Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel quite sceptical whenever someone asks to explain their children's SAT levels

82 replies

megapixels · 11/07/2009 17:41

especially since they almost always seem to be top levels for that stage? There's been so many threads of the sort and yet people keep asking.

Kind of like those "Please help, my 6 month old ds is doing my 18 year old ds's algebra homework, does this sound about average for his age?" posts. Obviously not everyone has an ulterior motive (i.e. bragging) when posting something like that, but AIBU to think that a lot do?

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 11/07/2009 17:43

yanbu

it always makes me want to go for devilment "oh, he only got 5's, don't worry he will improve and catch up with his peers at secondary school"

TheFallenMadonna · 11/07/2009 17:49

Ah, but it never works because you could say your child doing the algebra thing and the next few posts will always tell you that that is completely average for a 6 mo.

Makes me laugh. Along with the Harry Potter scale of reading ability. Why is it always Harry Potter FGS?

bradsmissus · 11/07/2009 17:50

yanbu. Why don't they ask the school when they get the results?

verygreenlawn · 11/07/2009 17:50

Hmmm, I see what you mean, but then I have to say the information our school has provided on SATs is so bloody useless it's hard to make much sense of it. Our school for example isn't obliged to do SATs, but has decided to follow the SATs system of assessment. Great, apart from the fact that no-one explains what wording like "working within level 2" actually means.

MN is a much better source I'm afraid, and much more user-friendly than ds1's scary teacher ....

Quattrocento · 11/07/2009 17:51

I think yabu - but possibly I would. DS's school has just introduced SATs - he is in year 4 and there was no explanation on the report or anything. DD's older than DS but her school doesn't do SATs and never did. I went to the website but I couldn't find any explanation. It was nice to get the help decoding what these things meant, particularly as DS was a bit miffed with his maths score.

bronze · 11/07/2009 17:54

while we're at it can someone explain sats scoring so I dont have to ask when I dont know

Quattrocento · 11/07/2009 17:55

As to asking the school, of course I could've done but reports came out on a Friday and I really wanted to know! Was too impatient to wait until the Monday. Sorry to offend (although DS wasn't sparkling by any means).

FAQinglovely · 11/07/2009 17:56

well tbh - I have NO idea what SAT's levels are - so if I ever post asking about them - it's genuine - if they're great results then I'll fall off my chair - and then apologise for asking afterwards

lockets · 11/07/2009 17:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Quattrocento · 11/07/2009 18:03

I defy you to find any useful information on the NC website, Lockets.

Here's a useful guide that was posted recently:

By Nazreen on Fri 03-Jul-09 17:57:24
4a is better than 4b and the next step after 4a would be a 5c.

So here is a brief run down of the average/expected levels of a child at the end of a summer term.

Reception - Early years, Foundation stage profile point 6.
Year 1 - 1A/2c
Year 2 - 2B --> you may just get a level without a letter for this as this is nationally reported, in which case '2' is what you would be looking for
Year 3 - 2A/3C
Year 4 - 3b
Year 5 - 3a/4c
Year 6 - 4b --> but again because of statutory reporting 4c, 4b and 4a, may all be reported as 4.

Hope this helps - a lot of reports seem to have gone home today.

bronze · 11/07/2009 18:05

thanks Quattro will watch this now

sagacious · 11/07/2009 18:08

I agree OP YANBU

My ds as just got his year 2 sats grades (sadly not worthy of a boastathon)

I would imagine you'd have a pretty good idea how well your dc was doing without the 2/a/b/c crap tbh (apologies quat if your yr 4 I doubt the school would have made a big hoo hah as its 2 ...weirdly.. and 6 deemed important)

Simples · 11/07/2009 18:09

mine is a genius.

what DOES a 5 mean and runs

sagacious · 11/07/2009 18:11

My ds did get VG's for effort though (in EVERYTHING)

Is that bad?

[skips off merrily]

cory · 11/07/2009 18:12

It is an interesting fact that all the threads that ask if these results (named in the title) are all right given results that are considerably higher than the average. So you've got all these children bright enough to get top marks in their SATS and all these parents who clearly care desperately yet are unable to work out their marks. ANd they say modern education isn't working!

lockets · 11/07/2009 18:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bradsmissus · 11/07/2009 18:22

Sorry - this has just reminded me of something I saw in town today - it is not atall relevant to this thread but anyway.

I saw a thank you for being my teacher card and it said...

To the bestest teacher ever!!!!!

Bet a teacher would be delighted to recieve a card with such excellent English on it!

Quattrocento · 11/07/2009 18:39

That's a really useful guide, Lockets. This is the link. I wasted about half an hour on the national curriculum website and couldn't find anything useful, but Lockets' guide is good, I think (and had I found it I wouldn't have posted asking).

Pyrocanthus · 11/07/2009 22:02

One has one's suspicions, megapixels, but it seems clear that some schools are very poor at communicating, and some of the enquirers' children don't have top scores.

It beggars belief that a school could pronounce that your child was 'level x' without giving a hint of what that might mean, but it seems to be happening.

catwalker · 12/07/2009 00:18

Are schools really that poor at communicating or can people just not be bothered to read the information they are sent? I've got kids at primary and secondary and have never received a report with levels on it that isn't accompanied by an explanation of what these mean. At primary we always get a simple table indicating where the average point is for your child's year.

I can't believe that anyone who is at all interested in their child's education can have failed to grasp what levels they should be at by the end of year 6. So I agree with the OP - people who ask the, "is level 5 good?" question really get on my nerves!

bronze · 12/07/2009 11:38

my ds2 is starting in sept and we have just been given a prospectus. In the back are the schools results with no explanation as to they mean.

As for level 5 which from the explanation before I know is an average for older children. Maybe they moved from another country. There are plenty of reasons why people wouldn't know.

I would have assumed that in year six you wanted to be level 6 if I hadn't just found out differently. After all in year 2 they probably got a 2.

southeastastra · 12/07/2009 11:42

speaking as a parent of an underachiever i can agree with the op. i have hidden about 6 threads this weekend. don't take brains of britain to work out the scores. they just want to brag.

swanriver · 12/07/2009 11:59

we can't understand our scores either, all had to have laboriously explained by teacher or some of the more clued up parents. Why did they not give us a "guidelines" with the scores? Especially as quarter of school has English as a 2nd language

bronze · 12/07/2009 12:25

sorry not average, I meant above average

kimanaaaaaaaaaaan · 12/07/2009 12:34

Well I have never had no need no need to look at or understand SAT results before (my dd is 19 months) and I not a teacher but that explaination that Quatt posted seemed quite easy to understand to me.

I understand it as there are three stages within each level (a,b,c) a being the top of each level and c being the bottom. So 4a - 5c means moving from level 4 into level 5.

If I have understood that correctly after reading it just once then OP YANBU as it must be pretty straightforward for me to understand it