To be fuming that DS got a level 3b in his Y5 SATS reading...

[pippiLS]

…and that his form teacher thinks that this is somehow my fault!!

Some background info: DS had all L3s at KS1, is hoping to get into one of the best Grammar schools in the country (maybe we need to rethink this) and is reading (with me), A Brief History of Time at the moment (just to give you an idea of his reading level). He loves science and is very well informed about material far beyond the curriculum at this level yet he has also performed poorly on his Science SATs paper. Oh, and one last thing, he got 100% in one of his maths papers.

Have arranged meeting with Head and form teachers but not sure what on earth to say. He joined this school in Y5, so just this year (it's a middle school). His final report from his previous school in Y4 was all 4as.

Was he feeling unwell on the Reading/Science days? How would he perform on something similar at home? You can download the tests here: satspapers.org/optionalsats.htm so could sit down with him and go through them before the meeting if you want. Then you'd have more of an idea of where the problems are and more to discuss.

She thinks he's coasting - I'm not even sure what this means! He's certainly not afraid of hard work and is always willing to do extra things outside of school to help improve his chances in the 11+.

I'm off to pick him up now, thanks for any responses in the meantime.

Was it to do with the text they had to read? My DS bombed in one of the Y5 reading assessments (attained over a level lower than his previous assessment). He said he just didn't "get" the text (his teacher said they would quietly disregard the result as she knew DS was capable of more). How is he doing in everyday lessons at school?

Maybe DS having an off day? Maybe bored stiff by reading paper?
Surely in year 5, as no official SATs an off day won't matter? Surely day to day stuff counts?

Sounds like some sort of mistake. Won't make any difference to his chances of getting into a grammar school though.

I sincerely hope that your DS's school doesn't just set their end of year level in any subject based on one snapshot test!

Sounds like he has had a few off days - and if this is not the case, the school should have signalled there were problems looooong ago.

they think its your fault? new school please!

Yes, what is the teacher assessment,done half-termly, and what is his actual reading age compared with his chronological age?
If he transferred with his peers, have their results altered, because believe me, there are ways of administering tests to achieve better results.
What he is reading out of school, 'with you' is an indication of his interest level, not necessarily his ability.
Listen carefully to what the school says; he may well be coasting, not using his ability because he considers the work beneath him, or of course, he may be finding it difficult, and not trying, because if you don't try, you can't fail.
If he has been at this school for a year, were his end of term assessment results good? Going in fuming won't solve anything; ask for evidence of his progress throughout the year.

Is it possible his last school inflated his grades?

What have they said which implies that they think it's your fault?

Remember that a reading level isn't just about being able to read though. It's also about comprehension and reading into the meanings of the text and perhaps the author's intentions. Not saying your DS can't do these things but it's just something to consider.

Sounds like his comprehension skills need to catch up so that he understands what he reads.

Oh, don't worry about it! I've no concerns about my DS's reading as he reads well and often but he always does badly at the levels because he reads too quickly and misses stuff out (he is 7.)

I think levels are silly and meaningless anyway. I understand you want to get him into a good grammar school (we don't have them in this area) but he's clearly intelligent so I wouldn't be concerned at all.

What makes you say the school think it is your fault?

What are you fuming about.

The result or the lack of effort.

If you want him to do well in tests you need to just priorotise the curriculum. I'm not saying I agree with this but that's how the education system works until you get to university.

Maybe I'm being unfair by saying that the school think it's my fault. DS had to complete a piece of work - make a poster on sea turtles. They did some work in class and then they had to research further at home and complete the poster. He diligently researched on his own, pulled out 4 interesting facts about why sea turtles were endangered (his own context), made catching headings and wrote a detailed paragraph on each factor taking care to correctly spell difficult words.

He was disappointed when his teacher asked him to redo it and he didn't seem to know what she wanted him to do exactly. When I checked the success criteria for the piece of work it was all ticked and the teacher had written "success criteria met but this seems unfinished.' I honestly didn't know what to advise him and he was getting more and more worked up saying that his teacher would be annoyed with him if he didn't 'fix' it.

I wrote a note to the teacher saying that I didn't feel there was much to be gained by redoing the piece of work and how I felt he had worked hard on it - this was obviously some sort of mortal sin :(

YouThe Cat, that's just it, his comprehension skills are really good. They are better than his sister's and she got a place to a super-selective grammar (the comprehension task on the paper is notoriously difficult for 11 year olds, it's GCSE standard).

So why are you furious exactly?

So your son who is GCSE standard for comprehension got a level 3 in year 5 SATS reading assessment. That is strange. Do you think he clashes with his teacher? My DS had a bad year with his year 3 teacher, we had no problems except for that year.

The writing you've mentioned in your last post isn't a Reading SAT. Is he getting confused?

If you are confident in his abilities it doesn't really matter. Actually it's the school which loses out because higher grades are better for them. Can I be really cynical though-he joins and they grade him a level 3b then in yr6 they give him a high level 5 meaning it looks like they've taught him amazingly and he has made lots of progress. Just being a cynical teacher

IsitFriday, the writing is something else that she was cross about.

I've calmed down now (thanks for all the replies) but I was fuming earlier because it felt like I was being reprimanded for not ensuring that DS does his homework to the best of my abilities.

She is also cross that he doesn't diligently keep his reading log up to date.

He described one of the questions on the SATs paper. it asked about the arrows in a life cycle diagram and DS launched in to explaining the lifecycle in detail when the answer was just that the arrow meant 'grows into'. DS's response: 'but wasn't that a bit too obvious and easy'.