Year 6 SATs

[Beansandcheesearegood]

How important are Year 6 SATs? My dd is really stressing about them. They start next Monday and end on Thursday. I'm due to be away from Thursday morning until Sunday and seriously having second thoughts about going as I feel like I should be here for her! I'm probably being unreasonable....

It is an important rite of passage. Surviving them means when they go to secondary they know they can do exams.

Government targets for gcse results are set from SATs. Some schools make thus very visible on reports, others don't.
Some schools target intervention on those making less than desired progress, others don't.
Some schools do initial setting based on SATs, others don't.

But SATs don't impact progression to next school, nor what gcses they can sit, nor are they asked about in job applications.

I wouldn't be away over the SATs exams if I could help it, as a calming influence and normality at home will be helpful and supportive.

They are important and not important.

it’s good for year 6’s to do them and realise that the world didn’t fall in afterwards.
most secondary schools use them plus other information for initial setting. So they do give information to the secondary school.

nobody will ever ask for your sats results in a job interview or indeed at any point during your life.

however it is stressful for them - it’s the first “proper” exam and there’s often a lot of anxiety.

if you are away presumably there is another parent or a grandparent or similar who can help emotionally support them.

some kids take it all in their stride and others get very anxious.

They are important to schools and for generating data to metaphorically beat teachers up with.

They are not important to children.

Sensible secondary schools know that the data is unreliable because different primaries teach the y6s to pass with different levels of coaching and support. The range of knowledge and skills tested is narrow.

They are absolutely not worth 10-11 year olds stressing themselves over.

My advice to y6s is go in, do your best with what you know, and move on.

Thanks, yes her dad will be home, I think I might change dates I'm away - Friday might be better.

I think they're a way of showing where they are in terms of placing them in the correct classes in high school, nothing to stress about my oldest didn't even do them because it was lockdown when she was due to do hers, she's doing her GCSEs now and it's never impacted her having not done them

Some secondary schools will use the data to group the children. They will use the data for prediction and then in Y11 to see how well they taught, ("progress 8" figures at GCSE level).

For your child - it's a taste of things to come, that exams are part of school life and that there will be pressure from the schools.
But in the end, the results won't change his/her life as most secondary schools will take into account that primary schools often teach to pass and then make their own observations.

We just kept it easy at home and when it was over ordered pizza for dinner.

Secondary schools get access to the student's primary school records?

secondary schools are sent data on the students coming up to them. Most primary schools have a transitions meeting with the local secondaries and will point out eg SEN needs, suggest which children should not be in a class together etc.

children who have EHCPs or individual education plans also have those passed on to the secondary.

Not important at all other than a stupid hoop they have to jump through. Went through them last year and the school made such a song and dance about its how secondary school would determine sets and predicted GCSE grades. It made not one bit of difference, but it did cause a lot of anxiety. Some kids were literally in tears and hyperventilating in the morning coming in.

I’m going through it again with my littlest one doing Y2 SATS this year. It’s ridiculous. They’ve taken him out of lessons so he can do more practice tests and they’re trying to teach him how to guess answers if he doesn’t know or doesn’t understand the question. I’m like, let him do art or build stuff or read books. But the school is very worked up about metrics. I ignore all the practice tests they send home.

I would not change your schedule around for them though. It makes it into a thing and it’s not.

I am not 100% how much they receive but I think SATs scores are shared as the secondary use them to build up their entry forms and it's part of this progress 8 score.

When my DD left primary the secondary came and visited but also asked the y6 teacher to fill out an info sheet on each pupil as it helped them create the tutor groups to have boy/girl mix (obvious, (or was then)), but academic mix, SEN, friendships, etc.

Our secondary ignore them completely as they know how unreliable they are

They are used both as a measure for primary and as part of the individual child’s progress. The new school will receive information regarding their progress. The information is used to provide an initial GCSE predicted grade. However this obviously can change depending on the child’s development as they move through secondary school.

They take children who have been granted extra time, or a reader or a scribe or a prompt in separate rooms to mimimise distraction, not to 'tell them the answers' which would be a career ending decision

Do OFSTED use SATS as a measure when deciding if a school is ‘outstanding’ etc?

Surely they can’t completely, as they are the basis for the Progress 8 measure used nationally?

Anyone who ended up going to university is not 'dumb'.
'Dumb' is an atrocious way to refer to children even if some of them bullied your child.

By the time they start secondary school, SATS scores are already 1/3 of a year out of date, and some pupils are so hothousd the scores are meaningless

And your child was probably bullied by children whose parents instilled jealousy and made them jealous of your son.

What you're doing by calling children dumb is exactly the same.