To home educate for year six only

Sats are stupid, no doubt about that (former teacher). But there's also a lot of fun stuff that happens in y6 and the kids form some really good bonds. They really enjoy being the "top dogs" of the school and it does seem to help them mature.
In secondary we have seen a huge rise in school refusal. There is a wider issue there about adolescent mental health, but for some the fact that they were home schooled in lockdown made them realise that school isn't actually compulsory and definitely contributed to non attendance later.
I've home educated, I'm a big fan, but I wouldn't set out to only do it for y6.

Not as yet but you are working on the basis that the current system is appropriate and GCSEs are useful. There’s lots of evidence to say they aren’t.

I would never say to my children that GCSEs in the current framework don’t matter but from a bigger academic perspective they are pretty pointless.

Are all SEN children exempt from doing them?

@LittleBearPad you didn't answer the question, have your children sat GCSEs? Because the whole you must be in education, training etc until they are 18 means those GCSEs determine if you can get into certain colleges or sixth forms on their entry requirements. It can determine what courses they can do too. Those GCSE grades help determine success in A levels if that is where they are headed and most students go onto to A levels.

There are lots of stats on 16-19 education/training/employment. Also lots of parents on the Further Education board who felt misled by school saying don't worry too much about GCSEs when they realise it is hindering their child now.

Year 6 SATs prepare them for what secondary school is like. Secondary school begins with CAT tests, nearly every subject will have tests after each topic or at appointed times through the term.

Year 6 is the usually the year they have a residential and perform in a play. It’s a pivotal right of passage year and the study, testing and homework are part of that.

@Joyettan why do they matter? Exams at 16 when children can no longer leave school or training then aren’t particularly meaningful. There’s a big debate about scrapping GCSEs.

Cross posted with you. I volunteered in a primary school for over a decade, they honestly just do the maths/English in the morning as usual. Sometimes there are smaller intervention groups removed from the main classroom in the morning to work with TAs/LSAs to help some students with certain areas they are weak in. This is why I don't believe music lessons should ever take place in a morning time slot in primary.

The focus is of course on SATs and that is all the children retain in their heads. Maybe ask another parent what their child is saying about work load. Maths and English does continue after SATs, they have a whole 6-7 weeks post May half term.

@LittleBearPad have you had children sit their GCSEs? Because they do matter.

I think they will miss out on a lot for the sake of some exams. Their friendships will suffer and year 7 will be harder. Year 6 was boring at times but it was also a really significant year.

As for SATs don’t matter, neither do GCSEs really.

The use both SATs and CATs, CATs are Cognitive Ability Tests and I'll copy paste for you from another website so you know what they are and why they use them.

"Some secondary schools don’t like to assess pupils solely by their maths, English and science SATs results in year 6. They feel some primary schools ‘over-coach’ for the tests, so some children may have artificially high results.

Most secondary schools use Cognitive Abilities Tests, CATs, to test general intelligence and to stream overall or set for certain subjects. They are designed to assess a pupil’s ability in three different areas: verbal (thinking with words); quantitative (thinking with numbers); and non-verbal (thinking with shapes and space)".

I will be honest, Ds2 thrived in lockdown, secondary school set work and he finished it before lunch because he wasn't waiting for the rest of the class, he could pace himself. There is a lot of time to fill in a school day if you are homeschooling and your child is used to the structured environment of the primary school day. Lots of social interactions take place between the children, don't underestimate how positive that is, a little chat walking over to their trays etc. As you will be putting him back into school for year 7 I cannot see why you think this is a positive to remove him purely based on SATs.

You are coming at this from his feedback of school, have you spoken to his teacher? Anyone from the school? He isn't being bullied, he might be a bit bored. He needs to understand that he is being educated, not entertained. He needs to learn things he may have no interest in because all this leads to everyone sitting the same exams at the end.

I was going to take a sabbatical and travel the world with kids in year 6.

