maths levels

[joanbyers]

I had my DS try the KS3 maths SATs for 2009. He is 10 yrs 5 months. Obviously he hasn't studied much of the material yet, as still in Y6, and hasn't done any extra maths study at home (not as far as I know at any rate!).

He hasn't done Paper 2 yet, but with the mental maths and Paper 1 he has scored sufficient for Level 7, so he's working at Level 7 or 8.

He seemed to enjoy the tests a lot, and said the mental maths was much too slow/easy.

Should I encourage him in his maths ability? Or just leave it to the school?

I have been working with him on English, which he struggles at a fair bit (upper level 4), and generally say he can't do maths, because he needs to work at English, but he enjoys maths tests a lot! So it seems a shame in a way.

Try to get the school to give some extension work, but sideways, so expand what he knows without going up a level as this just causes boredom in secondary if they have already covered the work.

I would work on the English and do more reading.

Was it the foundation paper? If so, it will only cover the basic skills that he has probably been taught already. I would get him to do the second paper as his overall mark will be more of an indication of level.