To think that SATS are more important than people let on?

So doesn't actually matter to the child?

The reason this matters is that schools are held accountable for their progress 8 score. So it's in their interest to ensure that a child who smashed the sats in year 6 with really high scores, also smashes their GCSE's, as otherwise that child's results will contribute negatively to their progress 8 score.

If anyone doubts this. Look at your schools current progress 8 score on the government site for comparing schools data.
This years scores are not available. Because SATS were not taken the year the recent Gcse cohort left primary school. They won't be calculated again this year because again this year's year 11's did not take sats.

I don't even know what these are tbh. But how would it be detrimental to them not to be in the calculation

My DD2 was having operation during sats so didn't do. My friends DD wasn't living in the UK until the start of year 7 so she didn't do them either

They aren't in the Progress 8 calculations

Which is also why Progress 8 won't be available for a couple of years, as there isn't the data to calculate it.

They don't release progress figures which is what happened last summer as the cohort who just took Gcse were the cohort who did not sit sats in yr6 due to covid.

They might be using CAT scores for their own internal targets but the government progress figures use SATS scores in determining a child progress so whether they like it or not they are taken into account by every secondary school.

So what happens if the kids haven't done SATS?

Every school has to use it for progress 8. They might use it for nothing else but ultimately it's what they are held to account for, by government, in calculating progress 8 figures.

You are absolutely right, certainly in our experience. DD in year nine currently and SATs have followed her all the way through high school. So many people saying that they are just for the school but not our experience at all.

They’re used to show the progress the school has managed to get each child to make in primary school … and are used by ofsted.

the majority of secondary schools retest in year 7 as coaching for SATS inflates grades from where a child actually is with their learning. This causes issues with GCSE predicted grades as they are set too high, the child can’t keep up and is told they are constantly behind where they should be causing massive amounts of stress.

secondary schools should be reevaluating where children are within settings and changing where appropriate.

My youngest was in year 6 in 2020 so missed SATS due to Covid. The primary school passed info to the secondary school based on performance so far and the secondary school did their own regular testing. Some children were moved up or down based on results. The schools results for that cohort were the same/similar to other years so I don’t think not having done SATs made much difference.That said, they’re useful, but they’re only part of the picture.

SATs are meaningless as far as the child is concerned in our local area. The secondary does CAT in year 7 which determines targets that never change regardless of school performance (in the case of my eldest CAT scores set targets at 6 for almost every subject and they achieved 9,8 and 7s - school clapped themselves in the back as it 'showed progress' but my child came to them a top student from primary and actually did worse in GCSEs than expected based on school performance).
It clearly depends on the area/school - for plenty of kids SATs are meaningless.

I felt they were important OP. At DS's state school they use a range of things including SATs to decide on sets.

It's much harder to move up sets than it is to stay in a high set. Behaviour tends to be better in higher sets, teaching is sometimes better and your results tend to follow you all the way to GCSE's - so for me they were important.

Yeah, I think I said that a few posts back, for the couple of cohorts that missed SATs. But for every other year group it’s based on SATs. SATs remain completely significant to a child’s target grade and therefore experience at secondary.

But while I’m here and you’re quoting it, I will say that I do wish I hadn't been so snipey in that post. It was late, I was tired, but it’s not an excuse to be rude to a fellow teacher. Apologies to that poster.

Yeah my 2nd child didn't do sats either. She did do 11 plus. Schoo ( secondary) l didn't seem to care about the lack of SATS

I agree, they are used A LOT by secondary schools to set pathways, target grades and sets. I ended up going into secondary and arguing my DS2 needed higher targets as he was meeting them on yr8! They did but v reluctantly.

And you don't know that FFT takes CAT4 data now?

No

I agree with everything you've said OP. It's what I experienced with mine.

lol.

this is like a bunch of people who went to buy a car discussing whether the car salesman had targets of whether he totally sold them the right car for them.

look, every job has targets and KPIs.

car salesmen have targets. They know how many cars they have to sell. They know what extras they can try and upsell. They’re good at identifying who’s got money to spend and who hasn’t.

of course teachers have KPIs. (Key performance indicators for those who are lucky enough to have escaped the jargon).

primary schools are measured on progress from reception to sats so absolutely teachers have targets based on measures of children’s achievement.

Secondary schools are measured on progress from sats to GCSE’s by ofsted so KPIs for teachers are absolutely based on that.

so despite you all saying the car salesman sold you the right car for you… he still has targets and they’re all about money.

This, sums it up neatly!

No, they aren't!

Schools will use internal assessment for setting etc, but the pathway of setting GCSE predictions comes from SATS.

That's what the schools are measured against. It doesn't necessarily mean anything to the kids, until they get their target grades but it is all based on sats

SATs were largely a waste of time, in my opinion. So much of Y6 spent drilling the poor children in maths and English, with little focus on other subjects. My 10yo daughter regularly coming home upset that she was 3 or 4 marks off exceeding expectations. Teachers appeared to only be interested in the kids at the very top or bottom.
Luckily the secondary school we chose didn't set until Y8, based on their own assessments and my daughter is now thriving.

My DD did ok at SATs, but wasn’t in top sets at all. But she got the top grades in the school at GCSE (12 x grade 9). So important, but doesn’t mean too much.