To be worried and disappointed DS has failed his mock year 6 SATs?

[RocketQueenP]

So they have had mock SATs all week

The results came home with him today and I am mortified (obvs I have not conveyed this to him)

He is about 20% below the bare min pass mark for everything but reading where he got 70% pass mark 55%

I will be having a chat with his teacher on Monday to find out what I can do and to find out if she is concerned / if I should be

I am pretty sure the SATs markds determine what "stream" or whatever they call it these days he will be when he goes to secondary after the summer :(

He is very bright, honestly, he just cant be arsed. He would rather have a laugh and can never be bothered with homework. He tricked me and his dad for months (we are not together) by saying to his dad he had done his home work at mine and vice versa

He is also very good at football and excels in his school team and local team and he is absolutely convinced football will be his career. I do encourage him and am very proud of his achievements but also try and make him see that only the very very lucky few make lots of money from it

Anyway anyone else had similar or can re assure me please :(

[SandyY2K]

dss says results will determine his predicted GCSE grades

That's true to a point actually, but teachers also set target grades, according to how they see students working.

Predicated grades are potentially what you could achieve in GCSE's if you work to your full potential, based on SATS results.

That doesn't mean pupils achieve that and it doesn't mean they can't do much better than predicted.

Schools have to calculate predicted grades using the 'value added' principle.

My DD started high school with top level SATS and as such has predicted grades of 9s, with the ne style GCSEs. She feels a huge amount of pressure with that and when I mentioned it to the HT (in casual conversion at a Governor's meeting), he said, it's because of the SATS she came in with.

SATS don't mean much in the grand scheme of things and a lot can change in the 5 years of secondary school.

[BlueberryGateaux]

SATs were changed last year, lots of kids aren't hitting targets so don't loose heart. A friend of mine works as TA in KS2 and has said as much. Also SATs are just for government and league tables and high school will do their own assessments.

[GobblersKnob]

Our secondary streams purely on the results of SATS, not only that but it is nigh on impossible to switch streams once you are in the system, the highest groups do completely different work, I can't see how it is possible to ever catch up, and yes, ds was given gcse predictions almost on entry.....

The whole system is completely ridiculous, I feel for you op, but I have no idea how you get them to knuckle down at such a young age when they are just not interested.

[RocketQueenP]

BTW I am not academically bright and was rubbish at school very average GCSE's and scraped a couple of easy a levels, dropped out of uni pregnant

Tbh even my 7 year olds maths home work foxes me at times

So if I am entirely honest while I appreciate all the ideas of working with him myself I don't think I would do it justice and worse I would prob end up confusing him more if I struggle ....I wish I was clever or I would do everything I could to bloody teach him myself

[GreenGinger2]

Mrs they will help but even more so if used by school. We were told not to do those. They sent work books home instead.

There is no way my child would have been willing to do extra on top of the workbooks sent home by school.

Incidentally my dd who did pass everything very well improved hugely between the mocks and the real thing.

[Rainydayspending]

SAT's results are ignored as standard (so many kids are drilled for tests their actual understandibg / study skills are vastly different) the 2 secondaries I worked in. Also SAT's and constantly testing in yr 6 are bloody stupid as they stop doing so many useful lessons in favour of rote learning, creating dependent learners less ready for secondary!

[RocketQueenP]

But thanks so much for all the lovely posts Xxx

I think will hold fire until I speak to his teacher on Monday. I have told his dad so we will both try and deal with it together. Luckily we get on and he is a decent dad

[LunaLoveg00d]

I wouldn't be worried about the low marks. Not all children are high achievers.

I would be worried that the child thinks it's all a bit of a laugh, doesn't care, is skiving, not doing homework etc. He doesn't need extra tuition, he needs one almighty kick up the arse, to grow up, and to have parents to go are on top of this as the showing off and "don't care" thing will only get worse at senior school.

[fishonabicycle]

Also - if he really is good at football he should be taken for trials at a professional club. They pick them up very early.

[TheMysteriousJackelope]

It sounds like he can't make the link between what he learns in school and the real world. That is more of a concern than a poor SAT score. Someone who works hard but has poor test preparation and exam technique can learn from a low score and improve, someone who just doesn't see the point of what they are learning in the first place won't.

Is there a PE teacher, football coach or similar who can help him make that link? What are the academic requirements for going into a football career? What are back up careers and what are the academic requirements for those (coaching, teacher, phsyio)? He needs to understand that even if he is successful in being picked for a good team, he is only one serious injury away from unemployment. Even if he avoids injury, he'll likely have a fairly short shelf life as a player. What is he going to do afterwards?

Are there any mentoring programs or retired players who could talk to the members of his club or team about the realities of the situation?

FWIW DD's science teacher last year was 'blown away' by the 'wonderful' grades in the science benchmark test. Most of the children got 50% or lower. It turned out that hardly anyone she taught at her previous school did better than 50% so, to her, it was a wonderful grade.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Mock SATS! When on earth did that become a thing? No wonder kids and parents get stressed out by these things.

By December of year 7 you'll be wondering why you were even giving these a second's thought!

[needsahalo]

says results will determine his predicted GCSE grades.....That's true to a point actually, but teachers also set target grades, according to how they see students

Teachers do not set GCSE target grades.

[SilverDragonfly1]

If he enjoys football, it's pretty obvious to me what sanction to use. Point out that if he misses practices because he didn't do his homework or try hard at school, he will be removed from the team as the coach will need people who are really committed to playing and prepared to work hard in all areas so their parents will continue to allow them to. His choice...

