Bloody, bloody SATs.

[WasabiPeace]

Or NCTs or whatever the jeff they're calling them this year.

Dd is doing them at the end of the year and the pressure has started already. She had to be in school for 8am today (and every Weds for the next few weeks) to do extra maths. This means we all had to leave the house half an hour earlier and because it cocked up the order of our three school drop offs (one at secondary, dd at primary, one at nursery) it made us all late.

And I wouldn't mind. But the extra maths is to try and get the level 4s up to level 5. It's meaningless. The results have no impact going forwards, the secondaries do their own streaming. It only benefits the school.

Dd is no maths whizz and is unlikely to get a level 5 even with coaching. And if she hasn't learned it in the course of her usual lessons then surely that means either she isn't a level 5 or the school have ballsed up the maths teaching. So the whole thing is meaningless.

I'm crabby and tired and missed breakfast to leave the house early for something entirely pointless.

Aibu?

Yes, it's pointless, and surely can't be compulsory. I would send a short note to school saying that it is not possible for your DD to attend sessions before school, and just go back to your usual routine.

Actually, it will affect what happens in secondary - they will use the SAT level as a baseline (and so will the Government, now the measures have changed).

DD will need to be 4B to meet the floor level - the school may be focussing on level 4s to secure the 4Bs by getting them to work at level 5 - getting a level 5 will help both the school results and DD at secondary so extra help now will get her ready for a good start in secondary maths. (Oddly a 4 will help the secondary as they will be measured on progress so students starting with a low level are helpful as there is more room to improve).

I don't think they do use SATS as a measure at secondary schools. Certainly the school dd1 is going to in September, apparently re-assesses them all using these CAT tests.

DD is also doing extra sessions before school. We are letting her go, in the hope that it builds her confidence. It seems like almost her whole year are either doing 4 up to 5, or 5 up to 6. Getting her to school a whole hour early is tough though. They do get a drink and a cereal bar there, which she sees as a massive treat worth the trouble in itself.

Oh, and YANBU. At all. Not even a little bit.

yanbu, It can't be compulsory. Ask your DD what she wants to do.

They do re-assess using CAT ihategeorgeosbourne, but IME, they use SATs to put them in initial sets, which will be changed if their own testing shows large anomalies, but it's much easier to stay in set 1 (or3) than to be moved up IYSWIM.

However, DS1 has been stitched up good and proper by doing well in his yr6 SATs - get got good 5s but was a natural 4. He's now in year 9 and all his targets are based on the level of improvement required from his year 6 SATs, which means they are all unachievable and demoralising. On paper he made no progress at all in yr7 and very little in yr8 despite working hard and "knowing" that he was improving.

Yanbu.

My ds is very bright (I know, Mumsnet sin to say that, but he just is) and has been utterly disadvantaged by this because the secondary school we want for him does fair banding tests and the 1A stream he ended up in has twice as many applicants as the 3 stream. Being a good student at primary school has done nothing whatsoever towards his future education, infact it has impacted negatively on him. How the fuck can that be?

We are doing nothing extra towards SATS, school can swing afaic.

But surely if she's not that good at maths then extra tuition can only be a good thing for your dd? Personally I'd jump at the chance.

My daughter's secondary offered extra half term tuition in the run up to GCSEs and it helped enormously.

I didn't know that Classic, that sounds very worrying. Dd is on target to get 5s /6s. Maybe I should tell her to flunk them all!! Talking to the teachers at dds new secondary, they don't steam them until Christmas apparently. They are in mixed ability for the first term and then they sit the CAT tests before Christmas and when they return in January, they are put into sets based on the tests. So, SATS actually seem pretty pointless then