Should I appeal KS2 SATs results or trust secondary setting assessments?

[user1480111163]

My son's KS2 sats wasn't great (not the worst), I know he's more capable than the results show. And on another day he probably would of achieved year 6 standard.

I think what's worse is the wording achieved year 6 standard Vs did not meet standard

I'm concerned with High School he'll be put in a bottom set, he works hard but easily distracted.

His scores were ;

Reading 102 this is great he has struggled with reading a bit but made loads of progress over the past few months and he now goes off and read on his own

Maths 95 I can't help but think they struggled to understand his hand writing

Spelling grammar and punctuation 97 again his hand writing is very poor something which makes it look like he's miss spelt but it's actually correct

Writing was classed as working towards. I think here is his hand writing keeps him behind

Science which I'm very surprised about was not met standards this is teachers assessment this is subject which I thought he was good at and had a very good understanding.

I've noticed it seems as the students who are going on to the schools group highschool got a higher scores than those who are going elsewhere.

I don't think it's worth appealing the results or is it? His high school told me they assess them in the first few weeks and after first term they then get moved.

Then to rub it in after school we went to the beach and another parent had to open her son's results in front of everyone pretending she hadn't seen them with all scores higher than 112.

Trust secondary school. Sats are irrelevant to parents and kids, they show the schools progress. Your child will be assessed as they progress through secondary school and will get the correct level of support.

Well done to your child for getting through it, they spend months building up to this poor kids.

I agree to trust the school. My son performed below capabilities on his yr6 SATs. He was placed in a middle set at the start of year 7. He's just finished year 8, and is now in the top sets for everything they have been streamed for. And actually, being the brighter kid in the middle sets did his confidence the world of good!

An appeal isn’t needed. All the secondary schools will wait before finalising sets, or will reshuffle say at half term. My DD’s school actually tinkers with sets every term until y10!

you do need to tackle the handwriting problems though, as secondary school won’t be making this a focus. I’m sure he won’t want to practice over the summer but perhaps you could tackle it from an angle - for example, get him doing YouTube drawing videos (good for his hand eye coordination).

Also address his pencil grip.

I got my ds back using those little rubber triangles that fit over pencils so his grip is adjusted properly - I bought a massive bag on Amazon. I also got a handful of the ones that your slot your fingers into. Ds finds these very comfortable and says his hand is less tired - it stops him digging his pencil into the paper and tensing up his hand.

Thanks some good advice here. I know Sats show just a small portion of him as a character. Just wish that mum on the beach didn't have to Gloat.

Tbh I never really felt part of the "mums group". Probably because I was a single dad there seemed to be some prejudice against me. I think the other dads felt similar and we all just learnt to stay away or talk to people on their own. The same gloating mum created a WhatsApp group after a induction day and got us all to write out numbers down and I was never invited to that, which upset me when he started reception.

Hopefully the school will also send across their own assessments so the secondary also takes that in to account; they must have lots of data as they repeatedly test the kids in the build up to SATs - poor kids!

Secondary schools always do their own assessments because of primary schools' different approaches to SATS (endless SATS practice papers vs following a normal curriculum with limited SATS practice).

It’s all quite borderline, and the secondary school will have received a reference/ report from the primary school, which may well refer to the issues DS has had.

I think you should contact the HOY at the secondary school to discuss DS’s difficulties with writing and focus, and consider an ADHD assessment, and also test for dyslexia. If you can afford it, go privately to get a diagnosis sooner rather than later.
Has this been raised before? Because you mention what are classic indicators, and I would expect the primary school to have considered this well in advance of SATs so that they could have made arrangements for extra support during the tests to enable DS to have done his best.

It’s up to the school to appeal based on a strict criteria. Any child whose score is borderline will likely have had their papers checked already by the school. If they thought there was grounds for appeal they would have done so

His primary school has tested him twice during his time there both times he came under the threshold. But on parents evening the teacher discussed that they would let him use a computer for the Tests. For whatever reason this never happened. They also said what helps a dyslexic or person with ADHD they teach to all as what helps those also helps the rest.

I'm guessing the high school screening tests may pick up dyslexia and ADHD? Another parent at the beach said her son was dyslexic and that's why his results were lower but the school didn't want to acknowledge this as they said it was trauma from when his dad passed away.

It seems to me those children going to the highschool which the primary feeds into got better results and possibly better support than those who were going elsewhere.

I wouldn’t bother. Really not worth it

I would not give them a moments thought. Secondary school will do assessments and lots of children moved between groups in the first term.

Yes, this. As a parent you can’t appeal the score, the school can and absolutely will if they think there is grounds to. When I tell y6 (admittedly almost 10 years ago) we could view the kids’ papers and what they’d written and decide if to appeal so if something was obviously correct but had been marked wrong. This is rare though, markers will make a real effort to read even very poor handwriting.

