To think the Yr 6 Reading Comprehension Test today was far too difficult?

[Lottielo]

Ds just home from school and very upset because he found the reading comprehension paper much harder than previous sample papers he has done in school. He didn't even finish the paper (missed out 5 questions).

Was this paper harder than expected or was my Ds not properly prepared by his school? I know it shouldn't matter too much, but I'm worried it could knock his confidence.

Because teachers aren't trusted to assess the children accurately, we have to have tests to do that!
( Apart that is from KS1 where we have been told tests are unreliable and we have to use teacher assessment!)

The difficulty with a "below par" SATs result is that it gives you a low target grade for GCSE. So, if you are more able than the SATs results suggest and easily reach your target grade there is the POSSIBILITY that the teacher would then concentrate his/her efforts on the children in danger of missing their target rather than push the child on who HAS reached their target already

Bloody hell, dd's teacher (who has not impressed me this year anyway) has apparently told the children that she put the wrong code for their school on the board and so one class have got it wrong on the form and she didn't realise until all the forms were in the sealed envelope to go back and also told the children that she wasn't allowed to open it and put it right. Dd now thinks that she won't get a mark.
Ffs. She shouldn't have said anything to the children that suggested she couldn't fix the problem.

lottielo as a university lecturer at a very well-regarded uni and I really, really cannot see that ever being the case. We'd lose so many potentially brilliant students if we gave a shit about their SATs results. No way in a million years we'd ever hold some test they did when they were 10 against them when they're 18 (and the tests would be irrelevant for many subjects, anyway). So nobody should fear that!

Ignore the ungrammatical sentence! (Oh, the ironies ...)

we were given some info on the KS1 tests, our school aren't doing them until next week.

We've been told they'll be doing them in small groups and the teachers are allowed to read bits out.

They're treating them in a very laid back manner.

I will see how DD (only just 7) gets on with the first one, i have no qualms in pulling her out if she gets stressed.

My dd is going into year 6 next year and reading this thread makes me feel sick, I may well keep her off school and refuse to let her sit them. What this government have done to primary education is shocking and shameful, no wonder the number of young children suffering mental health problems has shot up

If I thought my DC might get less assistance from the school at GCSE level, ie when it really matters, due to a lower SAT score, I think I'd be inclined to pull them out of the test. If it was being used to see where they needed help to improve that's a different matter.

Umm, I wonder if students who miss the test in year 6 will be required to retake the test in the January of year 7, like all those who 'fail' will be doing.

community.tes.com/threads/reading-sats-test-2016.738063/
Have a look at what many heads and Y6 teachers are saying about this test today.

Umm, I wonder if students who miss the test in year 6 will be required to retake the test in the January of year 7, like all those who 'fail' will be doing.

Say what now? They re-sit it in year 7 if they fail? First I've heard of it.

Say what now? They re-sit it in year 7 if they fail? First I've heard of it.
This begins next year; it doesn't apply to this year's year six.

Thank you for the response on the key stage one reading.

DS sat paper one day, said it was easy and flipping boring ( they had over an hour) probably wrote gibberish.

I'm guessing they will all be hard this year. It's cruel for the less able.

Thanks Swancourt, that has helped to put my mind at rest.

Littlehouse that is dreadful worrying the class like that. Why is the code such a problem? Would it not be written on the outside of the sealed envelope?

I didn't know anything about sealed envelopes and codes and couriers. I thought their teachers marked the papers!

Not the current year 6 but from next year onwards students who do to get to the required level will be retaking the test after a term at secondary school

really hoping for another u turn for this one

I thought their teachers marked the papers! They have to be under lock and key before and after and there has to be witnesses around when the "locked box" is opened (apparently!).

Did everyone else have their classrooms stripped of posters, any pencil cases/bags etc.

The papers are all sent off, cut into pieces, scanned and marked via computer.

lottie I'm furious, the only thing stopping me from emailing the head is that dd's teacher will probably be in bother with her and the school will bend over backwards to put it right rather than have a fifth of their year sixes not get a mark.

DraenorQueen, I know what you mean. I was sat as a prompter for a lovely Lithuanian girl. She read out all the words well, but didn't have a clue what she was talking about and sat there calling herself dumb and stupid. It broke my heart to hear her talk about herself like that. At the end of the test I reminded her that she speaks, reads and writes two languages (to my one) and has neater handwriting than me, also that she was going to smash the maths test.

Just been reading that TES thread. It sounds utter shite that many kids are upset and will feel like failures. What is the point of making them work all year to pass a bloody exam and then making it so hard that 10 and 11 yr olds are so stressed and feel like they have failed or are thick. It sounds like making all kids do an 11plus no matter what their capablities are.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128202
You may be interested in signing this .

so what about kids from private primaries going to state secondaries? (I know 6 in the category for September). doesnt that make a mockery of the whole thing as they won't have any SATS data?

I worked with this paper today. It was hard yes, a lot of inference involved and the texts were tricky, they could have been more user-friendly. They only need to get half the marks to be working at the expected level though.

Bigbuttons , no.one has the faintest idea how many marks they need to get to be at ARE, not even Nicky Morgan. All the data has to go in so she can decide how to 'adjust' it, first.

Paper 1 didn't seem to bad for most of the children. However, it is far too difficult for those that struggle with reading - however, those children do not have to sit the papers.

Not strictly true, hulababy - in the small print that say that they don't expect a rise in children unable to work at the standard of the test and that even if they can just do one question they should sit it.

I thought KS1 Paper 1 was much too.long and required far too.much stamina for some average readers, let alone the less able ones. Dreading Paper 2.

There's a lot about teaching that pisses me off these days, despite having been mainly happy and fulfilled in my job over the last 30 years, but I confess I have never been so angry and upset as today; and particularly after reading this thread, Twitter comments and the thread in the TES.

WE MUST PUT A STOP TO THIS for our children's sakes. It is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

Will the thresholds for 'working at national level' etc be set by the results from the students themselves?