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Original poster

SATS - THE DREADED SUBJECT SOMEONE PUT MY MIND AT REST PLEASE!!!

53 replies

louise35 · 02/05/2006 08:01

I've been doing some mock tests with DD, mainly science and maths, we've not done literacy yet. I marked the papers and on her sciences she has scored in the 80-83% regions and her maths have varied between 72-75%. Can anyone put me out of my misery and if your child did their sats last year can you remember roughly what sort of grades this equates to. I'm hoping these marks will give her a satisfactory grade. According to her school She may struggle to get level 4 with literacy and takes booster classes but from what I can see of her at home she reads and writes perfectly well, give or take a few spelling mistakes, so maybe her school is being a little bit fussy and trying to get their own scores up a little due to a bad Ofsted report. I'd be grateful for any words of wisdom. Louise xx

OP posts:
Original poster
louise35 · 02/05/2006 12:44

Feenie are you referring to the marks that I quoted at the beginning of the thread, if so then I do feel better, at least I know she's not struggling. Yes I did time her, I put her in the kitchen and gave her the 45 minutes just to prepare her for the actual exams. I must admit I've relaxed alot since starting this topic, my DD school have been making such a bloody hoo-har about these sats that its only been through talking to other Mum's on here that I've realised that it is by no means as crucial as the school have lead me to believe. Thanks for everyone for their advice.

OP posts:
TinyGang · 02/05/2006 12:50

Hallgerda - dd is in yr2. I thought after I posted I should have mentioned her age. There seems to be quite a change of emphasis with older SATS.

rbj949703 · 02/05/2006 13:14

Have a look at \link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4960730.stm\this}. This is what the NAHT want us to do. Whether it will go ahead or not, lets wait and see if any letters come home from school this week.

cece · 02/05/2006 13:19

SATs for the governmanet propaganda machine. Where we are the secondary schools do their own tests anyway in Year 7 to set them. Do Not Stress!!!

HenniPenni · 02/05/2006 13:19

It would be very interesting if we had letters from our school about this action as we have an ofsted inspection this week!!

SleepyJess · 02/05/2006 13:23

DS1 is taking a Y9 SAT in Science as I type. SATS are not just use for gov stats... KS2 SATS usually help to determine streaming for Y7 and Y9 (KS3) SATS are even more important as they determine groupings for Y10 GCSE courses. We have been told to ensure that our children attend all this week or else they will miss a SAT... and if they do then there will be no level at which to place them for Y10. If this happens they will authomatically be placed lower down than they should be; the teachers will not use course work to predict what their SAT score might have been.. which is ridiculous if you ask me!! (Children cannot help being ill sometimes.. and of course they should be able to use their knowledge of the child's ability to place them for GCSE course! This is their actual future qualifications being put at stake because they (eg) had flu the week they were taking their SATS!!)

Feenie · 02/05/2006 13:28

Yes Louise, I was referring to the marks you gave your daughter. Sounds like you have nothing to worry about!
Of our local high schools I know of one who sets them by mixed ability in Y7, one that only uses the Maths SAT to group them and another who ignores all the results and uses their own assessments.
Your child will receive a Teacher Assessment separately from their SAT mark anyway, and this will be a reflection of their work throughout the year, not in a 45 minute snapshot.

joelalie · 02/05/2006 13:31

We weren't told when our children were taking SATS until they were upon us. Teacher's theory being that pushy parents would coach their kids and gets them all stressed out. So it was all over and done with more or less before we had a chance to worry. Actually I didn't worry anyway...as has been mentioned already they are only of benefit to the goverment.

sassy · 02/05/2006 14:52

SleepyJess and 2shoes - I can obv only speak in detail about my own school but the results of the y9 Sats are in so late (esp English - usually the last week of term) that unless there was a glaring aberration, results would not affect groupings next year.

katetee · 02/05/2006 14:52

dd1 is taking her y9 science SATs today too, and she is in year 8. They have chosen to accelerate a group of 30 girls through the secondary education system. DD1 is still only 12! I personally HATE it, all the pressure being placed upon our children when they should be enjoying life as a child! She was trying to do some revision yesterday when she turned to me and said "I don't want to do this any more, i want to go and play in the garden with lil sis" so I said "go on then". I have not made her do any revision, she has set the standard herself. All of the set she is on got level 5a's at yr6 and are expected (and I mean EXPECTED! to get levels 7's in these). I'm just going to be a lovely cuddly chilled mum (as usual) this week and let it fly straight over our heads. Good luck to all SATs parents for the coming week.