Then Covid hit

If you tell them that SATS are not important in the grand scheme of things, that you aren’t going to be cross or disappointed in them based on their grades, that it isn’t going to have an impact on their future and is just “one of these things” they have to go through, they won’t be stressed.
At worst, it will be a boring year where they develop a shedload of revision and exam skills.
Make sure you do fun stuff with them evenings and weekends.

Re friends... its easier these days to keep on contact with friends that go to different schools. Teens do a lot of socialising virtually. DD regularly talks on the phone to friends that have moved around the country for example. Whereas those of us late 30s+... it was a lit harder to maintain friendships from Primary school.

I'm not sure if this helps with Yr6 friendships though, as most parents limit the phone use.

Do double check what Yr6 actually does do though... to listen to mine grumble sometimes, its just maths and English. But I know they do "army school", forest school, music lessons, pe, art projects school trips etc. Its the maths and English in the morning, then the other stuff in the afternoon.

Both my Dc were in private school for year 6 so no SATS. So there’s the private school option to swerve SATS or otherwise just focusing on the fun bits of year six and create a low stress environment at home so that sats aren’t a big deal.

I think home schooling for a year would be really tough for friendships - my dc are still friends with some year 6 friends even through they are at different schools.

As someone who has actually done this, I can tell you if you’re thinking about it, then do it!

My DD loved the Sats, found them easy and then was bored as the next few months were going to be spent catching others up who were behind!

I deregistered her, at her request, and home educated her. She loved every minute, being able to spend longer studying topics and subjects she enjoyed, completing art work with no buzzer telling her to stop, finding subjects such as marine biology and criminology she could study instead of others she found a lot less interesting.

she went back in year 7, but found it so boring, back in the 4 walls, being told what subjects she should study, have length of trousers checked, being told to wear a blazer, by someone in a blouse, when too warm… those few months out, she had learnt to think more for herself, make more informed choices, instead of just doing as told, aimlessly…

6 months in, she asked to deregister again and never looked back! She kept in contact with her schooled friends for years, meeting up, hanging out, had new home educated friends, socialised with all ages not just her peer group, as went to skating and gym clubs so had something in common with the attendees of every age….

10 years down the line, she is a well rounded, successful, confident member of society, who is so thankful she was listened to. Do it, you won’t regret it, and these days there’s soooo much available in terms of online tuition, and 10’s of 100’000s more in the same fortunate position.

Friendships definitely won’t be the same because they’ll all be talking about what they’re up to at school.

SATs aren’t like GCSEs though because they don’t impact on your future job prospects and uni entry. It’s exam practice and not the end of the world if they don’t get top marks so just drill that into them. The vast majority of other kids cope fine so unless your kids are neurodivergent or have MH issues I think it’s a really bad idea and sets a bad example. You’re basically saying they can have a lazy year at home to avoid doing boring stuff.
And while you might be able to maintain a bit of a friendship link I wouldn’t be so confident that their friendships won’t actually be pretty much wiped out. Their classmates will be forming strong bonds during school time and will in time forget about your DC - it happens every time people move away and swear blind they will keep in touch.
Don’t do it.

They should still be doing a full curriculum so I would check with the school. Mornings are usually core subjects so maths and English then the afternoons are all the other subjects.

When they start secondary they will do CATs to determine their levels, then they will do end of topic tests to ensure they understood what they are being taught. They are tested all through primary you just don't know about it.

Don't take them out it is 4 days where they do SATs and there is a real bonding with children talking about them afterwards, an achievement they all went through. Then all the fun stuff begins. Leavers' hoodies, the play, the ice cream van and playing out on the field. They still do learn about new things but the pressure is now off.

We didn't stress about them at home. We said it was about the school not them. Made sure out of school time was lots of fun activities.
You could join the party most likely to beat the conservatives locally at the next election and then your younger DC might not need to have year 6 all about sats.
There was a lot of movement in the maths/English sets once they got to high school as it was clear the sats results didn't reflect ability. Other subjects weren't set until year 8. I think they would have missed out on friendships if they had missed the year and would have made them feel abit odd