To ask what bearing SATS results have on kids in secondary school?

[Greyblueskies]

DS is doing SATS. He's pretty bright but he's come back today feeling like he's done badly today in first day of sats. He's anxious about it. I've told him that it's not for him, it's for the school, that all he can do is his best....

But he's worried that it will stop him getting into good sets at secondary. He's always been near the top in his classes at primary. I don't think it has that influence...am I right?

Most do their own testing after the first term or so and set from there. SATS are about measuring the school, not the child and most secondaries do naff all with the info.

Most will do own testing like the CATs. Tell him to not worry and just get through the week. I really wish they would scrap them or more parents would rebel and keep their child off this week. It does children so much harm.

Some schools use them as a broad guideline for setting the kids but sets are not static and if they get it wrong They will move them.

Secondaries do their own streaming, as above , Sat's are for the school and monitor how well they teach.

Year 6 teacher here - lots of mine have felt similar, please tell him not to worry. This year's SATS results won't be published and are mostly for the school/government to assess learning lapse due to Covid.

Teachers may pass them on in transition notes to secondary school, but they'll be assessed once they arrive in Y7 anyway. While it's important kids try their hardest, SATS aren't the be all and end all.

Best of luck to him for the rest of the week :)

DS's school tested them in September of year 7 then streamed them. Nothing to do with SAT scores at all.

The other thing I should say is that if he does flunk them and then goes on to do really well at secondary then they will love him as his progress 8 score will be fabulous for them! Secondaries like a lower score (they wouldn't admit to it!) for bright kids as it makes their progress scores look amazing.

You'd need to ask his secondary. It can be used for sets and it will be used for their official target grades - the ones the school is measured against - even if they use something else for the target grades they tell the kids.

Please don't worry, they are to assess schools and it's awful how much pressure the kids are under.
My dc school had mixed ability sets until October half term and then used CAT scores and their knowledge of the children to set.

Secondary schools use SATS results to create a pathway with target grades etc. A school's progress 8 score is measured by the pupil's progress from end of KS2 to end of KS4. So potentially he could have lower target grades set than if he did especially well in his SATs. Having said that, most schools use their own internal assessments for setting so he wouldn't miss out on a place in a higher set because he didn't do as well as expected in his SATs.

Regardless, you just need to tell him it's nothing to worry about.

Thanks so much, that's such a nice message

Head of English here at secondary. We do get the SATS breakdowns and do use for setting BUT also a plethora ( long day but still on it!!!) of other data and info including teacher comments, and we do also have CATS done asap. Things can be very different after the gap between the tests and September !

tell him to do his best - he will anyway- and then forget about it and enjoy his summer.

sometimes the data is nonsense and we do another move again before Xmas. Oh and some don’t have the data at all!

Thanks everyone. It's helpful.

I really hate these exams. They're so little and to be sitting in a room with the walls covered up for four mornings this week - to have even more anxiety than they've already had to contend with over the past two years - it's just wrong, wrong, wrong.

They are completely meaningless, our local state secondary doesn’t set until year 8 in maths and year 9 English and they do their own assessments. I hate the pressure schools put 11 year olds under. My DDs head three years ago told her year 6 cohort they must do well as if they didn’t it would affect the rest of their lives. Luckily she has me at home to tell her it’s a load of nonsense that affects nothing for her and just to do her best. Some of the kids were off with stress, in tears on the day, all sorts of unnecessary drama One boy’s parents made him do practice papers every single day from feb half term. The idea should be to assess where they are without a load of prep , revision and stress., but in my experience schools don’t see it like that.

What are CATS? Sorry, I'm obtuse.

Should we have done lots and lots of SATS practice at home with him? We did some papers over the past few months but not many. Now I worry i've failed him 😔

When did Sat's turn into this huge deal? We did them at school and did some prep, but it wasn't a big thing- children weren't anxious over them and parents weren't coming out with cheesy poems to try and explain that they're not important. Is it because we are shielding children from anything that causes anxiety nowadays even though it's useful to learn to deal with? Or have schools upped the pressure?

NO NO NO.

Practice papers are really not necessary. Please don't let your son hear you like this. I am going to shout this

SATS ARE MEANINGLESS

You are failing your son with all the stress that is going on around this. Calm it down, forget about the tests and just carry on as normal.

Please do not tell me I'm failing my son with 'all the stress that is going on around this.' That's a complete judgement and you don't know what you're talking about. I've come on here to ask about it, rather than show him any concern.