Y6 SATS - what are they for??

[suedonim]

So, what are they for? Educate me, please! Dd2 is at an international British curriculum school and they are doing 'mock' SATS before the real thing in ?May. Dd already has a place for September as will, I imagine, most of her peers. So this seems to be a matter of treading water. Is there anything positive to be said for SATS?

To a degree you need some form of benchmarking. But sympathy at the thought of folios. We have them for applied science. Grim!

good for the kids but grim for us!

It appears that the primary schools will not attempt to take a child beyond level five, the teachers aren't trained to do this in a particular subject. DD2's teacher said as much after she got level 5 for teacher assessment in year 5 and said she would get the same the following year (but then jumped to 7 at the end of year 7)

Perhaps children at middle schools will do a bit a more as they tend to have specialist teachers for years 5 and 6 (and access to level 5 to 7 test papers)

pointydog- they're externally moderated but internally marked so yes.

MB- at least with the Sats they were externally marked- more marking pressure with the yr 9 folios- thank you for your sympathy

This also makes the added value of ks3 a fallacy as a child going in with level 5 could be just over the border or could be someone who could be capable of 6 or 7 even though still at primary school (ie grammar school entrants)

oh heavens, why do you english put up with it

it is better than before, I have pre sats children and didn't have a clue how the children were doing (even if you asked the teachers got fobbed off with fine, okay, doing well) only to find eldest (and many others from that primary school) had problems in first year of secondary school due to poor teaching.

This way there is a more objective end of year report in addition to teachers comments

It just gets annoying when adequate preparation for a test slips over into cramming and coaching and people apply for schools according to the sats results