Y6 & SATs - what did/do you do & why? (Pls help)

[MissEDashwood]

Hi there,

We've not really heard anything about SATs, but I know they can be a big deal at this age, as they're often used to help put children in the right groups at Secondary School. DD is able when she puts the effort in.

I was wondering had any parents given them much thought? Do you anticipate doing extra work at home to give them the best possible chance?

Are there any websites that jazz it all up, so the child is learning and it's an enjoyable experience? I think the BBC has a good selection of resources. Are there any books that stand out fro the rest?

Is your attitude in line with school that they are important, or are you indifferent, your DC will achieve what they achieve with minimal stress?

I just wondered what other parents view points are, as I've got the idea of incentivising grades with money, plus doing extra work, mock papers etc to support DD in the best possible way.

Part of me thinks it's extra stress not needed, the other part wants her to put all her effort in, incentivising and end extra support, if made fun won't be a big deal.

With school starting I'm on the fence and need to decide what to do. So opinions of every perspective are welcome.

Thank you

My DD is just about to go into year 7. She did her SATS in May.
We did nothing out different at all - she worked at school and did homework as normal. School didn't do anything over the top either.
DD got extremely good results and I feel happy with what we did (or didn't do).

Unless there is a clear weakness/ knowledge gap (e.g. Insecure times table) there shouldn't be much that children need to do at home apart from normal school homework, spelling and reading. That said, schools' approaches differ greatly: some will be limiting the Year 6 curriculum to endless mocks, revision and even the topics lessons would be more akin to the test (e.g. doing a comprehension worksheet on the topic).

We did nothing special for SATs, but we had already prepared for the 11+. So in effect, we had done extra academic preparation which inflated our DD's SAT score.

It's my understanding that SATs do matter because they set the baseline for a child's GCSE targets. I know that secondary schools modify this with CAT tests, etc. But I believe that progress 8 is measured based on SATs and then GCSEs. So if a secondary school is presented with s child with high SAT scores, they are under pressure for that same child to get high GCSE scores. So it's worth taking them seriously.

That said you don't want to over pressure and stress them. They are just children! My DDs teacher kept giving them "pep" talks for about three months prior about how their whole futures hung on their SATs! Clearly, he felt pressured and was pushing it onto them.

I think it's a case of getting to bed early, having a good breakfast each morning and staying calm yourself. Of course it's going to help if they know their times tables inside out and you have been reay with them all along.

I did not do extra work with them.

They are now in y8 and y10, and if they were put in too low a set or too high a set to start with, it has been adjusted....by the school

I am glad Idid not buy into MN SAT angst

I do no extra work with my DCs. I make sure they are well rested and well fed. I make sure home is their sanctuary and if it's getting ramped up at school, it stays at school.

SATS are important. I support the school, and want them to benefit from good results (so many parents see it as being 'for the school' and not their child, but fail to see that if the school is deemed to be doing 'well' everyone benefits in the future. And of course I want my DCs to do well, but I refuse to make it into a 'thing'.

I hate the system but it is what it is and we need to get on with it.

My dd is going into year 8, so did the SATS just over a year ago. We did nothing at home and the school were pretty low key about it too. She did brilliantly, without anyone needing to pile on the pressure.

DD's secondary school did its own assessments before putting the kids into sets after the first half term. I'm sure that the SATS will be used to measure progress though.

I completely disagree with incentivising children to do well in exams with promises of money or other rewards. I think it sends the wrong message entirely, and it encourages extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivation. In our house, the reward for good results is the results themselves, and the satisfaction of knowing that you have done yourself justice.

I encouraged my dcs to work hard but not to worry about the tests or their Sats results. Year 6 was the worst year of their primary schooling - very boring - thankfully that meant that they were very ready to leave.

At the school where I am chair of governors, we are very clear that we expect all the pupils to work hard and achieve everything that they can but we do not as a school apply any excess pressure to pupils. From the school's perspective the pressure that is applied is outside of the school and is mainly parent related. Some of our parents get very hung up about the KS2 tests, when it is not necessary. Regrettably there are also too many schools that seem to think that the KS2 tests are the only thing that matters in year 6.
So I would encourage your daughter to work hard at school, to do homework set, be supportive when things are not going as well as they could be but not do anything that piles any extra work on her

I never put any pressure on my children.

Sats are to test schools and teachers performance.

OP you sound like a journalist.

*We did nothing special for SATs, but we had already prepared for the 11+. So in effect, we had done extra academic preparation which inflated our DD's SAT score.

It's my understanding that SATs do matter because they set the baseline for a child's GCSE targets*

In a similar position but also worth considering the converse position that lots of tutoring and artificially inflating scores can mean that GCSE targets are unrealistically high. An excellent yr6 teacher and yr5 tutoring had ironed out all the maths wrinkles so dd did very well in all subjects when she is not a natural mathematician. It is the only subject (other than PE) in which she didn't meet or exceed her yr7 target. I am quite pleased she will be in a slightly lower set next year which will hopefully go slightly slower.

I really wouldn't incentivise achievement. Praise the efforts not the marks. I wouldn't do anything extra at home unless major gaps in understanding which you want sorted before secondary.

It was my understanding that secondary schools do their own tests and that SATS results are irrelevant.

SATS simply measure whether a child has improved from Y2 to Y6.

In my experience it's the parents who pile on the pressure not the school. Just keep it low key. In DDs class the hysteria was ridiculous. We did nothing different from usual and all targets were achieved. DD didn't even realise she was being tested.

We did nothing and I tried to play it down.
School said they were more interested in their own online (maths and English) tests that children do on induction days, than the child's SAT's.

It's now Several years since my dc took SATS but we didn't do anything g to prepare them. They are a test of the school not the child.

The secondary school gave them all CAT tests when they started and put them into sets according to that. I think most secondaries do.

I really wouldn't start stressing now for tests that are next May. If you have confidence in your dc's school, let them do their job.

In a similar position but also worth considering the converse position that lots of tutoring and artificially inflating scores can mean that GCSE targets are unrealistically high. This makes no sense to me. Predicted GCSE Targets might work on a school wide basis for reporting purposes but they are a complete nonsense when applied to an individual - predicting GCSEs at the age of 10 and thinking they are any way accurate predictor for a developing child is naive!
My dts have similar ability in Maths, one got a 4 and the other got a 5 in their SATS - I can only assume they were a couple of marks apart. However, they are in the same set now and they have the same target grade for GCSE, the school have figured out that they are very similar in ability - which is reassuring. Not that I put any great faith in a target grade, my dcs have smashed 2 year targets in one term and struggled to meet over ambitious targets in 2 years. The target grades are best looked at as something the school needs to do for Ofsted, the are only useful in the vaguest sense to the pupil or the parent. A good school will encourage a child to succeed, a good work ethic is what's needed more than a good SATS result.

SATS are for the schools, not the pupils.

cheating in them is so rife that secondaries ignore them anyway.

we do our own tests to put pupils in sets.

they are completely irrelevant, ignore them. There is no point in a child working extra to do well in sats, the results don't have any affect on them at all.

They are that irrelevant that secondary schools are judged against the progress children make based on the outcomes. It would be very stupid for any school to ignore them.

I didn't do anything as DD had sat the 11+ in January and is going to an independent secondary where they don't even ask for the SATS results. We played it right down (her school didn't!) and she did well but not as well as her friends who had been doing extra prep at home, SATS practice papers mostly - they got very high results (118.119.120) etc.