Tell me about your Year 6s doing SATs

[Seesawmarjorydaw]

At the beginning of the year, I was impressed with how DS’s school approached SATs. Of the welcome to year 6 meeting for parents, only 5 minutes was SATs specific. Lots of interesting topics, a residential etc.

Now, however, after an Easter holiday with practice papers (all of them), days apparently full of SATs practice, and a daily count down I’m wondering what others are feeling. My son knows exactly my thoughts on SATs (I’ll start caring what he gets when they’re an exam that matters for his future, but until then do your best but its something the school gets judged on, not you, and it’s not the end of the world) but he’s feeling really stressed by school who clearly see the post Easter - SATs window as time to ramp up the pressure.

What are other parents of Y6s going through at the moment?

(Btw: teachers, you’re awesome. I do know this is a Huge Deal for you)

Mine has done 3 sets of practise papers through the year and that is it. They have been told exactly what you are saying by the school, but I know a lot of schools do really push it.

Ours seem to have a decent balance. They ditched all other homework after Christmas and asked them to do SATS practice papers instead and provided guidance on how much to do, how parents could support etc. I feel like it's been genuinely useful for DS and much better than some of the pointless homework projects they had previously!

They seem to make a real effort to stop it becoming too pressurised - they seem to have reduced the amount of SATS prep they've been doing at Easter and DS is quite looking forward to it because they have a Year 6 SATS breakfast together every day and lots of fun activities after each day's papers.

She is doing the required homework but zero pressure from us. To be honest they are easier than the entrance exam she sat in January for which we did additional tutoring for so she had covered the full syllabus by December. SATS are just an irritation to get through.

Thanks. It’s not about the difficult of the exam for DS, just the environment around it which is tricky.

@Seesawmarjorydaw our school is trying to strike a balance between preparing them and not stressing any of the kids but I don't think it is working with some children eg 1 of DDs friends is having a maths tutor in the run up to SATS.
Even if DD hadn't sat entrance exam we wouldn't be putting any pressure on her for SATS, I am completely against them.

We had a flurry of information and emails about past papers and they are putting on some additional lessons in the mornings for some who struggle but DD doesn’t seem under pressure. We’ve told her to do her best and concentrate on understanding things she struggles with as a good base for next year. She will panic in the exams, so IMO it’s better for her to get used to them and learn some techniques now when they don’t matter as much to her.