[Fayrazzled]

At my son's secondary school, the KS2 SATS results were most definitely used to stream for maths and English, and in conjunction with the CATs have also been used to predict GCSE target grades and a 'flightpath' for KS3.

[Fayrazzled]

Sorry that should say KS3 and KS4 above.

[DonkeysDontRideBicycles]

He's not the first to coast along, (maddening as it is) or do the bare minimum then trip up on exam papers.
His reading's going fine but he needs to practise papers under time pressure.

DS might not let on but his pride might be dented.

(You might say to him, plenty of professional footballers are bright guys, his heroes need to be able to read a contract and want to know their agent or club doesn't rip them off financially, and at the end of their careers on the pitch will want as many options as possible).

[JoffreyBaratheon]

I'd pull him out of SATs. I did that with one of my kids. Just refused to let the school make him do it. Did him no harm.

If all parents refused to play along with this shit, then there'd be no league tables, either. It's more about creating league tables than it is about education. In fact, because it leads to teaching to test, education flies out the window.

I'm an ex primary teacher, too.

[Strictly1]

I contacted a lot of our local secondary schools due to having many parents believing SATs are only for schools and don't impact on the children. In my area all of the schools have told me that they do determine the maths and English sets they will be put into and the child's targets.
I wouldn't worry at this point. He has about 14 weeks to focus. I hope he focuses and tries his best.

[minionsrule]

OP my DS is now in Y7 so went through the worst year for SATS so I know the bar was set very high.
The results alone would not faze me so much but more your other comments that 'he is bright but can't be arsed', he lied to you and his dad about homework, and he seems to be convinced that he will be a prof football (don't lots of boys at that age
Rather than a tutor I think you and his dad need to get a bit tough with him for his own good, no privilages till he has done his homework (and maybe threaten his football). If he is bright he shouldn't need you to help that much with his homework, he should be remembering what to do from class and if he isn't sure of bits he can leave them and pick it up with the teacher - that should not be an excuse.
If it was a case of he isn't keeping up but is trying that would be a different story with a different approach. Tough love is my suggestion.
This isn't about SATS results at the end of the day, it is about his whole attitude to education and his future

[NotMeNoNo]

The new SATS are very hard- DS did them last year and it's a credit to school they scraped him through literacy. We had a lot of tears over it. There is still masses of material to cover.

It sounds like your DS is just being a bit immature about it - not unusual for a 10yo boy who prefers football. You could impose sanctions re football if you think they will work, but you, dad and teacher need a united approach to try and motivate him. But he might just need to grow up a bit in his own time.

I would not worry on results. The secondary will do own assessments. The schools are forced to fudge an average predicted GCSE grade from the KS 2 results so they can measure "expected progress" but I take all this with a huge pinch of salt. There are so many things that can change and our reports have space for teachers to show an adjusted prediction if they think it's relevant .

[NotMeNoNo]

Sorry, the talk app mashed my paragraphs!

[minionsrule]

Sorry but I just had another thought, and I don't mean this to sound awful but when you say your ds is bright, were is this perception from? Have previous teachers told you this?
I only ask as you need to be sure that it really is that he can't be arsed or could be be struggling? The reason for asking is reading back seeing that the teacher told you he had done well in the mocks? Could she have meant he did well based on what she expected? A good teacher can tell a bright but lazy child from a child who needs additional support.
The not doing homework could be for the same reason maybe.

I find it hard to believe that a teacher said a genuinely bright child had done well when they were so far below the expected minimum.
But then again, if he was genuinely pitching at below expected then I would have expected you to have been informed of this at previous parents evening, not just because of a mock SAT exam

[PurpleTygrrr]

Hi
I'm a year 6 teacher and at this point there will be lots of children 20% below the pass mark. I presume this was for the grammar/spelling test and the maths test. My advice is to get yourself on the CGP website and get some work books to do at home. The 10 minute test ones are good as are the year 6 grammar books and specific maths books on different areas such as number, geometry etc. Try and spot any gaps in his knowledge and take it from there. Also ask the teacher for a list of objectives you can work on with him.

The grammar test is notoriously hard under the new curriculum and the spelling too! Have a look at the sounds and letter patterns they need to know for year 3/4 as well as year 5/6 as well as the word banks for these years. More of the spellings in the test are from the year 3/4 than the year 5/6 bank so don't worry to much if he is finding the harder ones tricky... They are! The national curriculum also has a glossary of all the grammar terms they need to practice!

SATs are a pain, to do well it's all about practice and finding the gaps in their knowledge and going from there.

The fact that he got 70% in the reading test at this stage is amazing! There is still a great deal of the year 6 curriculum to cover before May and I always see my pupils make the post process in this time.

Good luck and don't worry... They're only 11! I always say to my class... No one will ask you when you're older what you got in your y6 SATs!

[edwinbear]

Just to echo what a PP said re football and you could perhaps pass on to him. If he was going to have a pro career he would have been scouted by now, particularly if he is playing for a local club.

DS was scouted age 6, whilst I didn't take it forward as I couldn't commit to the training schedule required, a friend of his (also 6) did trial and is now training at the mini Arsenal academy (whatever it's called), along with the other kids scouted at around 6 or 7. The likelihood of ds friend ultimately playing pro are slim to none, despite such an early start.