to be pissed off with a letter sent home from school today ...

[BloodySATs]

...telling me that my dd isn't making expected progress in Maths and this could result in her not hitting her [unrealistic IMO] target?

Now, if my dd wasn't trying hard enough, or wasn't focussed enough, then I could see their point, but as it happens her teachers are always full of praise for how hard dd tries, how much effort she puts into it and how exemplary her behaviour is. So what EXACTLY is dd supposed to do about 'not making expected progress'???

Her teacher wants me to focus more on Maths at home with dd on top of the twice weekly compulsory SATs booster classes that dd has to attend. Dd also has hobbies that she enjoys (and I've got no intention of making her give them up for more SATs revision!!) so when is she supposed to have relax time?

The whole thing pisses me off. She's 11 ffs!! Gah.

Why not get a tutor once a week if you can afford it it will cost £20 for an hour.

Or alternatively ask the school what they are going to do about it, if they are willing to give her some one to one tuition.

Can schools give one-to-one tuition?

pointydug - when? and who to? how do you explain to the parents who gets it and who doesn't?
OP as others have said, schools are under immense pressure now regarding SAT results and accountability. If there is any room to suggest that the school has not taken every measure and opportunity to flag up issues they'd be crucified by OFSTED and / or parents / local press etc.

no, my question was in response to fabby who suggested the school give one-to-one tuition.

I would have thought that would be completely impossible.

They might be able to set her some extra work? Some schools can give extra one to one on occasion.

Don't really understand why it's a problem to spend some time with your child to help him or her achieve to be honest. With 30 in a class there is only so much one teacher can do and I once worked out that when you took off all the compulsory stuff the teacher had to do it left about 3 minutes a day per individual child and that was a day without problems.

Hi Bloody sats.
Maybe the school could address the style in which they are teaching your child?
After all education should not be one size fits all (although it is sadly, too often)

BTW the cognitive PIAGET tests they put the kids through were/are based on a non existent child.
Piaget just decided what he thought was 'normal' and if a child didn't meet this crietia they were/are considered behind.
That's it in a nutshell anyway.

You let your child be a child, keep her hobbies. She'll be alright.
So maybe she won't be a mathematician, so what, she could be the best author/artist/brain surgeon/mother that ever lived instead!

this is all gobbledegook to me..targets?

the style in which they are teaching?

The school seem to be following the Health Visitor's Guide To The Bell Curve - 50th Centile or DIE TRYING.

50% of children should be attaining "below average," or it bloody well isn't an average.

Forgive me if my maths is broken, I didn't do SATS and would have failed them if I had.

Good logic Nac.

Pointydug. There is a basic curriculum and a basic way to teach it. Some kids learn by practical methods, some by reading, some by picture messages (PECS), some by being told verbally and others by experimenting.
Put it this way i know a lad (adult now) who can't write his own name or anything else, cannot read etc, couldn't possibly understand maths...
Does this mean he's a bit thick?
No, well not in my opinion anyway, cos you give him a picture of an airoplane dating right back to when they were first invented and he'll tell you exactly what it is, model, make, year etc. I couldn't do that, although I have a degree!
So he learns visually, he was told the names of the planes etc. If he'd had to read them himself he wouldn't have a clue.

Ah, VAK. I think VAK is pseudo-sciencey nonsense.

There is no 'basic way' to teach.

To clarify:

I'm not "enraged" at my child being "stretched", I am pissed off that she has received a letter saying that she isn't making expected progress when in reality, she is doing all she can and working flat out.

I'm pissed off because the school are saying that her best isn't good enough - well, quite frankly I'm afraid that that's their problem, not my dd's. She can only do her best.

pointy you say "Sounds like schools are having to cover their backs to deal with appeals and claims of parents saying 'we never knew' after the event.

Is that what's ahppening?"

Yes - quite possibly.
But in my dd's case, I don't know what it can achieve as there's nothing else she can do to improve. She already does 2 weekly booster classes plus revision at home (which obviously now will focus more on maths).

Fabby - we can't afford a tutor, but I wouldn't get her one even if we could. She's working her socks off and she's maintaining 'average'. She's not behind. She's just not in front. I'm not allowing it to become all-consuming.

Onceami - I'm sorry if it's not clear, but dd does lots of work outside of the classroom. It's not that she doesn't put the effort in. I strongly feel that any more would be taking away from her childhood (not to be too dramatic ) and I'm not prepared to allow that to happen. She's 11!

