Today I was told that I would be involved in the SATs examinations, taking place next week. (S6 – Demonstrates curriculum knowledge and phase expertise.) The head of KS2 (overseeing the SATs) told me that I would be in the interview room with another adult and two children. These two children would be taking their SATs in a separate room as both were getting 7 and a half minutes extra time, on each paper, due to their additional needs. The other adult in the room is a 1:1 of one of the children and would potentially need to transcribe immediately after each paper – dependent on his handwriting. I had to meet with the head of KS2 after school to receive training. (S8 – Is proactive and makes a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school.) At first I felt quite excited at being involved in this process as I have never worked in year 6 before so I knew this would be good experience. However, once the training started I quickly felt overwhelmed with the different rules and regulations as I didn’t realise how strict the guidelines are! In terms of the training, first of all I was told about the key rules and regulations for example: Never being alone with any paper, child taking the paper or when they had finished (before the papers are collected). This is an absolute must – to ensure validity of the tests, to make sure children are not cheating or no adults are disobeying the guidelines. Another rule is that we have to wait in the interview room until all papers are collected before we can leave the room. S6 – Demonstrates curriculum knowledge and phase expertise. The head also went through the head teachers’ responsibilities and the guidelines for: timings and giving out the tests and taking them back in. For example: for each test the two papers will be delivered in a signed and sealed envelope right before the test is due to start. These will be signed off by the member of staff who handed them out. When the paper is finished they will then be given back to the two members of staff and signed off as to what time it is. Once the test has begun the head teacher will make her way around the school making note of the time start and endings to ensure all children are getting their allocated times and so that they can plan for KS1 and KS2 break times and to ensure the tests are collected promptly. S6 – Demonstrates curriculum knowledge and phase expertise. The next part of the training was dedicated to the guidelines regarding the administration of the tests. The passage of instructions that must be read out to the children before each test was pointed out. I was then taken through all the different question-specific guidelines for each paper. For example: in the reading paper you cannot read anything at all, in the spelling paper you must ensure you are not emphasising the spelling words or the way that they are spelt, in the GPS paper there are specific instructions for each question time. In questions where words are underlined, you can read the question and emphasise the underlined words but you cannot explain any subject-specific terminology. However, in a question that asks to fill in the blank with given options, you have to read out the sentence actually saying the word blank. In the question ‘’Tick the correct word to complete the sentence below. I hope _____ will play musical chairs at the party.’’ You would read I hope BLANK will play musical chairs at the party. You then list the options but you cannot read the sentence again with the different options as this may influence children to pick a specific answer. On the other hand, in mathematics papers you may read out the questions but you cannot read out the word for any symbols. S6 – Demonstrates curriculum knowledge and phase expertise. All of these guidelines were quite overwhelming but I felt an immediate sense of responsibility. The training showed me how important it is to respect and stick to the guidelines and how important it is not to give anything away or influence the children in any way, shape or form. As not only can this affect you, it can also affect the child’s performance and the school overall. (S8 – Is proactive and makes a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school.) This has impacted on my experience as it has given me a great insight and first-hand experience into the year 6 SATs, the different rules and regulations and how to administer them. It has shown me how important these guidelines are and why they should be respected and adhered to. (S8 – Is proactive and makes a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school.) Focused next steps: Complete SATs week. (S8 – Is proactive and makes a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school.) All Stories