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

Why would you do that?? It's a lovely day outside BTW ☺️

“Why would you do that?? It's a lovely day outside BTW “

@Noteification - that is speak for “your poor children, you must be so pushy and aspirational”.

@Noteification - do you homeschool? Are you a “qualified teacher?” Because that is another usual argument trotted out. You must be “qualified” to teach the basics.

Is that in response to me? Yes we had noticed, she's outside playing playing with the mud kitchen right now. She did not run out there finally free, but having happily done her lessons decided to play outside.

I'm guessing from that question and statement you're an unschooler who believes any formal work means they're miserable and missing out on childhood? Or/and being kept inside working at a desk all or most of the day?
Yes, even if the weather is nice, she still does short lessons. Today, at the last minute I decided on one comprehension activity for English. Education is compulsory and I wish actually doing formal work wasn't so frowned upon.

She's not being robbed of her childhood. She is happy to do her lessons, and she is still enjoying being a child. They are not incompatible concepts. /rant over/

Of course I'm not an unschooler. Presumably your dd isn't at school for some reason?

The BBC’s education correspondent Hazel Shearing - why does she not link her article to the scaled scoring webpage I linked above to inform the general population of how these papers are actually eventually scored?

I really think many people do not understand the basics of how SATS are marked at KS2, or what they even mean.

It is the adults’ job to let the kids know what actually happens, that they do not need to get everything right, just try their best, that it is their teachers/school being tested as well etc and that they are just being compared to other kids their age anyway.

Perhaps the DFE need to issue some general idiot proof guidance on the above so that parents and teachers follow a script of how they explain SATs to the children?

Yes, I'm so pushy. Real tiger mum. Poor poor kids. Do you reserve the same judgement for the home educated children playing video games all day? I would actually bet money on them not being the next Bill Gates. Despite what you might hear in the echo chamber about them being amazing entrepreneurs or becoming a manager at 19 with no qualifications.

I do believe all children, deserve at least a certain standard of education. Horrifying, I know. That is what this post is about, the upset about this paper indicates that they are not. It is known already literacy and numeracy levels are declining. The government needs to address this.

Mine isn't, but so what if kids are ahead? There's nothing wrong with a child working at any level at any pace, if that suits them. Doesn't mean the parents are pushy. Amazing how even when a child isn't 'ahead', doing any formal work, no matter how short, gets you cast off as a pushy mother in some home ed circles. The issue here is, a lot of children have found this hard, and theoretically most shouldn't have. My post should not be used an excuse to point and say 'clearly you're pushy, poor kids'. This thread, from my perspective, is about school educated children, for whatever reason being let down. This is further evidence about literacy rates declining, it is an issue. We should not blame the paper, it is in the best interests of the children to actually address the issues. If you'd like to start a post debating whether home educated child doing no formal work is educational neglect or the best decision long term, go ahead.

No, I'm not a qualified teacher. Nor do I believe you need to be one. As above, it would seem there's a problem with illiteracy amongst teachers, would be a bit weird if I felt you needed to be one in order to educate children.

This. With bells on.

I'm in a professional role. I'm not pushy. My DD is not G&T or at GD. In some aspects she is below. I have complete and utter faith in her ability to get to where she wishes to be. Your view is insular and narrow.

I think that students in schools in more deprived areas and those with a significant number of EAL students struggled much more with this paper. A lot of reading ability comes from being exposed to a variety of written work which sadly so many children don’t have access to.

I agree. All children deserve a good standard of education, by whatever means the parents think is best for their child (be that the local state, selective state, private or home education).

Rather than demanding that the papers are made easier because lots of children apparently couldn’t answer many questions, we should be looking at how to improve the education provided so that more children can manage those questions. Pull children up, don’t drag the exams down. If teachers genuinely did find those questions hard (as reported by the media), we need to question the standard of education our children are being provided with.

We can’t just focus on children within the UK. The world of work is a lot more global than even a generation ago; we need our education system to compete globally.

It looks like JustanithermagicMonday1's DC would get on with mine. I guess that makes us 'bizarre' too.

After not being stretched all of Y6, it seems that not even the test itself should allow them to demonstrate or use their full ability.

I dont know why children are getting upset. What are they told is the purpose of the test? The test is not about assessing them, it's about assessing the school. If the pupil performs badly it's a low mark for the school not the pupil.

I understand that SAT scores are sent to secondary schools but I think most schools test Y7s in September anyway. I really think something is going wrong in the preparation if the children are 'distressed' by this.

I agree. To be honest though, even if the tests were to assess the children, children should not be getting this upset because they found something harder than they expected.

