To fucking hate SATS?

[justwait]

Dd is in year 6. I'd like to say the school has been low key about SATS but it hasn't. She's been tested about 6 times this year. She had a test the morning she got back after easter and didn't do very well in it. We did no sats practice over easter because she's on a sports talent programme and was away a lot.

She's thin, not eating. She said she she sat at the table yesterday and everytime she looked at the paper everything went 'prickly and she didn't feel real'

I think she's massively anxious. She's doing really well in literacy predicted over 110 and maths just over 100. I have told her time and time again not to worry.

Just wanted to rant. The best thing she's done this year was make a little Anderson shelter during the ww2 topic and write a beautiful story about it. I'm gutted she's not done more of this kind of thing in her last year at primary. It's shit.

Yes, if little Johnny and his mates' SATs tutoring lifts the overall cohort achievement it will have a (small) effect on percentages allowed to achieve each grade at GCSE. (It will mean more are allowed higher grades, so a positive effect). The actual grade boundaries themselves are set based on the exam results after the exams to make sure the right numbers achieve each grade. the SATs results are used in an attempt to determine what the 'right numbers' are using a process called comparative outcomes which is supposed to prevent results drifting upwards over time and allow for brighter year groups to achieve slightly higher than less bright ones (of course this all assumes that SATs results are both stable and an accurate predictor of intelligence year on year, both of which are moot imo).

When will the UK understand that a single exam paper is not a true reflection of anyone's ability to do anything other than cope under pressure. Surely it should be enough to use the child's ongoing work as evidence of ability and understanding.
Whta do SATS actually affect anyway. No employer, college or uni looks at SATS

It's daft isn't it. I'm fairly sure assuming the national intelligence level stays constant year on year (or even making minor adjustments for the Flynn effect if you must) would be way more accurate than trying to peg cohort intelligence to SATs scores...

Now I'm feeling worried that she's 'only' scoring 105. That's good right?? I feel actually bad that I haven't done any work at home, I feel as though I'm letting the school down by not trying to make the results better

DS1's school would probably say they have a low key attitude to SATS, but it has still been bloody ridiculous this year.

DS is in Y6. They've done little except constant practice tests since Christmas and DS is bored to the point of now hating school. He has had stress headaches and got very worked up about getting a single question wrong in a practice maths test.

I have explained over and over that he really shouldn't be worrying about his SATS, he is very academic and already has his place at a highly selective grammar. They don't set based on SATS results (I checked with them) so I've told him whilst he should do his best it really isn't something he should lose sleep over. He's not done any revision or extra work at home as I've seen how anxious this would make him. Despite my reassurances, he then goes into school and they convince him it's the end of the world if he doesn't get 100% on every paper.

I'm so sad that he now cannot wait to leave primary school and has hated this whole year of school. That said, I wouldn't have said his primary school is a 'conveyor belt' of testing - his school didn't do the Y2 SATS as they'd been scrapped at the time (I think? Can't remember) and there's been very little emphasis on tests and results until this year. Maybe that's why it's been such a shock for him

Is anyone else's school opening last minute on polling day..for year 6's only ?

Don't feel bad - it's best for your child to not feel pressure, 105 is comfortably above the mean, and the difference one child's results will make at a national cohort level is miniscule. Come GCSEs would you prefer your child to have realistic achievable targets and the likelyhood of smashing them if things go well, or be under pressure to make artificially high targets and need to continue cramming/extra tutoring to keep up all through secondary due to having over achieved at SATs? (This may of course be an overly simplistic view)

She's doing very well, she just doesn't finish the papers. She's slow and accurate. I think that's great in year 6,thats what I'm telling her anyway!

I always point out on Primary Education threads that the reason that school A has better results than school B may well be because of hothouse madness in Year 6.

This is the case for us. My kids are in a school with a lower SATS score and OFSTEAD rating than the one up the road but I have zero desire to move them. I chose the school because of the overall way they approach things.

My year 2 DS has no idea what a SAT is even though he is currently doing them. To him he did "a quiet test thing" no fuss, no pressure. It was the same when the older one did it.

My eldest was year 6 last year. She got through unscathed as did her friends. They worked hard but they still did fun things as well and had a balance. Homework was still kept at about an hour a week although we had access to my maths which has practice things on we could do if the kids wanted to. No pressure at all on this. We had a couple of minor wobbles but nothing major. Considering DD is under autism assessment and has very bad anxiety this is a miracle in itself. She had no major adjustments at this time as they weren't needed.

One day DD came home buzzing. The teachers had taken year 6 into the hall for "an important task" then they put some pop music on and encouraged them all to dance/jump/shout/go nuts for about 10 minutes. This probably took 20 mins out of the school day but it's something she still remembers a year later and is a bright happy memory from that time.

A friends kids in the outstanding super results school were in tears for months with teams of homework every night.

I wish all schools had the chilled approach.

Dd had this last year, the schools attitude was bloody awful, they wanted the kids to stay an extra hour every Monday & Tuesday from after Easter until the sats, I said no. They did nothing but exam practise for all of this term, they had assemblies telling them how their whole future depended on these exams. The kids were bored, miserable & stressed and all the school round here retest anyway for year 7

If you are feeling like 105 is a failure the school has majorly fucked up. It's above average and a good mark.

The "expected" score is 100. Lots of kids won't hit this though as the average score is only about 103.