It's time again for the dreaded and stress inducing SATS. Teachers and students alike are stressing. The principal or head teacher wants to look good on the national league tables. The teachers want everyone to know that they're the best. As for the students, they've heard so much about these tests that they're terrified of failing, or at least not doing their best.

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?

Actually the SATS were created to assess schools and not students. The government wanted to know two things: how well are children doing as a whole, and how well is each school performing? In hopes of finding these answers, children are tested when they are 7 in order to get a baseline score. When they reach 11, they are tested again. The difference between both scores is supposed to show how much the children have learned in the four years. This score is called the "value added". The goal is to enhance the educational level of eleven year olds, and SATS give that measurement.

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 your reassurance doesn't t help, then talk to her teacher. Find out how he handles explaining the SATS to his students. Let him know that you have concerns about your child, and would like to work out a plan of mutual support.

If you have concerns in general about your child's school progress, then have a talk with the teacher. You may even need to talk with the head teacher or the Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO). Take action instead of silently worrying.