Teachers and parents should tell children that all they can do is their best. Sometimes, exams are hard and you’ll come across some where you’ll really struggle. If you open a paper and find it really hard, you can guarantee that lots of others will be feeling exactly the same. Just plough through it the best you can and forget about it when you’ve finished. Grade boundaries and pass marks are often shifted in cases like this. Exams and tests are not designed so that the majority can get every single question correct. They are designed to stretch the very brightest. Children shouldn’t be made to feel as though they have failed just because they haven’t been able to answer all the questions and it begs the question why children have been made to feel like this.

show their full ability

This is interesting. If you make a test hard enough so the top 10% can show their full ability, then aren't you at risk of making it so hard that the bottom 40% can't access enough of it to show their full ability?

SATs were/are to check that primary schools were ensuring their pupils were secondary ready. Why would it be so awful if the top 10% got full marks in half the allowed test time if it permits less able children to show what they can do too?

A paper should get gradually harder, with the 3rd text being the hardest. It should test what it is meant to test - comprehension, and not speed reading.
Furthermore it shouldn't be such high stakes for the school that they overload the kids with pressure.

Both ends of the spectrum should be allowed to show their full ability. A previous poster said that, in the past, SATS had extension papers so that the more academic pupils were able to access harder content, whilst the less academic could have a good attempt at the easier sections. Perhaps this is the answer - differentiate the papers in some way. You can’t not stretch the more able pupils just because others find it too tricky.

The problem with this, I recall from my own school days, was that it was then down to the teachers’ judgement who should be allowed to access the extension paper- and you inevitably get accusations of children not being given the opportunity to take the papers and show what they can do due to inaccurate or prejudicial judgements from their teachers.

“I think that students in schools in more deprived areas and those with a significant number of EAL students struggled much more with this paper. A lot of reading ability comes from being exposed to a variety of written work which sadly so many children don’t have access to.”

That is why rich countries like Norway and Switzerland throw funding at EAL children right away and do very small group interventions to get them to bilingual status quickly.

But all children are different. Some will be relaxed and some will not. Children are not stupid. They are aware that they are taking tests and they are aware that getting questions wrong means they haven't answered them correctly. Telling kids that it is assessing the school and not them is not going to cut it for some children.

I think it comes down to expectation management. In order for the most able to be able to perform to the best of their ability, inevitably some of the less able might not finish the test. And that’s ok. The issue here seems to be that it was much longer than previous years and the past papers the children were practising. So the children found it harder than expected. And yes, that happens in life, but it’s arguable whether that life lesson needs to be taught at 10, or whether the adults setting the test should have been better at setting it according to the expectations they had set.

I don’t disagree. This is probably why they stopped the extension paper option - because parents complained their child wasn’t given the opportunity to access the paper. However, as with this year, parents also complain when the paper contains questions which their children can’t answer. There’s no ideal answer, but it’s not fair to deprive the more academic children of the opportunity to be stretched. They need to be able to access harder questions some how.

You can’t make a test easy just because some children will be upset at getting some answers wrong though. These children are going to secondary school this year; they will have assessments and often end of year exams to complete in the not too distant future, where they will be getting answers wrong and where they will sometimes find a test hard.

Good lord we have problems if y6 aren’t able to tackle this. My son is y6 and this would be absolutely standard work for them to complete (private school but non selective)

We’ve got even bigger problems if the media reports stating that teachers personally found it difficult are correct…..

Our school does an assembly for Year 6 children well in advance of SATs to go through all these things, not being a perfectionist (and why being a perfectionist is not good), moving on when you find something hard etc., it is OK to not be best at everything (X is good at football, Y at making friends, C at Maths etc), keep an eye on the time, if you get something wrong don’t let it affect the rest - we all have talents etc., it is just an opportunity to show off what you have learnt, don’t worry if you run out of time. Just eat breakfast, go to bed early and don’t arrive too late during SATS is the motto. If the kids are properly pastorally supported then maybe this kind of thing won’t happen?

Our head teacher told me no child in our Year 6 complained about this paper this year and the parents were all fine with it too. In fact, the general discussion was what are the News on about? It seems politically motivated. It is the same with the GCSE grade boundaries this year. At some point, things will have to go back to normal. Looking at last year’s Year 1 phonics test, I also thought it was quite hard. However, I think post pandemic high aspirations for children is a good thing.

High aspirations for children does not harm them, rather the opposite. A child is not excused from sports day because they are not a good runner and may come last. So what. No child can be best at everything. We can’t keep bulldozering their path to make everything easy for them because life after that is not one nice walk in the park. You have to develop resilience skills. It is OK to make mistakes.
In fact, I think in a digital world where they are bombarded with fake perfectionism and how to be etc, it is even more important to teach them resilience.

Exactly this.