2 child is taking her SATs next week and my Year 5 child is already worrying about having to take them this time next year.

Strangely, my advice to both hasn’t featured on any of the press releases I’ve received.

The Chopsy Baby Guide to Dealing with SATs Stress:

1. The horse has bolted but don’t even make them into a big thing to begin with. Let the teachers stress, let the schools stress, they are not the child’s problem. We were informed during a Y7 Open morning last month at an Ofsted outstanding school in Central Bristol, that SATs results make no difference to them. They will run their own tests and their sets are fluid so children can move upwards or downwards as necessary.
2. Home is home and school is school. Don’t fill your child’s time at home with any more SATs revision. Let them chill out and unwind at home. Don’t forgo any of their evening or weekend activities.
3. It is likely that children, especially in Y6, will be stressed at home because at school it’s usually made into a Big Thing. In fact, most of Year 6 is about SATs. Teaching to the test, narrowed curriculum, endless mock tests, incredibly stressed children not coping, paper practise yada yada. Keep things low key and relax on stress related behaviour.
4. Don’t give a shiny about them.
5. Book a term time holiday during SATs week.
6. If SATs are causing children too much stress, wait for the Y7 school place then withdraw your child from primary school and home educate/unschool
7. Just don’t go to school during SATs week.

So many options possible, but the most obvious and logical one is not to stress your child about SATs in the first place.