I’m a Year 6 Teacher AMA!

[LadyPenelope68]

Following on from another thread from a Reception teacher, thought I’d start with the other end of school. If you’ve any questions about your child going into their final year at Primary, or the imminent move to Secondary, please just ask 😁

My daughter was greater depth in maths during year 4. During year 5 we were told that she was pretty much there but teacher needed to check. She got working at in final report. She's upset about this. Her maths books show all ticks for her work?! She always completes extra work too.

I’m not OP but I am a year 5 teacher.
This is quite common, usually for one of 2 reasons the step up in expectations is quite significant, so it might be that your daughter was a couple of marks of in assessment, if she has struggled with just one topic that can be enough to throw the marks.
Secondly, if in year 4 she was on the cusp of GD the teacher might have pushed her on based on class work. We are encouraged not to do this in year 5 as it sets children up for disappointment in year six as SATS are externally marked.
I would also add, it doesn’t really matter to anyone but school whether she gets GD or not won’t be relevant in the future. Secondary schools will set according to their own assessments and observations.

Do you get emotional on the last day of year 6? My son is about to leave primary school and I'm welling up just thinking about it!

If you could abolish/change year 6 SATs would you? Why/why not?

Do you enjoy doing year 6 productions / plays??

How regularly do you see children getting 120/120 in the year 6 SATs?

Do you think year 6s are better at working independently than they were 10 years ago?

When the Secondary schools say they working with the Primary schools to make the form groups... are they trying to put friends together or just trying to avoid major clashes?

I'm not sure why so many people confidently state that sats make no impact on secondary as they do their own assessments. This isn't true of my son's secondary or other schools in my area.

My son is just finishing year 7. First off the top 1/3 sats achieving children get streamed off in to their own 'small school'. Children do not get moved from their allocated 'small school' for their entire secondary education.

They are then further streamed in English, maths and science. From day 1 in their form, solely based on sats results. He gets targets set for assessments in all subjects. These too are solely based on sats results.

My friends have children in different secondary schools that do this also. So they may well make a difference.

I'm sure not all schools do this. But there is so much misinformation given regarding this in so many threads. Parents need to check what their chosen schools do.

In your experience do you think that by Y6 children are a bit fed up and ready to move on, almost like they out grow primary school??

It’s a while since I did it, but I visited the feeder primary schools, spoke to the year 6 teachers, spoke to the children and asked them to write the names of three others they’d like to be with. It was always made clear that they may not get all three, but there would be at least one.

Teachers would advise of potential clashes and supportive groupings. Then we’d spend hours working out form groups of equal numbers, spread of ability, half or quarter year bands, ensuring everyone had someone on their list.

Of course there was the possibility of changes if it didn’t work out, but changing one means changing others.

It might not apply to all secondary schools but sats make no difference to the secondary school my ds is going to. They don’t get properly set until Christmas once they have figured out how all the children are doing and once they’ve fully settled in properly

My son has had a really difficult year which seems related to bullying, SATS pressure, changes and social stuff. Is this common?

My son is just finishing year 7. First off the top 1/3 sats achieving children get streamed off in to their own 'small school'. Children do not get moved from their allocated 'small school' for their entire secondary education.* They are then further streamed in English, maths and science. From day 1 in their form, solely based on sats results. He gets targets set for assessments in all subjects. These too are solely based on sats results.*

I assume this is the type of school that has a 'grammar school' type stream. Ime most schools don't have such a rigid system.

I'd be concerned about a secondary school that doesn't allow for children moving between sets once allocated at the start of year 7.

A good secondary school should allow movement in both directions, and would know that for many children progress isn't always linear, and that some children may have a sudden boost in learning as they get older.

Fortunately DD's school and those of her friends, did allow movement between sets. This was really beneficial for lots of children.

I’m crying already this morning as we’ve had our Leavers Assembly. I have a cry after they’ve all left on the last day. It’s a really emotional time for teachers as well.

I’d get rid of them, Teacher Assessment gives a much better picture of progress. I’ve had amazing students who on the day, just haven’t felt well or similar, and their results in SAT’s did not reflect their ability.

We don’t do a production in our School. Reasoning is, lots of them just don’t want to be involved, it’s just not there thing, so they don’t enjoy the end of term as feel under too much pressure. We have a Leaver’s Assembly instead that reflects on their life at Primary.

Hard to quantify the 120/120 in my opinion, as they change the boundaries every year, so I personally don’t feel you can make a true comparison. Statistically, we get someone every year, but we’re only a very small entry primary so don’t get huge numbers of full marks in reality.

independence - definitely more independent as in streetwise, walking home on own etc, etc. However, independence as in ability to do things for themselves as in tidy up etc, much less independent, they need a lot more prompting.

How is it possible to get 'working at the expected standard' for writing and science SATs but 'not at expected' in the end of year report for the same subjects? Both are assesed by the same teachers, presumably against the same targets?

That absolutely varies from School to School. Our children go to a variety of High Schools (5 different ones this year), some schools let them pick one person they want to be with, all ask us for clashes, one school doesn’t ask at all.

Absolutely! You can really see a change in some children this term, particularly after they’ve done their transition visits. Some are more than ready to move on.

How do you find the last few weeks of school? Since transition days to secondary in early July my son just doesn't want to be back in primary. The days have been filled with production rehearsal and extra pe. He's really bored and missing regulation and now the production is done he seems to be just ticking an attendance box til next Tuesday.

Do you find it difficult to keep the kids settled and engaged by this point?

I think there is a huge jump from Year 5 to Year 6, with the pace of work and expectations. Lots of children find the jump hard to navigate at first, others do find the whole year stressful, particularly if you’ve other issues such as bullying. Combine that with the added hormonal changes and transition, it can be a very tricky year for some.

There isn’t a writing SAT and only a handful of schools do a Science SAT. You need to realise though that a SAT paper is how they did that day. I’ve had children who’ve reached expected in reading for example, because the text was just “their thing” and have aced it, but on the basis of working in class on a variety of texts, they wouldn’t meet expected.

Do schools get told a students individual marks for each SATS paper (eg the mark for each of the maths papers)?

Do you have favourites, and do you favour kids whose parents volunteer loads? Honestly?

We don’t do a production, so don’t spend hours rehearsing that which is, IMO, a good thing. We try and keep things as normal as possible until this last few days, with maths projects, English research activities, science experiments etc, etc, all preparation for High School. We only really go “off timetable” the last 2 days, so we don’t really have issues with lack of engagement.

My son really resented the SATS and stubbornly decided not to try hard 🙈
As a result his reading score is in no way a reflection of his true ability.
Should I tell the new school?