Cat tests

[HairyToity]

My DS is in year 7 and surprised to be in top set, as he's always been distinctly average. Reading and writing took ages, his spelling is atrocious and maths not much better. He doesn't apply himself and never been pushed. He plays up whenever I've tried to do any extra work with him. He's always got by at primary school though, with minimal effort.

I asked the question how they did the assessments for the sets and it was based on Cat scores, apparently he scored really high. He's at a comprehensive.

Have I let my child down by not pushing? Should he be achieving higher than he has been? There are children whom he considered cleverer than him in sets below him.

I'm hoping now that we all know he's bright, it will spur him on to do better. Or he'll be pushed down to middle sets for year 8, which is where we expected!

If you've been a foot off the pedal parent, would it change things if you found out they were in fact bright (just a bit lazy and laid back)?

CATs look for innate ability but don’t always translate to attainment in subjects but more to potential in subjects. Do you also know the underlying scores for each of the sections? If you can get hold of that having a look at GL’s website may help to explain what his strengths and weakness are and learning biases - for example he may be have a higher spatial bias for learning so has a natural aptitude for sciences which wasn’t unlocked in primary as they didn’t focus on this. The mean score won’t help much in understanding aptitude if the underlying profile is spiky. It also can help unmask learning difficulties as big deviations in the individual scores can indicate dyslexia or other SEN (speaking from experience as it was the CAT score that promoted us to explore/obtain a dyslexia diagnosis).

Thanks for this. We haven't been given the results, just told that the sets are based on CAT tests. I will email the school. It'd be interesting to see where he scored high. I have also wondered whether he could have dyslexia previously.

CAT scores are what revealed DS1’s special needs. I always thought he was quite bright (obv, I’m him mum!) but, although teachers were too polite to say, at school he was well below average. When he got his first CAT scores it was clear that the gap between ability and attainment was huge so we asked for an EP review.

I think CAT score can be a great thing for children like your son. It’s easy to confuse hard working and diligent (which are obviously great) for brightness.

Bright children can fly under the radar or have lower expectations set because they don’t look like we expect bright children to look. A high CAT score can hold a school to account on added value rather than relying on SATs which were supposed to be for assessing the school after all.

Thanks, he's had a dyslexia screening and apparently isn't dyslexic. Maybe he's just lazy and we've never pushed him as I just aim for happy children, and think they'll find their way in the end.... I've always been a step off parent.

They don't give you the CAT scores, just use it internally, but I will be asking his form tutor at parents evening if I'm able to have the results. It'd be interesting to see.

I wouldn't rule out Dyslexia or another SpLD if there are signs, school screenings aren't very accurate. DS' school insisted he wasn't Dyslexic, now diagnosed with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia and likely has ADHD as well. As he is so bright he was very good at masking and coming out in most things as just below average, not enough to flag as a concern. But there is a huge gap between his verbal and underlying ability and what he can get recorded on paper. At primary before diagnosis he was told he was lazy/just needed to try harder/boys take longer to learn sometimes/he will catch up in time.