To expect my year 6 child to be taught until the end of term

[fartfacenotfatface]

DC3 is in year 6. With the exception of a couple of days a few weeks ago when Ofsted were in, they have done precisely no academic work since half term (and actually probably a bit before that, once SATs had finished).
Literally every day has revolved around practicing for the end of year production and / or going outside to play (unstructured) sport (although they had a residential trip a couple of weeks ago).
DC is not really into drama so has a very minor part in the school play (I'm fine with this but I am not fine with them having to sit quietly in the hall for the vast majority of each day watching the key performers practice their parts all day everyday with nothing else to do).
They are completely and utterly bored. Is this normal for year 6 children once the SATs are out the way? My elder DC didn't do SATs (DC1 was not at state school in England and DC2 was in a covid year) and so were taught until almost the last week of term.
I am tempted to take DC out to be honest. Their behaviour is getting bad as they're so frustrated at doing nothing all day everyday.

Yep. Which is why year 7s have nearly always gone backwards by the time they get to secondary and it's a bloody nightmare as we are expected to make progress from the point at which they were assessed in the SATs. We have to spend the first half term just getting them back up to where they were at Easter in year 6.

One of many things I don't miss about teaching!

I don't think theyd fine a year 6 child going on holiday after SATS in my kids school. They'd let us get on with it, I'm sure.

Doesn't seem to affect private school pupils too much with their 9 weeks off!

Agreed. My year 6 is bored rigid. Also spending hours rehearsing the play (he has one line). Am off to see it tonight so will be interesting to see if it's worth all the time spent on it!

They never are

So how long is the term? In my (wearily extensive) experience any teaching period over 6 weeks descends into pointlessness because the pupils are knackered and have had enough.

Sounds a bit stupid to do an end of year production where a few kids are the star of the show, would make more sense for the whole
class to learn a few dances and do different activities that would be more interesting for all the kids. I would not be amused if this was my kids being bored out of their brains.

Have you discussed this with the school? DT’s had full timetable of lessons until the end of term. Rehearsals for productions were done after school.

Same same except my kid is actually in Y5 because the cohorts are mixed.

If it wasn’t a ball ache to have them at home I wouldn’t bother sending them in TBH.

Frankly, schools in England should be done for all of July and August. Nothing useful is being done; everyone is mentally done, students and staff alike, and it's pointless being there. Working parents will complain at any proposal to extend the summer holidays, though, because it is literally childcare for them right now.

Our year 6s are a difficult cohort so have been on full timetable since sats, this has reduced to mornings only for the last couple of weeks while they rehearse. Previous years, year 6 would have done very little after Sats.

They should have had time for creative, physical, social and enrichment activities all the way through the year, but because they have to sit those bloody SATs - which are practically zero use for anything but more number crunching once they get to Secondary (and even then are of less use than CATs, which cannot be revised for, as that's not their purpose) - it's all crammed into the last weeks of term.

If it weren't for the SATs, the kids would still be taught a full curriculum and would be able to take advantage of the essential learning that comes from all those things that are not tested for and cannot be converted into a csv file. It would just be done in a more wholistic manner.

My son is the same. He committed to Drama Club in the belief that this would help him to get a decent part. He has attended after school for several months, as well as the in- school rehearsals. He has 3 lines and is bored stiff with rehearsal after rehearsal. He asked today if I could give him some Maths to do after school!!

I’m a bit frustrated.

I’m also a bit annoyed that it’s a year 5/6 production and quite a few of the y5 seem to have more prominent parts than the y6.

It’s not the school who administer the fine. And the would have to state it as unauthorised - they have their own guidelines to follow!

I asked my son if he was allowed to read a book whilst the rest of the play is going on and he said no :-(

My kids had a great time after SATS. Residential and then organised activities every day. But neither of my kids would have coped with sitting for hours as your child is having to. Their year 6 leavers concert involved everyone but there definitely wasn't days of practice.

Exactly this, learning isn't just sitting at a table in a classroom, they learn to work together to put on a play that's often left to them to run, with subtle adult guidance, they are involved in sound, lighting, props as well as being in the play. They will also be taking part in transition activities, days at their High School. I would think that after SATs they would be impossible to teach in a regular way, mentally most Year 6s are done with Primary school after Easter, they are treading water until September.

Sitting around all day doing the same thing is dull, to be fair.

“When I rule the world I’ll be adopting the Scottish system of holidays. It’s much better.”

@Hereinthismoment Please rethink! If you do this then we Scottish folk won’t be able to take advantage of your holiday resorts being so quiet in early July!! 😂😂

I’m afraid it’s depressingly common, and significantly compounds the summer learning loss between KS2 and KS3.

Yep, Year 6 was vile, all geared to Sats then similar to your experience. There's a huge time span of little 'traditional' learning between Sats and starting Year 7. I thought this could have been used to help them transition to Year 7, as it can be a huge shock to the system. On the plus side, my DC were very happy to be going to secondary as they knew it was going to be a lot more interesting.

Year 6 in England sounds awful. My son's in year 6 in Wales. Through the new curriculum for Wales he's been learning all year through incredible experiences and opportunities. He's not had any SATs pressure, they did tests but they were no biggy. It's experiential learning rather than rote learning. There's no sitting in rows, he's developed as an independent, enterprising, creative individual, they're ethically informed and they've been running a community cafe, a refill shop, staying on a farm, learning through doing, all that. That said, they don't do a big play, they do a big dance show in the local park with every single child having equal involvement. This last half term in primary can be really hard for the pupils and staff as some of the children act out in the run up to transition to high school. They need time to play, to run around, to wind down and enjoy the end of their primary careers.

"There's no reason the children who aren't involved at that time can't be outside playing parachute games or running around or whatever."

Well there is one very good reason why they can't do this @GoodChat

It's called STAFFING!

Tut, tut hereinthismoment. 'Tired and fed up with', not 'tired and fed up of'.

I have a year 6 too..they seem to be just having fun and I am good with that.....their motivation to do any work I imagine is zero. Will soon be September.