Milliways · 02/05/2006 21:46

DD did her Yr9 SATS last year, & the school usually use the results for streaming, but the ENglish results didn't arrive until mid August so had to use Teacher Assesment.

The top 60 kids were invited to do the 3 separate sciences (instead of the double combined), places indicated before SATS results but not confirmed until results received.

The pressure on top sets to get 7,7,8 was immense.

quanglewangle · 02/05/2006 23:47

SleepyJess, your experience illustrates my point. Schools are so desperate for good SATS results that they exert pressure on parents with the threat of placing their child in a lower stream.

It is ridiculous to say they need a SAts result for streaming, of course they don't. They have been teaching them, marking their work and what's more, they have predicted what level they are likely to achieve.

figroll · 03/05/2006 10:35

My dd is doing her year 9 SATs this week too. Although they don't matter to me personally I think it is a matter of personal pride to the children. They want to do well (or at least my dd does) and when they go into school after the results the kids are all comparing results. I have mixed feelings about them tbh, but I do dislike the year 2 Sats which I feel are ridiculous for such young children (are they being phased out or is this just a rumour?). Year 6 Sats I suppose have a purpose - they show you how your child is doing. What I dislike is all the practise for them. It takes over the curriculum completely for a period of time and I don't think that is right.

Feenie · 03/05/2006 11:23

No, Y2 SATs haven't been phased out. They still have to take place but the only assessment reported at the end of Y2 is Teacher assessment - of which the tests play a very small part. (So why make us do them at all?)

Blandmum · 03/05/2006 16:25

We use the KS3 stats to 'place' children in year 10 sets for science. If we were not doing te SATs the the kids would have similar end of year exam (which is what happened to me in the says before SATS). There is still flexibility in the system and we do move kids based on their modular examination results that they get during years 10 and 11. So I have just had 8 children 'moved up' from set 4 to my set 3 group to bump up their GCSE results at the end of year 11 (hopefuly bump them up that is!)

beckybrastraps · 03/05/2006 16:41

As a secondary Science teacher, my problem with the KS2 SATs is that they are not a particularly sensitive indicator of ability. When you have children coming from a variety of different schools, it is hard to discriminate between, for example, a relaxed level 4 and and a highly-coached level 5.

Blandmum · 03/05/2006 16:49

We find the same thing becky. We wait until we have given the kids their first internal test before we put them into sets in year 7. We take both their KS2 SATs and the test results (which give us a SATs level) into account in setting them. We still have to move a fair number of kids up and down at the end of year 7

beckybrastraps · 03/05/2006 16:51

And yet the tracking of the "brightest pupils in the country" will be done based on KS2 SAT results. Barmy!

Blandmum · 03/05/2006 17:26

And value added is from KS2 to Ks4

Go figure!

kid · 04/05/2006 18:01

DD has been doing SATS this week, she hasn't done very well in them and seems to have forgot everything she knows! I'm trying not to pay attention to them as I know she is capable of more than the tests show, she has her class work to prove that. One child was actually crying today over the SATS today, its really frustrating to make them sit the test.

mrsteacher · 04/05/2006 18:02

havent read whole thread just OP - do you still need to know levels?

mrsteacher · 04/05/2006 18:03

just in case you are
science.......easy level 5
maths - level 5

Original poster
louise35 · 04/05/2006 22:11

Oh thanks for that mrsteacher, that's good to know. I'm just relaxing about it now and there's going to be no more mention of SATS in our house until they are over and the pressure has gone. I think DD's school has been making more of it all than they should have done and in turn it made me anxious as I really did not know what sort of level she was at.

OP posts:
pipsqueak · 07/05/2006 22:30

dd1 starting KS2 SATs tomorrow and thankfully her school are fairly low key about it and she is way relaxed! I would like to know if anyone knows if the results are assessed at school and whether the rest of teh work is taken into account in the form of teacher assessment? Also are parents told what the results are or are they for use at the secondary school only? aplogies if this is elsewhere in the thread as I have not read it allxxxx

RTKangaMummy · 07/05/2006 22:41

pipsqueak come and join our thread about class 6 and joing senior school in sept

The results get sent home with repoorts in july

AFAIK they don't go to senior school

well not to the one where DS is going where DH teaches it is private though so may be different