Year 6 feels a horrible year at primary school

[Marypoppins19]

My son is really not happy. He feels that science and Pe have gone out the window and it’s all Maths, Writing and SATs. I really think he might well be right!

Sorry to read all that.
For whatever reason, DC primary school (which can be a pants in other respects) does not SATs-obsess at all in yr6. At this point in y6, DS has Carols concert to prepare for, tag rugby, a recent performance to attend as spectator, the occasional football game, guitar lessons, just did an arty charity project, swimming until recently....

We don't have the highest results or OFSTED rating, though. It's not a des-res area. DS's class size is about 22. Seems like it can pay off to go to a mediocre school.

DD was in year 6 last year and it was all SATS SATS SATS from September to May. She found it really tough and she’s one of the bright kids. They didn’t do PE all year, then they had a whole week of sports when it was all over.
She’s in year 7 now and she loves it and says it’s much easier than year 6, and she’s at a very academic high school.
Unfortunately ds1 is in year 5 so I have all this to come again next year.

I was dreading DS going into Y6 for this reason, but I’ve been so impressed with the school. They haven’t passed the pressure on to the children at all - DS still enjoys going every morning and it sounds as though they have quite a lot of fun.

I am a TA and totally agree. There are kids with some behavoir issues that progress had been made on greatly and since they got into year six they seem to have gone back to square one there is so much pressure

I'm a year 6 teacher and it doesn't happen in my school! Year 6 are on a completely normal timetable. After Christmas they will have one afternoon a week of revision which we make fun and will not do French for a term and will only do the one PE to make time for it.
We go on residential just before SATs as a fun thing and SATs is no way pushed and most aren't stressed at all but are naturally a bit nervous the week of

And I should add our results may not be as good as some schools but we're still 90+ combined!

Yes DS hated year 6 and is much happier and enjoying learning at secondary school.

We are so lucky with my kids school, tiny villAge school so statistics are mostly ignored as it's too smaller numbers to be reliable date. Results for other year groups certainly weren't out of ordinary compared to other schools.
They aren't mentioning the sats word until after Easter and all homework's etc are sats questions but not told this so kids wouldn't know it was them.
They also have loads of time to do other activities, I'm assuming they embed a lot of literacy into topic etc so the kids don't feel like they are missing out.

We moved my y6 child early in yr5 from a school where he wasn't coping with the pressure to this one and it was the best decision we ever made. I wish some other schools would step back and realise the damage this pressure does to the kids self esteem - if the self esteem is damaged then the kids aren't ready to learn - it's a vicious circle

It is absolutely dreadful in our house, ds has autism and he is totally and utterly off the wall. His work is suffering too.

OP, did you look at the school's Ofsted before you chose it? If so, were you influenced by whether they were good/ outstanding?

If so, then I'm afraid you have unwittingly fed this situation.

Until the gradings are genuinely based on progress not raw data, and league tables are dead and buried, this will be the situation.

4point2fleet - every school is data pressured at the moment, RI schools probably more so that outstanding ones.

For us the school was outstanding when we started, it isn't now. It is in RI and has joined a MAT.

Until the government understands the meaning of the word 'average' things will never improve

My youngest is in yr 2, we are looking to move her from next year (moved house but kept them both at their original school) so it will be interesting to see how that school compares.

my daughter is year 6 and it's just a SATs factory. they arent even allowed an xmas show this year as it will put them under too much pressure when they are already under pressure. luckily she knows SATS are completely meaningless and does not feel under any pressure whatsoever!!!

I don’t recognise this, my eldest is yr 6, they had 2 night camping trip last half term, panto next month and a week away just before Easter. Still doing project each term

It’s a total pile of shit. Had I known, we’d have looked to home school for the year. Might still do that, or save up for private, for DC2.

SAT’s were one of the deciding factors when we went private with DC.

But how deeply sad that your lad has had to escape his primary school to get some sort of real education. I am so worried by this situation and its correlation with mental health problems, especially with early teenagers. How can we let this continue?

Must say I'm so grateful for my kids school and their headteacher. Yes sats have been mentioned and the do work towards specific targets or look at practice papers, BUT there is no direct pressure, there is time for school trips and theme days, art projects and technology workshops. The practice will intensify a bit next term but we parents are reminded to give them time off and to support extracurricular activities and sport to continue. School has a mixed socioeconomic profile, Ofsted 'good' and funding issues like any other.
Y6 pupils get assigned additional responsible jobs and LOVE it.

My kids should be in year 6... we've decided to home school this year!

My OH is a yr 6 teacher and he says the same. He hates the emphasis on Maths and English. The problem is that's SATs is a measure of the school, not the pupil, so of course schools want to get good results. But it sucks the life out of everyone - pupils and teachers. I don't know what the answer is but it doesn't seem to be making anyone happy.

Yes I agree. So much focus on a narrow range of subjects because that’s all that the SATS test. It’s such a shame that their final year of primary is basically coaching them for an exam.
In addition there’s the peer pressure / teasing if you aren’t wearing the ‘right’ clothes / dramas and hormones. Plus the kids are fed up of each other by now, I think if I had spent 7 years with the same 30 people I’d have had enough of them too....
Not an enjoyable combination.

My eldest DC found going to Secondary school quite enjoyable after Y6, the curriculum was something she could get enthusiastic about again after the tedium of Y6 SATS, new friends, independence.

Yep, it’s the same for us. DS has just started y7 and his y6 class put the school in the top 1% in the country. Two people in the village (we moved here because it’s a lovely village and we had heard the school was great, which it used to be!) have since come up to me and commented on how amazingly well the school has done. I say yes maybe on paper but at what cost. They had no art, music, drama, science, history or geography save for a specified day for each after sats. They started preparing for it in September. They were given a huge folder each over Easter (I informed the lovely teacher that we wouldn’t be doing any of it). I contacted my son’s new school to ask whether his offer would be affected if DS was homeschooled from Christmas but he wanted to stay to be with his friends and do all the end of year stuff.

I was so disappointed by how it went that we moved DS2 (just started y5) to the local private school, something we’d never considered before. The difference has been inbelievable and I feel so lucky to have had the choice. We’re now wondering what to do about DD and DS3. They’re okay so far because they’re in KS1 but I’m already so sad at what they are being asked to do.

I have no faith in the system any more. I believe it’s only going to get worse. Just look at Michael rosen’s Fb page. Those in charge just won’t listen and it’s our kids who are going to pay the price.

DD was in Year 6 last year. It was bloody awful for her and me. She had it relatively easy in some ways as she is clever and shouldn't have had to stress about the results. They did practice papers at the start of the year on which she got a more than respectable score, but there was relentless pressure on the children to get a perfect score. I think the first term was bearable. After that it was daily tests and pressure. I think it's a travesty of what education should be. DD learnt literally nothing after about Christmas as they just practised tests every day.

It was awful and that year contributed greatly to us deciding for an independent school with a bursary rather than a local grammar school. I don't want her to be data. I want her to enjoy learning.