102 is actually slightly above expected (100) and the others are all very close so no massive worry IMO. I agree the language of ‘not met standard’ is very disheartening.

Science assessment at most schools is woeful tbh. We just used to make a random guess. If we’d ever had been moderated we’d have got 0% of kids at expected as we didn’t have any evidence to back up what we’d put (unlike maths and English which have a huge focus and huge written evidence in y6). Perhaps things have improved on that front though as this was in the early days of the 2014 curriculum and ‘life without levels’ aka making it up.

High schools absolutely do not all screen for dyslexia, dysgraphia or adhd. If he shows other signs, discuss with their Senco asap and share anything from primary.

laptops can be used if it’s their ‘normal way of working’ through school, you cant just use one for key assessments. Same with rest breaks and extra time.

handwriting is an issue especially as GCSEs are all assessed by scanned papers which ime magnifies handwriting issues. again, laptop can help but only if usual
way of working

he doesn’t need a diagnosis to be on send monitoring list which might be useful if other signs are present but you’ll have to be proactive

Secondary schools don't routinely test for anything like that. Tests cost money & they will only do screening for children who raise flags.

You should be proactive and contact the HOY or SENCO at the new school.

Things should get passed on but sometimes slip through the net. No harm in making sure the right people are aware that his Primary had concerns.

Ex maths teacher

you get used surprisingly quickly to reading all kinds of handwriting and most teachers and markers are very good at it.

most secondaries retest either at half term or at Christmas and move groups based on those results because some primaries focus very hard on sats and do lots of exam practice and others don’t.

Don’t go down the path of thinking your last paragraph. That’s deranged.

Your lovely boy either had off days or is currently working just under expected. Neither of those things are a disaster, but going into high school with a persecution complex won’t help him.

Let him settle and fix up an appointment either with his year head or the senco.

Yeah I think that's a sensible approach, I can't remember asking the question to the school he's going too. But another school we looked at said they'll do workshops for students to help. Hopefully that's the same with with his new school. I'm sure he's not the only child close and messy hand writing. Just dont want it holding him back.

Having said that mines dreadful and I had a y7 English teacher say to my parents don't worry everything will be on computers after I left school I stopped joining letters it hadn't held me back.

@user1480111163 This website has quite a few resources for handwriting:
https://nha-handwriting.org.uk/handwriting/help-for-parents/

What are his gross and fine motor skills, and coordination like? Poor handwriting can be symptomatic of conditions like dyspraxia or hyper mobility syndrome.

My child was much younger (yr 1) when his difficulties with mark making/ writing became apparent. Fortunately where we live the OT service was very good and he had input to improve his motor skills, and shoulder and core strength. It might be worth exploring what’s causing your child’s poor handwriting and whether it’s a motor problem or a dyslexia issue.

I would really encourage him to learn how to touch type, and if this becomes his usual way of working he can use a laptop for exams.

Yes, as if two months before SATs, when school allocations come out, a school would suddenly start giving loads of support to some children and ignore others based on their next school!

Yeah exactly, they wouldn’t. Why on earth would they? They don’t particularly care where the kids are going on to.

Lots of schools give extra support before SATS, especially to children who need a boost to get to the “expected” level and those who with a following wind can go the whole distance. As others have said SATs results are largely for the schools benefit so that their results show that pupils have achieved or exceeded their expected grades.

Its a good idea to raise the issues of your sons poor handwriting with his new school. But this time do it when he starts, not after he has taken public exams and you think it has affected the results!

And keep on with the reading now he has got going on it, the more he reads the stronger his understanding of language will become, his spelling will improve, his vocabulary will expand.

@viquesMy point was that of course schools give extra support to those children, but the destination secondary school would not factor in that, as where children go on to is irrelevant.

My children were told not to do joined up writing for the SATS spelling test so that it could be read clearly.
I wouldn’t worry high school will assess him and put him in the right sets for him. You don’t want him going into a high set and struggling.Also ignore the goady parents, they are everywhere unfortunately.

Even if they did set based upon KS2 score (which they likely can't because Pearson took over the contract this year and fucked it up - the scores themselves weren't even made available before the end of term and then they claimed secondaries weren't entitled to know it), those scores put him slap bang in the Mid range group - he'd have to average over 111 on Reading and Maths to be anywhere near a High and below 90 to be remotely near the Low groupings. He's in a great place to show significant improvement over the next five years.

Add to that CAT4 assessment, which identifies areas of ability and weakness (and tend to be on computer, meaning his handwriting is completely irrelevant), reading tests and actual teachers, there is going to be far more put into his education than you realise even before any possibility of SEND.

You're worrying unnecessarily about it.