To home educate for year six only

Are you saying, OP, that in Y6 the children only do maths and English and not the other national curriculum subjects?

I'd be worried about them not managing to re-integrate back into school. Being in groups of 30 all day, the sheer busy-ness of the cafeteria and breaktime and corridors... it's a big step up even if you're used to a school of 300. To go from being at home all day to that would be a hell of a journey for an 11 year old.

Also Y6 is an interesting time when they grown up a lot and start to spread their wings. The Y6 residential is a key experience for a lot of them. Taking it back down to being at home seems more like clipping their wings somehow. That's debatable, some will see it as giving them opportunities, but it does take away existing social opportunities too.

I think the reason to do it would be if you have serious doubts about whether they will cope at secondary, and you want to give home ed a try when they have time on their side. If all your eggs are in the basket of them re-integrating back into school from Sept of Y7, I wouldn't risk it myself.

The message you are sending to your DC that anytime life is tough or boring you don’t have to do it and you can stay home with mummy…. I really think that’s a dangerous message to send at an age when the are transitioning from child to teen

I home ed so am naturally in favour of it but I wouldn’t do it because of the SATS alone.

If my parents had taken me away from my friends in year 6 I think I would never have forgiven them.

The kids at our school seem to love year 6! All the leavers stuff! Their residential trip is amazing. No don’t do it! :)

I wouldn’t dream of doing this if my children were otherwise happy at school. Some of their fond memories will be about having gone through the hard/boring stuff with friends - the camaraderie of all being in the same boat and moaning about it together! I think it would be really counter-productive for them to miss out on the anticipation that comes with knowing they’re in their last year together and about to launch into a wider world.

I would advise against it.
I know DDs year group are doing fun stuff around the sats prep. They did an entire week dedicated to sewing, they have a residential next month, they've had cake sales to fundraise for end of year hoodies etc. They also focus a lot on transitioning to secondary school, including trips to do activities at the catchment secondary school. Out of catchment secondaries also offer transition days for pupils who are going there.

I can't advise on how awful or not awful SATs prep is, as DD has SEN so is exempt from doing them. At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, she is leaving year 6 in 2 weeks though, due to an unavoidable cross country move and will be home educated from then until year 7. Our case is slightly different though as she will be going to a specialist school in year 7 so wouldn't be missing out on taster days etc.

Are you so certain that they'll be able to reintegrate into formal education afterwards? It's not guaranteed, especially not when their last memories of school were of the cosy earlier junior years and then they're parachuted into huge secondaries with no close friends/no sense of progression or transition and what can feel like a bear pit to anyone who has gone through the big residential, end of school shows, the parties, last sports day, etc, etc, never mind one who has been in the quiet environment of 1-2-1 teaching and effectively unlimited breaks, snacks, no uniform, no timetable, no formal consequences, unrestricted movement, days off to go to the park or beach because it's sunny, fun trips that are all about them...

To go from that to being very small and anonymous in a louder environment where you get detentions for not doing homework, have to get in by 8.15am, wait in queues for food, etc, can result in a lot of difficulty beyond what happens when they're going from Y6-transition-Y7 along with everybody else they know.

This.
You’re teaching them they don’t have to do anything boring if they don’t want to. You’re going to raise kids who want to sit in their bedrooms and not go to work!

I think it depends what you tell them about SATs - I told all of mine that it was to test the school, not them (and they are pretty meaningless in that regard where we live because we are in a grammar area, therefore most Y6s are being tutored, so the schools' performances are skewed IMO). And I agree with a PP - there is lots of testing throughout secondary school - are you going to keep your child home every time they have a test?!

They do loads of stuff in Y6 - play, residential, sports day, work around transition to secondary - my fourth child missed his Y6 because we were in lockdown and it was really sad that he missed out on lots of the fun stuff my older ones had done. I wouldn't want to deprive a child of that experience.