When are Year 2 SATs taking place?

[ExpectoPatronum]

My DD is in Yr2, so SATs are coming up.

Her school takes a very, very laid back approach to SATs - absolutely nothing, nada, not one jot of information about them has been provided to parents.

In many ways I support this - they're 6 and 7 year olds for heaven's sake, I'd rather the whole thing was low key and no huge fuss was made about it.

However, I do feel I'd like to know if my 7 year old was sitting tests in a given week. Is there a set week in which they take place? Do schools get to do them whenever they like? I heard some dark mutterings about the week commencing 9 May, is this the case?

What do you know? Please spill the beans!

That is the KS2 SATs. The KS1 SATs can happen at anytime. TBH I think DS1 has done his already but don't know for sure. It is completely up to the school/teacher when they are done.

Our school is the same, has said nothing, im not sure about the tests. it is mainly teacher assesment. I think they have even stopped publishing KS2 SATS papers its become that relaxed.

Im not bothered by the whole thing (exams and putting pressure on my childern iykwim?) and i wont be until my children are well into senior school. The junior school wont like me much.

our school spreads them over the months of May and June so no given time when they will be sitting down to tests and nice and spread out so the children don't feel pressured. My dd will be doing them next year so I am not sure at this time if parents are told which days will be test days, I expect not knowing the school because there is always the possibility of the parent who will heap the pressure on a child (not saying that's you, just that these parents exist) when they know they have a test on a set day.

KS1 SATS are teacher assessed. They will do "tests" but these are only one part of the assessment process. I can't remember the precise timescale over which they can be completed but it is at least the whole of this term and might be earlier.

As long as the school reports on the levels for each child by some date before the end of the year, it doesn't matter when they gather their evidence.

Some schools like to have a general assessment week, often when the KS2 SATS are happening, but schools will be assessing all the time anyway.

I have been trying to find out from DS if they have done any tests at all but in typical 7 year old boy way I either get a nonsensical answer or he says they have done nothing in school all day. At all

Thanks very much, everyone.

I've been really determined not to put any pressure on her, mention SATs to her, or question her about what they're doing.

I have to say I don't have the greatest opinion of her teacher (based on having children in her class for three different years) and she's not very approachable to ask this sort of thing.

At KS1 (year 2) it's very informal.

They will do a few tests but it's teacher assessed with moderation and goes on throughout the year. So you won't hear of the school doing a 'sats week'.

You will not need to talk to your dd at all because she won't know what you are talking about!

Yr2 teacher told us at parents evening it would be between the Easter & Whit holidays and the kids wouldn't be aware of it. Fine by me

my dd1 (yr2) is doing them this week - she is well aware of them because she reads all the notes/newsletters that come from school. She isn't in the slightest bit stressed, she thinks they're fun and can't believe they got sweets from the teacher when they'd finished. she did literacy on tuesday, spellings yesterday and must be numeracy either today or next week. Are there any more?

They're taken out in small groups and told to do their very best work. As parents we only know because we knew they'd be sometime this half term (need to be done by end May i believe) but also because both teachers are in on test days (job share). So one takes a group out at a time and the other runs the class.

Our teacher told me that she the kids don't need to know anything and we dont need to worry about it...

Our school did the writing papers before Easter, and have been doing the others this week just gone (I'm now on maternity leave, so I was only involved with writing). The parents weren't told that the writing tests were taking place, but a note was sent home in the school newsletter asking that all yr2 children arrive on time every morning in the first week back as some 'special work' would be taking place. Obviously parents reading that would most probably know that it referred to SATs!

A thought, considering the amount of progress a child can make in a relatively short time, why aren't the assessments done later in the year? I appreciate it all needs to be collated and reported, I'm not suggesting they are done in the last week of the summer term, but why May? Such a lot could be learnt if they were a few weeks later. Does anyone agree?

I think they're starting on Monday, well they are at DS's school, but equally the teachers have been very clear that the continuous assessment will make up the majority of the mark.

lovecheese, I am inclined to agree with you. Some of the children in a year 2 class are still 6, after all.

Perhaps the rationale is that the later in the year you go, the more the children are flagging and ready for a holiday.

It's just one point in time - children are continually assessed throughout their school lives anyway, from Reception to Y6. They will be assessed at the end of July aswell, and yes, for some children the result will be different. But only two assessment points have to be reported centrally and to parents - end of Y2 and end of Y6.

But Feenie, it's not the end of Y2, is it?

So, theoretically, if a child scored, I don't know, a 2a in numeracy in May but had a real spurt till the end of term and actually ended the school year working at a level 3, would the score of 2a or the 3 "Go up" to year 3 with them and determine their ability sets?

It's as close to the end of Year 2 as beureaucracy can make it - you're right that it has a factor in the delay between reporting data to LEA and parents. But it wouldn't matter which assessment point in time you picked, since it's not as if they aren't assessed before or after. No one says 'why are you teacher assessing them in Y1 - they're only 5' - it's how we decide what teach next, what tests are needed (not talking about formal testing as assessing, obviously - it's a very small part of Y2 assessment).

To answer your last question, most schools use the most recent assessment data. And constantly reassess fom that point onward aswell.

bureaucracy

Beaurocracy. Sorry, call me sad.

Hang on, no, bureaucracy. Stupid language, English.

does anyone know what the scores are and what they mean?

NC scores go thusly:

1c
1b
1a
2c
2b - expected level at end of Y2 (or June in Y2, as lovecheese has pointed out

Teacher assessment in Y2 has no ceiling, but the tests only measure level 2-3

2a
3c
3b
3a
4c
4b - expected level at end of Y6
4a
5c
5b
5a

Teacher assessment in Y6 may go up to level 6, but the tests in Y6 only measure levels 3 - 5.

I wonder what the true average level is at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. I know that 2b and 4b are the "expected" levels but does that mean that everyone is expected to get that level so the average would be higher?

Yes - David Blunkett changed the terms 'average levels' to 'expected levels'.

National 2010 results:

Reading W (working towards level 1) - 3%
1 - 12%
2c - 12%
2b - 23%
2a - 24%
3 or above - 26%

So average would seem to be between 2b/2a, no?