Bulby I understand that you feel you can't win, I just feel that my daughter can't win either

As a Year 6 teacher in a school that has a notice to improve i would say that targets are a bit silly from an individual child's (parent's) point of view. For the school it is indeed a huge deal. As a requirement of OFSTED we have ridiculous targets to meet, nearly impossible, so we are trying our best to do this for the sake of the school. BUT not to the detriment of the children. At least not in our opinion.

IMO it is my job to help each child get as far as they can before they leave my care and certainly to achieve a level 4 by the end of year 6. It is their entitlement!

BUT i would NEVER send a letter home like that, so unprofessional and unhelpful. I have children in my class who i feel are under achieveing and have contacted parents and had a meeting where i highlight what i believe to be the problem and ask the parents for help in specific ways.

That letter was totally pointless, served no purpose but to either pass the blame or panic you. I suggest you go in as ask the teacher precisely what the purpose of that letter was and if she wants your help she has to be more helpful. (Not that she deserves it!)

I have some sympathy with a school having a last-minute panic about their SATS. But I do wish they wouldn't lie to our children: every year the children at the local primary school get told that this is an important exam that is going to decide their future.

Dd's friend was ill in bed with suspected glandular fever and she got so hysterical at the thought of missing her important exam that they sent a TA out to let her sit the exam at home. Which meant dd- who was also ill and not actually able to sit upright or hold a pen- was also pressurised into doing it. Well, at least dd knew the truth about her "important exam" because I told her.

Have noticed that ds (now in Yr 6 and struggling academically) has been getting increasingly grumpy and rebellious lately- turns out they've been having assemblies about how their future is predicted by their SATS results (with good care taken not to explain the difference between predicted and determined).

We are very grateful for the booster classes- I just wish they could have been offered because he needs them (he does), not in a last ditch effort to salvage the school's results.

Students can be working hard but not in the right manner. If any of my children were not making the expected progress I would want to know.

Picture the scene two adults suited and booted sat around a conference table discussing world affairs . Oh by the way says one to the other What result did you get in your sats test when you were 11. Sats are for the school league tables .

i will never forget DD1 being ill off school on a day when she was supposed to sit her sats. She wasn't at deaths door and came into work with me (i worked at a vets at the time and there was a flat upstairs where she could sit and watch TV etc). This is opposite the school - her teacher came over to the vets to get my DD would i mind sending her in to do her SATS exam as she was expected to be one of the ones to do well and they wanted to meet some sort of target for that year, not a personal target, a target for the school.. I did let her go as i asked her and she said ok, but on reflection i rather wish i told them to get on their bikes.

Oh dear god please do not put any more pressure on your daughter by getting in tutors or booster classes or whatever. If she is an average child then a level 4 is fine.

As a secondary maths teacher, we pretty much ignore SATs scores for setting etc. because some primary schools do all this ridiculous hothousing which gives an artificially high score for the child's actual ability. We do our own tests at the start of Y7.

Please, please ignore them. They are important to the school, not to your daughter. Look after her well-being first.

Compulsory booster classes? Outside school hours? Nonsense. What would they do to you if your child didn't attend? I say that as a teacher.

Level 2 to level 4 is expected progress. The divisions (2b etc) are made up to allow 'progress' to be shown when each Level is large and only 2 levels' improvement are expected at each Key Stage. They do not appear in the National Curriculum documents.

As a school governor there is no way my dd/ds would be doing out of hours extra classes. Especially if they are progressing normally as your dd is. I would write to the school and politely inform them that it is better for your dd to relax at home and not worry about SATs at all. It's ridiculous to put that much pressure on a child that age. (Btw- I have a dd in Y6 and I have just told her to do her best as she does every day and that worrying about SATs is not productive. No-one is going to die if she gets a Level 4 instead of 5 and we will be proud whatever).

I suspect these levels have been set using the fisher family trust data - this assumes each child (each average child) should make 2 sub levels progress each academic year so they are/were expecting the following

yr2 2b
yr3 3c
yr4 3a
yr5 4b
yr6 5c

so according to this, yes your child may be behind expected progress. But, if she tries her best and does a bit extra at home plus goes to the compulsory boosters (that in itself is just awful) then I feel you are completely within you rights to say that's enough.

Fisher family trust is widely used by many schools and is a good indicator for some children - but doesnt take into account the child, for whatever reason not making 2 sub levels within a year.

I've just realised that she's doing compulsory twice-weekly SATs booster classes in January FFS. The school needs to get a grip.