Year 8 ‘End of Year Exams’ - Huh?

[leticiajones88]

My daughter is in Y8 and she said a couple of weeks ago that her teachers were setting her up for some tests. I asked if they were important, and she said “if they were important id have thought they would you tell you?”. I agreed.

Her school are about as hard to talk to as a brick wall.

I had an email today saying that starting on Monday, next week, she will be taking EXAMS in English, Maths, Science, French, RE, Geography and History.
They said the purpose of the exams is to “assess learning at the end of the year, identify areas of strength and areas of weakness” and to “prepare for GCSE’s in Y11”.

She leaves this school in July to start high school, and she can’t wait because they’ve been terrible. The maths teacher prints worksheets off Twinkl for them to work on, and never marks them, the kids do. The teacher doesn’t have any grasp on what level the kids are learning at. My daughter says that it’s similar for the rest of her subjects; in French they don’t even need to speak French, just ‘identify’ the words.

I didn’t go to school THAT long ago although I am probably in denial (2004 high school), but we didn’t do tests to see where we were. Our teachers checked our work, saw what level we were working at, and if we were at a lower level we moved to a lower level class to work at that level with the appropriate support (or higher level with no support etc). This gave the basis for what exams we would then sit at GCSE.

Has this changed? I am genuinely curious what the process is around the UK.

(Three tier school system - First / Middle / High )

I did end of year exams every year from Y7 to Y9, then mocks in Y10, GCSEs in Y11. Totally standard where I come from, when I grew up, which was lates 90s/early 00s.

It doesn't sound like the exams are the problem, more the other issues, which to be honest are probably too late to address now, if she's leaving in a couple of months.

I've had end-of-year exams in every single year of secondary school, as have my children. Totally normal. Tests throughout the year are also totally normal.

End of year tests are perfectly reasonable and normal. Probably just held in class time. Good practice for the future.

Now that GCSEs are mainly exam based not coursework it makes good sense for students to get used to taking a bank of tests/exams together. They aren't important in themselves, but are important to practice different revision techniques and to get used to doing exams.
End y9 may well be used to decide who gets to do triple science v combined, and to set sets which may impact foundation v higher papers for some subjects, etc.

I thought this was completely standard - my secondary school definitely did end of year exams.

As this is the last year of her middle school things might be slightly different to the two tier system. Normally Yr 8 isn't an exam year but it's different if that's when you change schools.
However I have noticed many schools use the phrase "exam" when it's what in my day was just called a "test" - a short test to see where you are at.
It's makes sense to be ready for the high school as there will only be a year before GCSEs start and a year might not be long enough to figure out strengths/weaknesses etc so they do these tests.

Yep DD is Yr 8 and from Yr 7 they do end of year exams in all subjects. Clearly communicated on school calendar, email to parents and support with revision aids for kids.
The results of EoY exams combined with performance across the year determine the sets for the following year so they are important in that sense.

We don't have 3 model system though. They leave primary at end of Yr 6 and go to secondary straight through until end Yr 11

Every year on MN I see parents of y11s bemoaning the fact they don't know how to revise.
In my opinion, this is probably because they haven't taken revision seriously in years 7-10 because those tests/exams 'aren't important'.

I had exams at the end of every year from y7 onwards

Thank you everybody for your replies; my school system must have been ancient and rubbish 😂

I will be helping her to revise, but this is genuinely the first I’ve heard of it as a parent from the school. Sometimes they don’t tell me she is cooking in food tech until they send a text at 7pm the night before!

Good to know that this is standard now though so I can expect this for my other daughter too. Thanks everybody ❤️

Yeh exactly. I'm really happy that DDs school get them to try different revision techniques + strategies throughout Yr 7-9 so by Yr 10 they should have found the most effective for each of them.
They give them study guides with loads of links to revision sites as well as how to set up your environment for studying etc.

I had end of year exams throughout primary and senior school. In fact, in senior school, we had exams in December and June. Exam weeks were always off-timetable, so no normal school apart from PE/Games.

It was exactly the same when I was a teacher.

Had end of year exams on the 90s! Taken very seriously... we had certain seats in certain rooms, a timetable etc. (There was a mix of year groups in one classroom so we couldn't copy each other...)
In comparison my children just have tests regularly in their classes. My DD in Yr9 has just had her first "exams" where they were in the exam hall for MathsEnglish and Science

We always has end of year exams when I was a student . and now I'm a teacher, in every school we have end of year exams. It's a good way of assessing progress over the year

Tests are normal. It's also entirely normal and in fact better for the kids to mark their own worksheets in maths.

I've taught secondary for 25 years and all year groups have assessments in the summer term.

End of year exams every year since Y7 here.

DD's school start GCSEs in Y9 and take 1 early in Y10, so options are all done in Y8 and Y8 exams are used to determine which set you are in.

Also gets them used to exam system, so they are done formally, not as class style tests.

We had this in the 90s too. Not proper exam conditions in the hall like GCSEs but written exams in the classroom with the desks moved more apart than the usual arrangement.

We have end of year exams at my son's school. In Year 7, he had 14 1 hour exams in 1 week and it's quite a big thing!! Am dreading his Year 8 ones starting soon., but he's very used to being assessed and takes it all.in his stride. The Maths results feed into the sets for next year.

Yes. We did too - all through Senior School.

Yes DD has 12 x 1-1.5 hour exams in the end of year exam week plus 4 x practicals the week before

It’s standard to do end of term assessments then bigger ones at the end of the year

We did exams (3 days) twice a year in Juniors, and once a year (7 days) at secondary until year 11, when we did mocks and the real thing. We had an exam time table, desks placed separately, and no lessons, just exams in those times.

My dc only did what I would have regarded as "tests"; end of subject tests during lessons. Tbf they did have hour long lessons, whereas we were 40 minutes, but that meant they didn't do more than 50 minute tests until GCSEs; whereas we were doing 90 minutes at juniors and longer at secondary.

I don't think this set them up well for GCSEs. So I'd be pleased your school is doing this.

However I wouldn't expect a text from the school about doing food tech. I'd expect my dc to have the information and remind me what was needed if we didn't have it in plenty of time.

We had tests more years and in some subjects each terms, I think that was pretty normal and was 20-30 years ago.

the kids marking their own work is also fairly normal, helps them to really see where they went wrong.

And at high school (year 7 onwards) very little communication went through parents. Definitely don’t think the school would have told them about year end tests and the NEVER would tell the parents the food needed for food tech. The students would be told and would be expected to pass the message on the parents. I think you expect too much on the communication front and need to make your daughter more responsible.