Sats for Stats

Is it just me or are there others out there who are just a little anxious about the direction of our state education? It's that time of year again when our primary schools fall silent, there is no running - ever! The teachers are on edge. And our children arrive home each evening looking somewhat bewildered. It's SATS week again! Now, I'm not criticizing the teachers because they (mostly) do a sterling job in our schools, given the limited resources and often overcrowded classrooms - not to mention the gross assumption that they are actually equipped to cater to the multiple learning modalities that enter their classrooms each year. My concern is that although assessments are a useful tool, we run the risk of misusing them in an attempt to produce figures for statistical analysis. For the past few years I have endured a churning sensation in my stomach as I silently observe the panic preparation in schools 2-3 weeks before Sats in order to get the children ready for the tests. Repeatedly going over past papers, practicing extended writing and working out maths problems that have not been covered in the curriculum - now I ask; how can this be a true reflection of a child's ability? Time constraints make it difficult for teachers to adequately cover all the necessary areas to be tested, yet poor performance is a poor reflection of the teachers' ability, the school and the LEA- it all comes down to STATS!
It's a very stressful time for children as they are put under immense pressure to 'cram' all of this new information in time for the Sats. Information learnt in such a way is not sustainable and will invariably be removed from the short term memory store once it has been used. Now personally this is not how I want my kids to acquire information. I want education to be meaningful, useful, and appropriate. I want learning to be fun, creative, inspired and character building - which to me is a recipe for an enduring knowledge base, an enquiring mind and academic success. Every child has a right to reach a level of success which reflects his or her own full potential (whatever that may be). I just wonder to myself, are these yearly Sats necessary, appropriate and useful to our children? Is there a better way to do this? Is it even developmentally appropriate to be testing primary school aged children who are in such an unsteady stage of development, in order to categorize them? Hmmmmm! I just wonder. But that's just me!