Would you send your dc to these SATS revision sessions?

[Woody479]

Dd is 10 and in year 6. The school are running these classes once a week for an hour after school starting next week and finishing the week before the tests in May.

Last term they sat the previous years tests and DD was (sorry I can’t remember the actual terms for it) but ‘above’ for reading and ‘at’ the expected level for everything else.

My gut instinct is to not send her to them. My main reason for this is that I don’t want her coached to do well in them which may then give her a better result than her actual ability. The results are used to set them in secondary school but they’re tested again within the first term. I wouldn’t want her to then be disappointed at being moved down a set or constantly made to feel that she’s not reaching the targets expected of her. Also, she’s 10 years old, these aren’t GCSE’s. I know they mean a lot to the teachers and the school but I don’t want the extra pressure put onto her. I’ve asked her if she wants to do them and she said no.

I'd encourage (but not force) my DD to go. I agree that SATs are mainly for the school's benefit, but if the sessions improve her understanding of a concept, then she is benefiting too. I agree with previous posters that this does depend on the quality of the sessions.

My DDs school run something similar and the majority of kids go. It is quite informal and they get to have a snack and drink. They seem to split them into smaller groups based on ability so presumably the help is tailored for a borderline child versus a higher achiever. At the same time, they have dialled right back on homework bar reading and MyMaths. My daughter seems to be enjoying the sessions and, in her scenario, a little extra and tailored teaching will definitely help her as she is prone to panic a little and lacks confidence. I am hoping the extra help might mean the SATS score reflects her ability as opposed to being lower due to panic and lack of confidence.

I would. I only wouldn't if she really really didn't want to go.

I don't understand OP's logic of it gives an inflated view of her true levels. I disagree. Accept any help you can get. And then that IS her level.

And I'm surprised at all those saying no. Why? Why would you turn it down. God, I'd snap it up immediately. The only reason I'd say no is if say Ds2 didn't like/enjoy the extra lessons.

Why would you turn it down
Its virtue signalling about SATs,
Reminds me of a tv interview of a mum complaining about the pressure of SATS on her dc and how awful they were. Her dc piped up during the interview. "Mum it's you who is pressuring me, not Sats" Out of the mouth of babes
My dc did extra classes , they enjoyed it, school didnt put any pressure on them, but they happily went in early for extra class.

I would say no because as I said sats are mainly for the schools benefit. It's the last year of primary and its quite intense. If they're achieving the expected level without extra revision, I wouldnt expect them to do the additional classes unless for some reason they really wanted to.

No I wouldn't.
The high schools my kids will go to don't take them into account and do their own assessments to determine sets.

No. I don't really agree with extra sessions for SATs. These children are 10 and 11. They have years of extra study and revision ahead of them. They shouldn't be having to do that for SATs.

My dcs did take them into account, they actually asked for the raw scores, they also did CATS before they started around transfer day and they spoke to the primary teacher. Once they started secondary they were straight into their proper classes and no messing around.

No, we didn't get dc to attend them either. SATS are not a positive experience for lots of children, too much fuss for a government benchmark and absolutely nothing to do with the kids.

...I don’t want her coached to do well in them...

I don't understand what you mean.

It sounds as though she is doing OK anyway; I would ask your child if she wants to go to the coaching sessions: if she does, fine, if not, no.

I remember my school offering extra coaching for the term on Saturday mornings before taking 11+; I objected strongly but parents made me go. We just did more of what happened during the week anyway, it was pointless. However, if someone enjoys it all, it is good to go to 'extras'.

To a PP who said why wouldn’t you?
Why would you?

@oneformetoo It really isn't a load of balls. Although the secondary school may do their own tests and set accordingly, the students also have a target grade based on the year 6 SATs. Government are using this to judge whether the secondary school has enabled the student to make appropriate progress. I think it is called Progress 8. With the students I see, it is sometimes leading schools to out extra pressure on a student if they are not on the right trajectory for meeting their progress 8 target. Conversely, students who pick up during secondary school and are on a trajectory to achieve over their progress 8 may not be given as much support as the school's need to focus it on the students who are in danger of not meeting the progress 8 target. It is, in my opinion a complete nightmare as it assumes that all students progress at a constant rate at primary and secondary, which of course is not actually the case.

