Anyone else's Yr 6 really struggling with SATS pressure?

[Ledkr]

My dd is absolutely hating Yr 6. Its a fairly academic school with a great reputation but they have literally gone on a bout nothing else since September. They still do games and Pe but apart from that there seems to be no enrichment and it's just relentless work. On top they have homework every night and she has an extra maths hour after school once a week.
She says it's boring and dreads every day. She says every day.is the same and the teacher is really strict and demands really intense focus all day.
I work.in a school and the Yr 6 are preparing for Sat's but not on this same.level and the teacher mixes it up with some fun activities.
Dd is about average academically and has always enjoyed school, its seems really sad that her last year is making her so unhappy.
I just wondered if other schools are like this.

Absolutely. It was a few years ago, but my dd was finding the pressure so intense that I told the teacher I would keep her off school during sats week. As predicted the pressure was turned down a few notches and she sailed through.

No. And if the school was like this I'd be making an appointment to speak to the headteacher.

Also have a dd in y6. I'm a bit worried DD hasnt noticed any pressure, hardly has any homework (even less than last term!) And is very very bored at school. She is above average but hardly acing her studies. Her school seem genuinely unbothered by SATs. Which I suspect means she wont reach her potential as they arent teaching her much!

Yes, he's not specifically saying it's SATs but yes he's finding it very full on. The school is massively data driven and he's looking forward to Y7 in a different school where he won't be spending most of the day doing Spag and Maths. Sad really because he used to love Maths.

Nope, I teach year 6 and it’s not anything like this.
Schools that do this make me cross.
A broad and balanced curriculum is essential. And in fact is statutory and determined by the government.
If what you describe is accurate then it’s extremely bad practice.

@NotTheGrinchAgain

Also have a dd in y6. I'm a bit worried DD hasnt noticed any pressure, hardly has any homework (even less than last term!) And is very very bored at school. She is above average but hardly acing her studies. Her school seem genuinely unbothered by SATs. Which I suspect means she wont reach her potential as they arent teaching her much!

But Sats don't matter. The ridiculous level of grammar they learn is forgotten and never used again. My 2 kids at same primary school has very different teachers in y6 and therefore very different experiences. DS1, had an aspiring deputy head who pushed and pushed, and he hated it. DS2 had a creative teacher who said the experience would be very different and so it appeared. That was the 19/20 academic year so they never did Sats anyway. I am sad Sats are back.

I asked my DD and she wasn't even sure what they were. I was half wondering if they had been cancelled (wishful thinking probably.)

She didn't do Yr2 SAT'S as her teacher didn't think it was in her best interests.

@NotTheGrinchAgain

Also have a dd in y6. I'm a bit worried DD hasnt noticed any pressure, hardly has any homework (even less than last term!) And is very very bored at school. She is above average but hardly acing her studies. Her school seem genuinely unbothered by SATs. Which I suspect means she wont reach her potential as they arent teaching her much!

Being unbothered by SATS and not reaching potential are two utterly separate issues. If they’re not stretching and challenging her then speak to them but obsessive SATS preparation is not going to solve that issue. In fact it would make it worse.

Thanks so much for the replies. I've not posted on here for ages but uts nice to get so many useful responses.
We have told the school and had a meeting with the head but nothing really changed.
I have told them she isn't doing homework in the week.as she needs to relax but we do.it at weekends so not ideal.
Its a 3 form entry and I think she has the pushiest teacher so probably the worst class for her.
Anyone have an suggestions for tackling the school without being a pain in their arse?
The annoying thing is that other kids feel the same but I don't think parents have said anything.

Not been mentioned by my dd. We only have one piece of homework and spellings which she usually rattles off in under 30 minutes on a Saturday morning

@Smartiepants79 if I speak to them, it will make a difference, you think? School is just happy that the good kids are sitting nicely so there is time to stop the others behaving like monsters, and I completely sympathise because many kids' behaviour is awful. The school isn't going to change its approach because I "speak to them". They are struggling as it is. If they were going to do something differently, they would have changed when we spoke in Y3. Or Y4. Or Y5.

@trumpisagit I haven't forgotten the grammar I learned at primary school. I have forgotten some of the grammar I learned for foreign languages at G.C.S.E. but I think that is because we stopped doing most formal grammar in our English lessons at secondary school so it wasn't being reinforced. Also my DD's senior school will use SAT scores to put the children in ability groups for core subjects, so where I live the SAT results do matter a bit.

I'm the Y6 teacher at one of the top performing primary schools in the country. There is no way that the level of push that you describe is necessary, helpful or, in the end, effective.

It's all about using your time in a way that maximises the opportunities to recall, review, apply and encode the knowledge and skills for core subjects in other areas without it becoming heavy or overwhelming. It's also essential to build in time away from concepts before review so that a child can actually forget some of what has been taught. This leads to more effective encoding in the end.

trumpisagit
But Sats don't matter.

This is a common misconception. In reality, a child's SATs results have a significant impact on the level of push, support, expertise, etc. they will get at secondary school and, through that, for their GCSEs. Most parents don't know the way it works behind the scenes, or how data is used to inform decisions, and often think that it's just something that matters for the school or "my secondary doesn't use them," when that couldn't be further from the truth.

Our secondary school teachers have actually said they don't use the SATs results. They use their own system to assess the students when they've settled in.

As for the school I was referring to, they have form for doing their SATs week and then using the next week for another round of assessments.
They also have stopped certain lessons in Y2 and Y6 to fit in more Maths, SPaG and English

SATS results weren't used in our secondary school. The first few weeks of term were for doing their own assessments. Extra help/push is non existent for most children!
The dc suffered more from overblown GCSE grade predictions based on Y2 SATS results.
In my opinion SATS are only useful to the primary school to show that the child has made progress since Y2 & they've 'done their job' so to speak. Disappointing SATS results often trigger an Ofsted inspection hence why so many schools get in a flap over them.
The children don't benefit at all & you're absolutely right to limit the work your dd is doing. I'm sorry Y6 is bad for her & hope things improve after May.

