This is the recent KS2 English reading test that staff and pupils thought was hard

[cakeorwine]

Key stage 2 tests: 2023 English reading test materials - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Only had a quick look - but I thought people might find it interesting

How able is your DC?

Ah. Well, that's why the "too long" argument is being made then. Which is fair enough.

It's the length of texts combined with a few ambiguous questions where more than one answer could be correct. The act question in isolation might look reasonable but that isn't taking into account that it would take the average dc about half the test time to just read the material which is far beyond the norm. Your opinion is irrelevant. An analysis of the paper in comparison to previous papers has concluded that it is an outlier in terms of difficulty.

Are Y6 children supposed to be just skimming text nowadays and then go back to answer the questions?

It feels very strange to me. Surely, at that age m you’d want them to read the text and then answer the questions from their understanding of the whole text. NOT after going back to read one paragraph.

@Noteification you are just wrong. It would take close to 25 mins to just READ the paper based on typical reading speeds fir that age group. Your cursory and unqualified opinion with all due respect is pointless

There are no objectives in the KS2 English PoS for skimming and/or scanning.

It was the length of time it would have taken to read the text that was the issue. The assumption is that an average 10-11 year old reads 90 words a minute, so would take just short of 25 mins to read that particular text. The SAT is 45 mins duration.
My 11 year old said that she found the text lengthy but not difficult and that none of the class found the text on bats (NY Times article) difficult.

My Y6 'more able' DC sat this.

He said it was 'hard' and he only just finished it. Normally he has time to check over.

I think it is unlikely that your 11yo would know what all of the class really thought.
They might know what the more able, confident kids thought.
The less confident or less able kids are more likely to stay quiet about their views.

It would be interesting if the posters who say "oh my child could easily do that!" sat their child down and made them do it under exam conditions.

I have an 11 year old daughter in year 6 but didn't take the SATS exams - these questions look around the right level for children of that age.

If they are designed to test children of all ability then should they not include questions that only those at the very top end can answer - and therefore it's understandable a lot of children will not be able to finish the paper?

At my daughters school the tests which are sat are aimed for an average mark of around 50%, anything over is working above the expected, and it's usual to not finish the exam.

Are the marks for the exam standardised if so it shouldn't impact scores and it seems the reason for children being distressed is due to pressure / expectations that the exam was going to be easy.

DGD stated quite categorically that the test wasn’t hard, there just wasn’t enough time.

There've been outcries before at text extracts adapted from the Sunday Times travel pages (referring to the "caving" text from years ago in particular). Some years you get a reading booklet that's really engaging (and I used to mark the KS2 Reading and the markers rejoiced in those years as well) and some years it's a right bloody slog. The one I hated the most out of the years of papers I marked was the fucking Earthship one - dull dull dull dull dull dull dull.

It's a bit of a dull set of texts this year - some years you get that but these are notably dull, but not the apocalypse it's being made out to be. As for if a bright child could finish - DD1 who is solidly greater depth for English finished with time to spare - not as much time to spare as she normally does but did finish (she's like me in that she does work very fast with this stuff and can retrieve information quickly) but wasn't rattled or impressed by it.

Maths reasoning 1 had her SERIOUSLY upset though which is just the way it turned out this year for her and I'm not stressed about.

What matters more to me than the potentially ambiguous answers and the responses in the printed mark scheme is how the markers have been trained to respond to those and any cascaded clarification that comes down from above during the marking process - I used to end up with a marking scheme booklet that was like 3 times the thickness it was when originally printed with all clarifications and example questions with allocated marks etc for additional detail.

Was actually talking to the Y6 teacher yesterday about something else entirely (and I'm also a governor at the school so she probably does say a bit more to me than she might to another parent) but it cropped up because she knows I used to mark them and her comment was that, from the over the shoulder looks around the class, she doesn't feel it has gone as badly as the media are trying to whip up.

Ah, ok. As I said, I'm sticking my beak in as a (mainly) A level English teacher! And it's been too many years since I was at school to remember!

I'm not a teacher but even I realise there's likely to be a difference between what is asked in year 6 and year 12.

Are adults really struggling with the “eat” question?

Whereas one of my kids hardly reads a thing for pleasure, recently got tested in year 7, reading age of 16+ the test didn't go any higher, higher score than 98% apparently, without reading classics, any idea how they happened? Because we sure don't!

“My bright child found it easy therefore the test is fine” is such a bollocks line to take about a test that is meant to be accessible to the whole cohort.

It’s a hangover from Gove, this idea that the most important thing about a test is that it “challenges” the “most able”.

It is psychologically very stressful to sit a test that is inaccessible. This means that lower attaining children may have been unable to demonstrate what they do know because of the inappropriate nature of the test.

Totally agree.

Also agree.

(I might be a bit sensitive right now as I have a DD who is borderline as to whether she'll even agree to sit an exam tomorrow due to stress/anxiety/lack of self belief.)

In Ireland they updated the regular end of year tests to try to make them more relevant to a cross section of children. Reading about bats would be very difficult for some as it wouldn't be an area of interest so would take a little bit more effort. I think it's important that the experience of the children is represented in some way. Some children will fly through any test due to a high ability but there is a whole cohort of students who will lose confidence immediately when there is nothing there they can identify with.
And lreland was shown to be one of the few countries that the reading skills didn't fall behind during Covid closures so we don't have a low standard.

It makes me feel really sad and a bit angry that there are kids out there who will go into year 7 at a new school already believing they are shit at exams. It cannot be the right way to do education.

Skimming techniques are not basic.

Getting an entire cohort literate enough to be able to read those three pieces fluently is a great achievement for any state primary teacher.

What?!