How to help reluctant son revise for SATs tests in May

[jessicajones18852]

Having a bit of a difficult time lately with revision. My son is very reluctant to do some extra revision for his upcoming SATs tests in May and while I'm in no way pushing him to do lots of extra work, I would like him to at least do some practise.

His teacher has suggested that he might not achieve the expected level in his tests- he is very borderline though so I think a little bit of extra revision would really help. Problem is he doesn't seem to ever want to - I've bought him a couple of SATs workbooks though he is simply not interested.

My teacher has suggested a site called MONSTER SATS which has online practice papers which she says kids sometimes find more engaging than just using paper and pen. Anyone using this site or have any suggestions on how to encourage him to do a little extra?

Thanks!

[BrownTurkey]

Pick your battles, this one is not worth it. Why turn him off learning now? Concentrate on (or continue to) supporting him to have a range of interests and out of school pastimes and good family times.

[TammyWhyNot]

So much for the premise that SATS are there to test the school, not the child.

Are SATS important at secondary? Some take SATS into account for setting and streaming from the off, but not many, I think. Not as a permanent categorisation, anyway.

If he is happy and confident in his work all is well. Just support his homework and reading.

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

Hes presumably 10 or 11. Why not let him be a child and not push exrra revision on him. Why is it so important to you that he improves his potential score?

[cantkeepawayforever]

Let the school do it.

Do any (reasonable) homework the school sends home, but no more.

If he is genuinely borderline, then having a 'true' result will be of much more value for him (as it will inform e.g. GCSE targets, and thus may affect how much pressure he is under and whether the true progress he makes will be celebrated or seen as 'not enough') than a 'coached' one.

[cantkeepawayforever]

[Teacher here, of upper KS2. Encourage him to do his best at school, and in reasonable homework, but certainly don't start making him do extra revision books or online work]

[cantkeepawayforever]

Also, probably the most useful thing you can do it read to and with him, discuss books,and provide him with interesting-but-vaguely-challenging books for him to read by himself. if you can find a series of books he really loves and is willing to read every night, as well perhaps as you reading him a bit from books that might not be accessible to him but might enjoy, then that will be of benefit without the whole 'cramming' aspect of SATs revision books or websites.

[MsGameandWatching]

Extra revision for SATS? My dd is taking SATS in May as well. At the beginning of the year we received a letter earnestly impression upon us the importance of SATS with a list of local retailers where we could buy practice work books. It went where it belonged - straight in the bin. There will be no stress and haranguing to extra revision I'm this house. They do enough at school and my daughter has been told that the only reason to do well at SATS is because it's always good to do well in exams if you can and that these tests have NO bearing on her future. Leave your ds alone and stop trying to pressure him to do extra revision. Poor kid.

[noblegiraffe]

You may find that if he is under the expected level at KS2 then there is less pressure on secondary school to get him to pass his English and Maths GCSEs and intervention that may be available for borderline students may not be forthcoming for your DS.

It's just not true to say that they don't matter at secondary, they matter hugely in that they are used by the government to set the targets that your DS will be measured against.

[BigSandyBalls2015]

Back off and let him do his best on the day.

My DDs are older (mid/late teens) but they've always said that they wished they hadn't performed as well as they did in their year 6 SATS.

The results were used to set GCSE targets from year 7 onwards which were ridiculously high - resulting in every report being covered in red blocks, indicating that they were performing below the level they should be. Not great for their motivation of self esteem.

[jaimelannistersgoldenhand]

I wouldn't push studying for SATS but if he has other tests at school like weekly times tables, spellings sort of things then I would be studying for those.

[Naty1]

Imo i would rather my dc were in the top sets they could be so they are with the other kids who are taking it seriously etc. If necessary they could always move down. It would be harder to move up as they may have missed stuff.

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

The secondary my dc went to didn't use SATs to set the children, they used CAT tests and the results weren't shared with the parents. I think that's the case with a lot of schools.

[BigSandyBalls2015]

Top sets doesn't always = taking it seriously in my experience!

[GentleJones]

Ds is reluctant to do homework, plus the SATs pressure is picking up at school.

What he does love however is doing a few maths questions a night on a whiteboard. So for anything he’s struggled with a bit that day or anything I know he’s weaker at, I’ll write the questions down and he happily does them. We might do 3 or 4 a night rather than him sitting down with a paper/book on his own and feeling overwhelmed, and it works!. I got the cheap whiteboards from Asda.

[Pengggwn]

Whilst I'm not a fan of the view that SATS don't matter at all and extra homework is akin to child abuse, I would caution you against pushing your child to overperform in these exams, as the results will be used to set his KS4 targets. If he does better than expected because he is coached, that will have a knock-on effect with stress at GCSE, when teachers will be forced to push him towards a minimum expected grade which might be unrealistic for him. I would let his natural ability come through, and let the tests be, genuinely, a measure of how well he has been taught by his school.

[GentleJones]

Pen, good thinking. I’m happy to go with that, although I do help with anything which hasn’t ‘stuck’ at school and doing 3 or 4 maths problems a night, or every other night will help to secure the methods used.

[titchy]

He's much better off performing poorly and thus flagging to secondary that he needs some extra support, than scraping 4s then struggling for the next five years.

His primary teacher obviously won't agree, but your the parent and need to do what's best for your child not the teachers pay packet.

[noblegiraffe]

Don’t assume that there is any extra support available for students who just miss out on expected levels at KS2.

[Hellsbellscockleshells]

I really wouldn’t bother if his school is anything like my DC’s the teachers will really already be going to town with SATS work in lessons and soon the SATS homework will really kick in. It really was awful the pressure the poor kids were put under by the teachers DS nearly caved with it all and he was very academic and doing really well.

[Julraj]

It always surprises me how, when an OP asks how they can help their child work towards their SATs tests, they're just barraged by people's negative opinions on SATs.

[user789653241]

Julraj, I think it's because if he is border line expected, it's more important to make him "get" basics rather than try to score better on sats.

[lorisparkle]

My ds1 has dyslexia and school knew he would struggle to achieve ‘secondary ready’ in his English SATs. They put huge pressure on and he hated year 6. He still not get the magic 100 but this means he is getting the extra support in secondary that he needs. In fact because they put in so much support for his SATs I think he is struggling in his English lessons because those sets were based on his overinflated SATs scores.

I personally would focus on his reading and comprehension. Particularly on finding information in texts. Those skills will support him through life and help in SATs

[Julraj]

You'll find loads of really helpful free resources on websites like this - SATs Papers

[Twofishfingers]

I found that giving them a specific time limit works. I bought the 10 minutes SATS busters, and as it says on the tin, it's 10 minutes.

I explained to my children that the practice at home will help them be more relaxed during the exam as they will understand the format of the exam better. They will understand the various types of questions that may be asked.

We practiced I think twice a week for ten minutes at a time. It's not much but I am sure it helped them. Especially with the English test. You don't need to do much with them to have a positive impact.

[Hellsbellscockleshells]

Having been though it fairly recently with both children the pressure my children were put under by their teachers and school was absolutely appalling. It completely ruined year 6 for them both which was really the last year of their childhood. School really heaped the pressure on with heaps of SATS homework in holidays and weekends.
DS was very academic and teachers told other pupils that he was the one to beat so he really felt the pressure and got visibly upset. DD was less academic, hard working has dyslexia and she just got very stressed with the amount of homework which really toons it out of her. I asked her to stop doing it but she then got upset as teachers had embarrassed and belittled other children whose parents had complained about the SATS homework.
Hence my suggesting OP doesnt give her DC extra homework and increase the pressure on her DC. Secondary schools do seperate tests anyway.