SATs are used at secondary because schools are measured on the progress between y6 SATs and their GCSE results (it's called Progress8).

You don't want your child to either over achieve or under achieve in y6 SATs.
If they 'over achieve' and go to the 'wrong type of school', they may find that they are told they are below expectations for years because their results in secondary are putting them as heading for a 6 not an 8.
If they under achieve then where they are struggling unexpectedly may not be picked up as they will have less expected of them.

If a secondary has a pot of money for 'interventions' then it will be more likely be spent on a child under achieving against SATs than a random other child.

OP Your DC doesn't have to do extra maths once a week, nor masses of homework. Keep pushing she needs to try her best but nothing awful happens if she gets 105 v 110 or whatever.

@Underthestairsbears
@TopTabby

The school teachers can tell you that but it isn't true - if they aren't senior leaders then they may not know/understand the process anyway.

Your child's official GCSE targets are generated from their SAT results. The school cannot change them. They can set their own internal targets but those are, ultimately, meaningless. All secondary schools are judged (through progress 8) on how well they get their children to their official targets.

Essentially, this means that if your child's target is high, they will be pushed and supported to meet it because the school needs them to. If your child's target is low and they reach it, they could find themselves left to continue being low even if they had the potential for more. This is because the school needs to concentrate on those who are not achieving their target.

Disappointing SATS results often trigger an Ofsted inspection hence why so many schools get in a flap over them.

This is also not true. The nearest school to us have seen their results decreasing year on year but haven't been inspected in over 15 years.

The only time SAT results affect your Ofsted window is if the last three cohorts have done so badly that you've spent three years under the very low floor targets. Very very few schools are ever in this position.

The school is on the border of two UK countries. They don't do the same assessments at the primary schools. They don't use that SATs results apparently.

We're in the same boat OP. DS is dyslexic and he has 3 extra 'booster' sessions a week. When I wanted to pull him put of one of the extra sessions to do a club, it was made very clear that this won't do him any favours. I'm torn between feeling that we should grab all the extra help we can get as so many struggle to get any support and feeling resentful that he has so much pressure on him when he struggles so much anyway. It's really turning him off school tbh. That's not to mention all the spellings, reading, times tables, literacy and maths he has every week!

Just had an email from school asking parents to buy 'revision guides' so we can support at home.
My friends DC, also dyslexic was so heavily coached through his SATS that his results were fantastic, which I'm sure reflected well on the junior school but she then had a nightmare getting the support she needed from secondary school. They spent months getting to know the reality of the child's struggles as they had based streaming etc on SATS results from the junior school.

My dream was to go travelling for year 6 and skip it entirely on a "world tour" type year....

My eldest DC didn’t do the SATs - essentially because we did this DaisyTheUnicorn - her secondary school did assessments in term 1 of Y7, doesn’t seem to have impacted her at secondary school (she’s in top sets, predicted 7-9s).

My 2nd DC is one of a few Y5s in a majority Y6 class & is hating it at the moment. It sounds so dreary & it makes me so depressed that she’s not even in Y6 so will have to go through all the same boredom again next year.

So jealous of child 1! Our financial circumstances changed so much so we couldn't... and then she wanted to do the end of year residential and be with her friends.... and then covid. 🤦🏼‍♀️.

Poor child 2 :( 1 year of year 6 is enough.. how horrible not to have year 5.

@TeenPlusCat

SATs are used at secondary because schools are measured on the progress between y6 SATs and their GCSE results (it's called Progress8).

You don't want your child to either over achieve or under achieve in y6 SATs.
If they 'over achieve' and go to the 'wrong type of school', they may find that they are told they are below expectations for years because their results in secondary are putting them as heading for a 6 not an 8.
If they under achieve then where they are struggling unexpectedly may not be picked up as they will have less expected of them.

If a secondary has a pot of money for 'interventions' then it will be more likely be spent on a child under achieving against SATs than a random other child.

OP Your DC doesn't have to do extra maths once a week, nor masses of homework. Keep pushing she needs to try her best but nothing awful happens if she gets 105 v 110 or whatever.

This. I have a year 6 and a year 10 child. The year 10 child was set for maths based on of sats, but that was literally the only difference that we have ever noticed. Everything else wasn't streamed in secondary. He refused to do the extra sats papers his teacher recommended as homework because he said he'd been doing them all day and he wasn't doing any more at night as well - and we accepted that.

So, I'd suggest if she does anything extra to learn spellings as they go (and maybe practice any maths she finds difficult). Otherwise don't bother with homework. They do plenty at school. Tell the school she's over stressed and becoming anxious and that should take the heat off.

Ooh, just looked back - I like ANameChangeAgain's advice...

[quote Iamnotthe1]@Underthestairsbears
@TopTabby

The school teachers can tell you that but it isn't true - if they aren't senior leaders then they may not know/understand the process anyway.

Your child's official GCSE targets are generated from their SAT results. The school cannot change them. They can set their own internal targets but those are, ultimately, meaningless. All secondary schools are judged (through progress 8) on how well they get their children to their official targets.

Essentially, this means that if your child's target is high, they will be pushed and supported to meet it because the school needs them to. If your child's target is low and they reach it, they could find themselves left to continue being low even if they had the potential for more. This is because the school needs to concentrate on those who are not achieving their target.[/quote]
And this. In year 10, most of my DS' targets have moved up from his SATS predictions. Which is a lot nicer than trying to hold him to higher ones than he could comfortably achieve.