DS asked to do Y6 SAT Maths paper

[WizzleWoo]

Hi, just wondered if anyone else has had this experience. DS (Y4) has been asked to sit the upcoming Y6 Maths paper with all the Y6 group.
He is on the G & T list for maths, has been since last year. Just wondered why he has been asked to sit this, and if anyone else has children that have sat them early.

There are past papers available online. DS loves doing them for fun.

That is good. I know when my DS got 100% in his SATS that they didn't show what he could do as he was limited by the level of the tests. This is probably why they are testing your DS to a higher level.

"I know when my DS got 100% in his SATS that they didn't show what he could do as he was limited by the level of the tests."

So true.

Ditto. Very similar experience here aswell.
WizzleWoo, I think you are lucky to have a very understanding school.

ds1 (now Y5) did this in Y2 - although he did it separetely, not with the Y6's who were doing it for real - and has done last years level 6 too.

At least it give a measure of where he actually is, which can only be a good thing if it helps the school cater for him (although whether they can/will is a different question entirely!).

They'll still have to do them again when they get to Y6 though.

This sounds like a recipe for an even more boring Year 6, if they have to do them again. Or will they give him a higher level at that point? My poor DD1 was even more put off school by the Y6 SATs last year and they didn't even offer level 6. My DD2 is already level 5 in year 4 so god help her for the next 2.5 years if that's all they are going to do.

Thanks for all the replies. I think it is great that they are letting him do this, he is keen to do it and has already achieved a level 5 this year so will be fine. I just wonder what he can do after this, whether they will set him extra work in the next two years or whether he will just be repeating everything. He does go to an extra maths lesson once a week to do harder work, which he really enjoys, but apart from that he is just in the top maths set and has no other work to do. I dont want him to get bored!

The standards expected for maths are wowfully low in this country.

I understand that there is a Level 6 paper that rarely gets offered, maybe they are figuring out if it would be worthwhile to work thru the syllabus for that paper, obviously they'd prefer him to do well whichever paper he actually finally sits in y6. So this is a bit of a test. SAT's not just about what work he can do in class, he needs to perform in that kind of test atmosphere too, I imagine.

If you want to have a look at the type of questions you can download both the level 3-5 paper, and the level 6 one for 2001 from here

Level6 papers became available again last year as a pilot- they are now avaialable to all schools who wish to put children in for it- I'm sure you'll find your schools will offer it as it looks good for their value added if they can get level6's. it also means they will be providing the work to go with it as it is a huge hike from level 5- so you can mention it to the teacher - they are supposed to provide for all children according to their ability so there is no reason why they shouldn't be giving him the higher level work - although it sounds like he's getting it a bit - just not all the time