AIBU to allow my Ds work hard for SATs?

[Titsend]

I hear all the time that either "SATs are just for the league tables" or "Not a real picture of what they can do come GCSE predictions" but my Ds has worked his arse of all through the start of July and into the holidays because he wants to be top of the class and do well next year.

Many people think it isn't a true reflection of what the kid can do but my older Dd (now 13) had a turning point when working for the SATs and it really really helped her. She was average for maths but is now coming top of the class (set 1 of 5 in everything) and I am so glad she did work.

I know this doesn't apply for all kids but should I tell him to ease of printing papers out?

Don't overperform as you end up with him achieving grade 7/8 in y10/11 and being told it's not got enough as his target is 9.

Practicing time tables, mental maths, writing and reading in general is fine but there's going to be too much SATS work this year and he'll be sick of the sight of past papers by the end.

Kids sitting grammar school exams will be doing some studying now but their exams are early in the term

Perhaps you could discuss burnout with him. If he starts doing PST papers say 2 months before then he might peak in May etc

If it's all coming from him, just let him crack on surely? If that's what he likes doing, good on him.

If there are going to be questions about Fortnite and arsing about in the sea in your boat next year, my DS is going to ace them too!

Is your son going to be disappointed if there's no SATS this year? I wouldn't take it as given that they are going to happen considering that local lockdowns this school year will skew results and could make it impossible for some kids to even sit the test.

“CAT tests are useless for assessing potential. All they tell you is how many children have practiced CAT tests before”

This is interesting as at my school we Definitely looked more at cats than sats as it was felt the sats results were unreliable and at least with the cats we knew they were done in test conditions. I never really had any strong opinions on this but it did show that the powers that be in my school had no faith in sats being carried out properly in local primaries or having much predictive value. Personally in my experience with year 7 it becomes pretty obvious during the course of the year who is doing well and who is struggling, regardless of sats or cats, so I would always steer parents/kids away from taking either of them too seriously. There’s plenty of time for them to move sets According to their progress in school.

I believe there is a fairly good correlation between performance in sats and gcse. that said sats are a long way off. my DD had just finished yr 6 so actually didn't take them...I assume they will jyst take their mock results instead. i think it's fab that he wants to work hard but it is the summer holidays and there is plenty of time when they return to school. balance is key!

I do find it a bit sad that your son is so keen to do practice papers rather than eg. Read a book, which would Overall be Much more likely to help him in secondary school - being able to make inferences is, I think, the absolutely key skill to being good across the board, and that develops naturally from reading. But that’s a problem with the system much more than it is with your son.