I resent schools bribing children to attend extra lessons which are solely about improved a school's ratings.

After the SATs, most schools do nothing for the rest of year 6, making it really difficult for children starting year 7.

It's not for the children's benefit, it's solely for the school

I let my DC choose and they enjoyed it Hopping Green.They did really well in their SATS even my dyslexic DS who managed the top science score and it gave them a huge sense of achievement.
His SATs were actually a very accurate reflection of his SEN ie excellent comprehension, maths and science, but poor spelling and writing despite good vocabulary.

It’s def not a load of balls about sats setting targets for GCSEs. My DD did well in sats after been ‘coached’ for want of a better word. Every written report in secondary school was covered in red ‘under acheiving’ .. we both wished she hadn’t done so well in year 6, it was very demoralising

Thank God my children's school doesnt do this. SATS are barely mentioned and not hyped up as they seem to be elsewhere.

Yep gcse targets are set using KS2 scores (but are not a ceiling obviously!) and schools are judged on the progress between Y6 & Y11.

You absolutely can ‘over achieve’ in that some Y6 are coached out of their skins to sit the tests until SATS then do nothing until September & enter Y7 with a day to day performance that bears no relation to their score. I’ve taught kids who have got 120 (greater depth) but have a reading age of 9.

In summary - don’t do it. Let her get whatever she’s working at at she’ll carry on from there. Or, develop her learning not her test sitting ability.

Sorry one more thing - a score of 120 would need a gcse grade of 8 to ‘break even’. It’s very unlikely a student with a reading age 3 years below their chronological age is going to get that so they spend the next 5 years feeling shitty.

Mine didn't want to and I saw no point as he was going to do ok in them. What he didn't tell me until after Yr6 had finished, was the class teacher was admonishing him and another boy for not attending. It was stuff like saying to the class how arrogant they were. Had I have known I would have had A Word.

Him and the other boy were in the top 3 for SATs results and are in top sets for everything apart from PE in secondary (same class). Reason I know top 3 as they were called in to get results in order from lowest to highest(!)

I would send her, she'll learn skills about taking tests if nothing else. Something she'll have to do a lot in her secondary education

@OneForMeToo the gov measure progress from yr6 SATs to GCSE to hold schools accountable so secondary schools often set target grades based on their sats results. I agree that they often retest in yr7 to set classes.

I think it's sad that so many schools have extra classes for yr6. I would ask your daughter if she wants to go and go with that. If she got expected at the end of yr5, I'd expect her to get greater depth in all tests. Check if she's on track for this with the teacher.

Personally I think you might be overthinking things based on your personal experiences. If your DD is happy to do the additional work then why would you want to hold her back. Her greatest risk is from picking up on your feelings about SATs. Usually schools make these extra sessions quite relaxed and fun. I know at my DCs school they have snacks and treats and the extra work really helped DD prepare for secondary school.

The SATS are for the school not the pupils. If they need the children to do extra tuition after school, they're not doing their job right.

My DD is also in year 6. Her school tell parents not to do extra with the children, not to do any sats practice and not to put any pressure on them.

They have pretty much completed the Year5/6 curriculum and are doing very low key testing every now and again during lesson time.

This is an OFsted outstanding school with excellent sats results.

So my advice would be to say no.

Most secondary schools run their own tests because they know the primaries over coach. Mostly they are not solely relying on Sats. Thank god!

Let her go if she wants to. The teachers do want DC to do well. In fact the teachers seem to get more disappointed than the school if a DC doesn’t do as well as expected. They work so hard at teaching, they really want DC to do well. Hopefully parents can work with them on that rather than fighting against it.,