As grammar is being discussed, this is the new Yr 6 SPAG test

[katmanwho]

AIBU to use Google to answer half of them!!

Good luck

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439299/Sample_ks2_EnglishGPS_paper1_questions.pdf

Parents really need to know that this is the reality for their children. I'd suggest also raising this with any politicians knocking on your doors looking for support.

I sincerely hope that this SPAG obsession doesn't carry on into Year 7, or rather the testing obsession, I think it makes sense to carry on learning SPAG as just one of a myriad of bodies of knowledge you might need, not as a central one to spend 2-3 years of school on. My dd Year 7 loves her secondary as they do far more interesting stuff now the confines of the SATS are left behind, I would hate for that to be lost and for Year 7 to be an extension of an already exceptionally dull and limited Year 6.

misprioritisation

Is that a word?

If you understood it, then yes, it is

The testing will continue in Year 7 because children who fail reading or Maths will retake in December. Not sure about SPAG.

Year 6 is a total waste of education time. Governments have been told this time and time again. I wonder how many of them have had children in a state school in year 6 and have watched the stress. Listened to them as "we did practise SATs again", more tests and more tests.

I've told DS that the test is about tables. How people's pay and performance is judged by the results. How the head judges the teacher, how OFSTED and the Government judge the school and how the results get published.

He's lucky. He gets this stuff. But I can't help but feel he could be learning more useful stuff in this year.

As a y6 teacher can I just say it's not a TOTAL waste of learning time at all schools. We've not touched a practice paper yet, have done a huge musical performance, lots of art, trips, creative writing, science, all sorts of things. I'm just planning a lesson on Maya Angelou's The Caged Bird which the children will really get involved in.

But I'd be able to fit loads more of that in if I didn't have to cover all the SPaG terminology relentlessly.

Thank you so much for posting this. School have threatened (yes, I do mean threatened) to keep DD back in year 6 if she fails her SATs. We have just looked at some questions together and she did well. I am reassured!

For those who are confused by the lack of instructions - are you viewing it on a tablet? On my iPad, the instructions on the bar above the questions appear as just black, so I couldn't see that question one says 'Tick the sentence that must end with a question mark' until I opened it on my PC, where it's black lettering on a yellow bar.

between yes I would but only because they have already learnt it!

But does it matter if you don't know what it's called if you know how to use it correctly?

I really enjoyed English at school and performed well in it. I wouldn't know what the perfect present was if it fell on my head and bit me on the arse. I don't recall it causing an issue with MFL and I was pretty good at them.

My love of English at school has led to a lifetime (well, so far!) of enjoying reading and writing. I use it in my job and can recognise when a sentence is not grammatically correct even if I don't have the terminology to explain why.

I just think that if English lessons had consisted of rote learning these tedious phrases I would have completely disengaged.

washediris This is the information we have been given as teachers: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473675/Interim_teacher_assessment_frameworks_at_the_end_of_key_stage_2_PDFA_V3.pdf

We've not been given any more information than that. I suspect your daughter would be limited to 'expected' due to the handwriting. It does say that if there is a physical disability then the handwriting statements can be disregarded but knowing the government I would take that literally to mean a physical disability eg. a missing finger. I don't think you'd get the exclusion based on dyspraxia although of course I might be wrong. You possibly might due to the hypermobility.

The handwriting is required to be joined up, with a consistency between letter sizes.

Oof. I just had a look at the link and was wondering what the fuss was about up to about question 15. My 8 year old could easily answer quite a few of those.

From then on it gets quite ropey. I couldn't be sure of lots of them. And I have a grade A English Language A Level.

Washed iris

This is from the guidance

They should write maintaining legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether or not to join specific letters.

Most of the recently-trained teachers I work with would fail that

Surely if teachers can be trusted to put the child first, then they will not 'waste' yr 6 doing all this? It is the teachers who spend all the time focusing on SATs, it is irrelevant to the pupils.

I do put the children first, but my school is assessed based on these tests. I can't just 'not do it'. The government tells us that this is what we have to teach. We are simply following instructions. If I just ignored the tests and as a result the schools results plummeted, they'd simply put someone in y6 next year who would teach all that stuff. There's no head teacher in the world who would leave a y6 teacher in year 6 if they were teaching the curriculum.

wash not all writing will be assessed, I'd imagine it will be a carefully selected selection of some of her best independent writing.

But doesn't it then become the head at fault for putting the pressure onto the year 6 teachers alone.

I think this year is different, because the children haven't had a long enough with the new curriculum so there are a lot of gaps to fill.

But some schools have been doing this for years and the government aren't entirely to blame for that, schools have to take some responsibility too. Many schools manage very well without giving up their entire curriculum for a year to coach for SATs.

But OFSTED put pressure on the head. The government dictate what OFSTED are after. It's the government at fault for putting these changes into place with no consultation with those that actually teach. Yes some schools go crazy with it and should be held accountable for that, but every school has to teach this stuff whether they like it or not.

But teaching this is what schools should be doing, but spending a long time just teaching to the test is the fault of teachers, not the govt.

But teaching this is what schools should be doing, but spending a long time just teaching to the test is the fault of teachers, not the govt.

Yes and no.

But teaching this is what schools should be doing
Well, I would disagree with you there. Although grammar knowledge is needed, I am yet to be convinced of the necessity for an 11 year old to be able to recognise an adverbial phrase or a subordinating conjunction.

spending a long time just teaching to the test is the fault of teachers
Maybe, maybe not.
DD has done her first papers this week. Her school does not go for mad practice. But if she is going to be tested on subordinating conjunctions, then it is after all the job of the teacher to try to get her to understand them.

not the govt
Schools get judged by the government on their SATs results. A school cannot just 'ignore' SATs and the national curriculum. A school found to be doing that would be deemed to be failing. So when the government decides to put detailed grammar on the tests, and judges the schools based on the tests, then the effect of teachers trying to teach the information is hardly a surprise.