Anyone else's Year 6 in SATs and heading for meltdown?

[Sunnymeg]

Or just mine? DS capable of Level 6, but not sitting exam as only 15 in Year group and he is the only one at that level. Rest of class lower ability and being pushed to achieve strong level 4 poss level 5. DS is bored out of his head and can now complete 45 minutes SAT's paper in 15 to 20 minutes. School wouldn't put him in for level 6 as it doesn't show as school doing well if only one pupil gets it. Level 6 exam costs extra as well which I think had something to do with it. They have been told they are to have three weeks of intensive SAT's work before exam week. We are having tears everyday at the moment because he is so frustrated. This is going to end badly I know it!!

[Sunnymeg]

Forgot to say DS has Aspergers.

[AnotherAlias]

wow level 6 is impressive - rubbish that they are effectively wasting his time, don't know what to say other than I hope you get him in to a secondary school that will allow him to make the most of his talents.
Mine has been super-stressed out by school lately and as he always gets wobbly when put on the spot or tested, bad mother here only realised how hyper the school was getting about SATS last week

I am sorry I don't know what to suggest but I know there are rules about how they conduct the SATS and schools get into trouble for 'cheating' - could hiding a child's level by not giving him the right test be considered mal-administration of the tests I wonder?

hopefully someone who knows a bit more will be along soon...

[sunshine175]

Mine too also aspergers. DD about to explode. She is doing level 6 papers but actually the pressure is too much. I really want to tell them to stop. The pressure and the constant going over of stuff to make sure they get the right levels. If they keep going like this I think she will just refuse to do them. They are doing another mock next week and she is saying "they can't make me"!! Im thinking this will end very badly too.

[BallyGoBackwards]

I wish my DS cared abit more. His favorite line at the moment is "I can only do my best" which to him means, do as little as possible and hope for the best!!!!

[MareeyaDolores]

I would go in and kick up a stink. If he's heading for a level 6 on ability (regardless of which set of pointless government-approved test papers they've paid for), there is absolutely no way they can say 3w of boring sats prep is even ordinary 'differentiation' never mind SEN adapted.

Whereas 3 weeks working on
using a homework diary effectively,
going from class to class according to a pre-set timetable,
bringing in certain textbooks from home each day,
practicing social skills with the year 4s...

all that might be a very cheap and productive way of giving him an amazing head-start for secondary school and stop him disrupting the other dc's pointless cramming sessions If school really push the boat out, they might be able to phone and organise a couple of extra visits to the new school and some transition support.

Draw up a programme yourself, and try to get a named TA for the extra 30-60 minutes a day that they'd need to oversee it

[MareeyaDolores]

so if I needed to de-reg ds, and electively home educate in year 6, would waiting till Easter mean I only have to home ed for a term for him to miss the worst of the sats stuff?

[AgentSaboteur]

Name changed for this for obvious reasons!

My NT DS1 is sitting them. He is doing level 6 in maths but they only decided at last minute and not covered the curriculum properly. He's bored out of his mind, he was a 5a at end of Year 5. He has made no progress this year - usually he has always gone up 2-3 levels a year. So obviously its all about getting as many children to level 4/5 and those at either end can go rot.
I am really cross about it, such a waste of a year. Its been non stop practice tests for months

My ASD DS is in Year 1 and curriculum for whole year has been changed around the stupid phonics screening test. DS reading age is ahead (everything else is behind) and they are wasting time on phonics even though he does not read phonetically. He has an amazing memory and will probably always read from memory. The school don't want him to sit phonics test as they know he will fail (apparently statemented children can be left out). That annoys me, how will Mr Gove know phonics do not work for all children if those it does not work for are left out of the test. Also school trying to make their stats look better. I am sure he did not intend to leave out children who could read

I had crap meeting with school last week where Head really annoyed me and am seriously thinking of letting DS1 skip SATS with feigned illness so they miss out on his good grades - which has been mostly his hard work, with 2 exceptions his teachers have been rubbish. But making sure i send his brother in to bomb out on the phonics test. Serve them right.

[Sunnymeg]

Thank you for your helpful comments. I have emailed the head asking if he can have some time out with the TA to do some work to prepare for secondary school. DS has his first visit to secondary next week so it would be an ideal time to do this.

Like Agent my DS was 5a at the end of year 5 and has made no progress at all this year. My DH took teacher to task about this at parents evening, but she says he has matured in other areas so they are happy with progress. Thank goodness secondary do CAT tests so he will go in appropriate sets for subjects. When he was little school were brilliant, but ever since Y4 they haven't been so interested. I suppose in a matter of weeks DS won't be their problem anymore.

