It's that time of year again. Everyone across the UK seems to be stressed about it. The head teacher wants good scores for the national league tables. The teachers want to show how good they are. And the children - well, they have been told again and again how important these tests are, so they are desperate to do well, and terrified that they might do poorly.



There are some children who excel at tests and love them. At the other end of the spectrum are those who become completely stressed over exams. Most kids could live just as well without them. If your child stresses to the extreme, how can you help?

Standardized Achievement Tests (SATS) were created to assess schools. The British government wanted to find out how well children are doing as a whole, and how well each school is performing. They start by testing a child at age 7 to establish a baseline score. They are tested again when they are 11. The difference in scores is known as the "value added", and refers to how much the child has learned in four years. The goal is to raise the education level among eleven year olds. The SATS allow the government to measure how well they're doing.

In actuality, the SATS don't really relate to individual children. The scores aren't used in the secondary schools to plan how and what they teach. Instead they do an assessment of each child. The levels (scores) are extremely broad and don't tell how well your child is performing. Eleven year olds are expected to score at level 4, but that doesn't tell you if they are at the high or low end of the spectrum. Usually by then, you the parent know how your child is doing in comparison to his classmates. The teachers should of course be aware of this as well. As you can see, the SAT scores won't affect an individual child's education.

So what do you do if your child is worrying about the SATS? Do explain all this to her. Be quite clear that it is the school that is being tested, not her, and that the results she gets really do not matter! Encourage her to do her best, but don't be pushing her to practise or revise for them. There are enough exams in life to get worked up about without also worrying about these.

If you don't convince her, then talk to her teacher. Find out how she explains the SATS to her class. You can work together to reassure your child that she doesn't need to worry.

Any time that you are worried about how your child is performing in school, always talk to the instructor or even the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) or head teacher. There is no point in worrying without taking steps to allay your fears.