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Education

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Original poster

Anyone else's child goes to a SATs factory instead of school

13 replies

ReallyTired · 17/05/2012 16:49

My son is in year 5 and they are already going into SATs frenzy. Ie. My son was invited to an after school maths club and he got given a SATs paper. The school is under huge pressure to get so many children to level 5 next year because of OFSTED.

I feel its madness to put so much pressure on ten year olds.

OP posts:

happyoverhere · 17/05/2012 16:56

Year 5 are optional SATs and have no impact on schools oftsed or league table position so they are being a bit precious imo

ragged · 17/05/2012 16:58

What Ofsted grading does the school currently have, is that typical of the surrounding schools too?

cricketballs · 17/05/2012 17:01

blame the government/league tables/Gove etc and also parents who live and breath the headline figures......

Original poster

ReallyTired · 17/05/2012 17:22

The school has a satisfactory rating and they were absolutely slated on their keystage 2 SAT results in maths. They have to get a certain proportion of children to level 5 in maths next summer to please OFSTED.

The school has well above average results in literacy, but below average results in numeracy. The school is in a deprived area and even OFSTED state that the levels on entry are very low. In the past the school did really well on value added. The school performance in league tables is pretty much in the middle for the area.

OP posts:

nlondondad · 24/05/2012 22:00

The pressures on schools are enormous; it is actually strange that more are not "sats factories" It is noy impossible that if the school does not get its results up, it could be the end of the Head's career...

Rosebud05 · 24/05/2012 22:32

The pressures on schools are enormous and the stakes raised incredibly high as an inadequate Ofsted or being 'satisfactory' for too long may result in the school being forced to become a sponsored academy.

It's a depression situation, and not one that's about improving education, that's for sure.

daenerysstormborn · 24/05/2012 22:36

dd is in yr 5 and just done optional sats papers. school didn't make a big thing out of it tho, they do try and keep in casual, especially for the yr 2's, ds doesn't even know he's doing his sats this week and next. as far as he knows, he does work in a special note book, then gets a biscuit. except he complained he didn't like any of the biscuits on tuesday, so he got 2 today to make up for it!

startail · 24/05/2012 22:44

Yep OFSTED has down graded our primary, loads of effort on grades this year.
Hay-presto Grove can say X% of schools improved this year

trinity0097 · 25/05/2012 08:56

I work in a prep school and find that we gain quite a few pupils from state schools during Yr 5 and Yr 6 as parents are wanting their children to have a broad education.

Bunbaker · 25/05/2012 09:01

Blame the system. I am a governor of a satisfactory high school and the pressure to achieve better GCSE grades is higher than ever this year. If they don't pass muster we all go and so does the headteacher. You can't blame the schools for trying to improve their results.

choccyp1g · 29/05/2012 14:52

OP reading between the lines, it sounds as though you (or the school?) are blaming the poor maths results on being in a deprived area.

I would argue that maths results are more influenced by the quality of teaching than literacy, where home influences, families with poor English, not reading daily at home etc. will have more influence.

If they can get good results in literacy, why not in maths? The school should be TEACHING them maths, rather than TESTING them. However, if they are starting to address the problem, they do need to benchmark where the children are at before they can see where the gaps are.

seeker · 29/05/2012 18:24

Bear in mind that they aren't doing special different SATS Maths- they are just doing Maths! If they can do well in a Maths SATS paper, they are good at Maths. Don't understand this "teaching to the test" thing. Maths is Maths.

Blu · 30/05/2012 12:05

That depends on how much teaching to testing goes on, how far the curriculum is restricted to and focusses on passing the test rather than educating the child, how many practice papers they do in order to maximise their chances of passing the test by looking out for the score marks for each question and answering accordingly. Maths isn't necessarily just maths - teaching to the test is drumming into them the material within the confines of the NC.

DS was in the Maths and Literacy enrichment groups, quite rightly, IMO, extending education to the most able. (they were class time lessons, not extra-curricular). Now the SATS are over, bingo! the enrichment groups have been disbanded - the school no longer has investment in pushing the able kids. But they have a whole half term of school left!

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