[Sunnymeg]

Finally got a reply from the Head, they have been in touch with Autism support and have put together a plan for 1:1 with a TA to cover some of the things he will need to know for secondary school starting Friday.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

DS2 (Y6) is loving all the SATs prep! Lots of Maths, grammar and punctuation and tests - he's in heaven! The level 6 work means he's been really engaged at school and happy. No longer needs a concentration aid and has been playing in groups with his peers at breaktime. He has told me that this year so far is his favourite year ever. He is quite enthusiastic about secondary transition activities too.

[Sunnymeg]

Glad to here he is enjoying it. I think mine would too if they let him do level 6

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

Hopefully the 1:1 sessions will be useful, and once he is in secondary school your DS will be able to do work that's more suitable for him.

[crazeelaydee]

My Ds is a bit young yet yr 3 but the SATS were mentioned today, KS1 SATS caused big problems. I am officially dreading Y6 SATS and I was kind of hoping that there wouldn't be a mention until Y4/Y5. You have some pretty smart Dc there . Sadly my Ds has the potential but is only working on a level 1b for his written work. Can I ask you ladies what helped your Dc in class with motivation? I am at a complete loss as to how to help him.

[Sunnymeg]

And breath, it's finally over. DS has been getting up at 5.30am all this week. He is worn out and so am I!! He found the papers to be easy (surprise, surprise) but was still stressed about it all. How did everyone else get on this week?

[AnotherAlias]

Glad it's over but puzzled - is your ds doing the year 6 ones Sunny? -

my ds has them all week - he has a writing test tomorrow I think

Crazee - wish I knew! I have asked Ed Psych same question and the best she has come up with is "oh he will develop it as he matures". and "he will realise the consequences of not doing it eventually" - we had to agree to differ at that point as there are very few consequences that have any impact - because doing homework is worse than just about anything that I can legally do to him....

[BallyGoBackwards]

My DS is finished today too. He said he wants to get a bottle of Coke, shake it and then spray it everywhere like footballs do with Champagne

[KOKOagainandagain]

Agent - did you do it?

DS1 has had a very large and longlasting effect - not because of anything I did - but because of his SATs results which effect the cohort and will just not go away. I only know this because DH is on the BOG.

[AnotherAlias]

ha ha - the "writing test" staged for today was the school's own invention and not a real SAT test.

heh KeepingOn - when I first read your post I didn't realise that being on the BOG was a role your DH had ... I thought he was in the bathroom :)

[BallyGoBackwards]

I am abit about the SATS now. My DS qualified for additional time to complete each test.

However he told me confidently that he got only one sum wrong on one of the maths tests as he got help. When I asked him more he said that 5 or 6 children were taken to a different room and his maths teacher helped them. Seemingly he helped by reading the question and explaining how to do the particular sum and then they had to work it out.

and and

[EllenJanesthickerknickers]

Wow! That's outrageous! It won't help your DS to get a unrealistic result as secondary won't appreciate how much help he needs. And blatant cheating.

I was a reader in maths for a DC with SN last year. Any child can have the maths questions read to them. I could read the question, suggest he moved on as he needs prompting to stay on task but that was all. The only emphasis I used was those words that were in bold.

[Sunnymeg]

Well we got DS results today and he got the best possible results for him, 5's across the board. Still would have liked him to do the level 6 papers but he sat a CAT test on his secondary induction day, so hopefully that will indicate his true ability.

I hope everyone else's DC did well.

[pannetone]

My DS3 (HFA ASD) got a level 6 in Maths - they must be a bright class as looking at the percentages 6 of them did in all (out of a class of 32.) I think DS's 'overall grade' for English is a level 5 - but he is concentrating on the fact that he got a '6' in the Reading paper - which he is convinced is the one that counts - particularly because he has worked out from the class percentages he has the only '6' in his class for English.

I am pleased for DS - it has been a tough Y6 for him. We are in a grammar area but we wouldn't let DS3 sit the test for the local super selective as we had a claim for disability discrimination against the school in respect of DS2 with ASD which we later won. At the time many of his classmates passed the 11+, DS felt he had 'failed' to get into a grammar and that they were all brighter than him. Now hopefully he will go off to his secondary confident of his academic ability.

[Sunnymeg]

Well done!!