To be disappointed in DD’s SATS results?

[CucumberSalads1]

I feel terrible for being disappointed, but she got 109 for maths, 109 for reading and 114 for SPAG.

She has historically always been greater depth. And I suppose I’m just concerned she’ll be streamed based on the “expected” results.

We didn’t do much prep at home at all, just looked at the odd question here and there for a week or so before.

I know these are good scores (before I get flamed)… she was just so close to greater depth and the scores aren’t that consistent with her ability.

I know I’m probably BU, but we all just want the best for our kids, don’t we? I don’t want this to hold her back in any way.

Find it absolutely hysterical how some people get so wound up about SATs: they do not matter!!

All private schools I know don’t do them. My kids are at private and they do standardised tests every term just to check where kids are up to / hopefully see improvement and progress. Not compared to rest of class - just a sense check. If under 100 then would flag as potential cause for concern and they’d receive extra help.

seriously calm down

Ridiculous 😒

As a secondary school teacher, we test multiple times across the year and sets move around constantly in the core subjects. I couldn't tell you what any of my students got in their SATs. We don't care. They are used as a measure to monitor schools and ensure students make progress from primary to secondary, they won't hold her back in the slightest.

Cannot remember what my children got in their Sats . They did take 11+ so I probably just forgot about Sats ..it was a long time ago though.

I don’t think everyone is being fair to the OP, it depends on where you are but I know of some schools that use SATS (a) to predict GCSE grades, and (b) stream in year 7 (although they don’t publicise it and I think they take into account the school’s feedback). So they do matter. But OP it’s not the end of the world and she’ll likely be in set 1 or 2, plus there is movement at secondary school between sets, so I wouldn’t stress, just make sure she’s on top of her work at secondary so she can show what she’s capable of.

Say it with me
SATs are for the school, not the student. They technically shouldn’t be bought home, but left at school to demonstrate where the school is failing.
My year 6 got a 100, 97 and 98.
My year 2 got 106 and 109.
All of those scores are brilliant, considering they totally contradict the “assessment” given on their reports.
SATs are for the school and are not a true test of anything.

Maybe you should have helped her put the effort in and take it more seriously if that’s how you feel? Hindsight is a marvellous thing though.

but I wouldn’t worry, as others have said they don’t have any weight in the real world.

Although I will say that my boy got mid to high 90’s. Dyslexic diagnosis. He was so very anxious about them, despite our reassurances. But he worked his bloody socks off for those results, and the relief on his face felt better than a lottery win. Proud. Very proud.

YABU and hope you haven’t shown her disappointment they are great scores

my daughter got
107 , 98 and 99 and was an incredible achievement for her - everyone super proud !

A SPAG of 114 comes from a raw score of 59/70. It is very good.

These scaled scores are not out of 120, they range from 80 to 120.

n my view they are designed to mislead.

A child who gets 20/70 would be given a scaled score of 93. This is quite a way short of the 'expected standard' and the child would have little chance of getting a GCSE pass (4). But, 93 sounds quite high. A parent who is not aware may think it is a good score.

This is so sad and what is wrong with our system

very little change is getting 4 at GCSE already dictated by age 11 :(

OP how does your DD feel about her results?
The pressure on these kids at 10 and 11 is unreal. I'm a strong believer in as long as you try your best then that is amazing no matter what the result. Unfortunately despite schools saying they are "just tests that don't matter" their behaviour and teaching around them is the complete opposite of that. My ds got his results last week (reading 116, maths 118 and spag 118) these are absolutely AMAZING however he is feeling bad because he thinks his reading score is low!!!! The teachers had apparently predicted him 118 in reading from his mocks so he thinks he's let them down!!! Its an absolute joke that he feels this way and I'm going to meet with them before the end of term to relay this to them!!!!

Past SATs the highest achieving children in our family with Doctorates and Masters are very sadly the lowest achievers in life. Financially they have everything but peace and happiness. Don’t be that parent that thinks academic achievements are everything.

So SATS are an assessment of how a child has progressed in their learning from year 2 to year 6.
They are used to assess the teaching of the school.
They count for nothing for the child.
Secondary schools will do their own assessments for sets

I'm proud of my child (who scored lower sats that that). I'm proud that they sat and tried their best. I'm proud that they are kind, funny, talented at other things.

I know that the schools use them to put into sets for maths but i don't really care because....

I also know that if they are finding the work in that set easy, and scoring high on the work set, they will move up in to a higher one. If they are struggling in that set, they will move down.

I also know that it's just the governments rudimentary way of measuring the ability of the school to teach.

What did I get in mine? I have absolutely no idea!!! What did my older child get? Again, absolutely no clue!!! Can't remember. Don't care....

Doesn't matter. Even if she is streamed she can shine in secondary.
I bombed whatever test they did in primary - highly anxious, bullied, immature, bottomish in nearly all sets. I bloomed when I moved to secondary. Top sets for everything. Ita just suited me better than chaotic classrooms of primary.

Exactly this.

This was a while ago (2002) but when I started secondary school SATs didn’t matter, and every year we were reshuffled according to results.

HOWEVER year 7 CATs mattered more than I ever could of imagined. No idea if this is normal practice in other schools but my school used our CATs scores to rank every pupil in the year and the ranking stayed with you throughout school. The top 10% of this ranking were given all sorts of exclusive opportunities no one else was allowed to attend- critical thinking lessons, day trips, extra curricular activities, guest lectures, competitions etc etc.

Most of this was provided in year 10 and 11, but used year 7 CATs results to allocate them. Seems wildly unfair, looking back.

They are also used to generate target grades for GCSE though, and it's incredibly stupid. My son aced his SATs as they require no extended writing and a lot of the SPAG paper is multiple choice. (Dyslexia/Dyspraxia, very bright but spelling is awful, reading quirky low average, very teachable to the test it turns out!) He finished primary about two years behind expected level in writing. So unsurprisingly he is constantly 'failing' English and humanities subjects at secondary as the 7-9 target is hugely unrealistic. Add to that how absolutely ridiculous it is that they would generate your Art or Music target from SATs... the whole system is crazy.

But yes, unless you are a child with a particular type of learning difference like DS they don't matter. In our experience though you are much better off under achieving in SATs than overachieving!

SATS DO NOT MATTER!!

My DC didn’t take them. They are both in successful careers and happy.

Just don’t say anything
i still remember my mum saying “don’t tell anyone about your B at GCSE, it makes your results look bad”

Our school gets amazing sats. I’ve since realised it’s a combination of a) kids who have been prepped for 11 plus so have had intense tuition for tests 6 months before sats (so nothing to do with the school) and b) intensive cramming sessions including breakfast classes for year 6 (which isn’t necessarily good either due to pressure and uneven resource allocation).

Some of the kids in the pool have had a lot of extra tuition. Your child hasn’t by the sounds of it.

When my Year 2 kid asked me what SATS were I told her that it was the government's way of testing her teachers on how well they were teaching her.

Year six SATs or year nine SATs?
if you wanted her to do better, why didn’t you get her to do revision at home?

I’d forgotten SATS! One of my DC missed them because of Covid. The teachers placed them
in sets at Secondary based on the recommendation from Primary and I’d say it was pretty accurate. I think the other didn’t have to do SPAG that year. I don’t think it’s made any difference to either of them at all!

I feel awful for feeling the way I do. I just wish she had maybe had a bit of luck on her side and got over the line and into the GD bracket. I know many are saying they don’t matter, but others are saying they are what is used to base future predictions and for setting ability based classes.