How normal is it for YR6 SATs to be different to YR2 SATs

[bitsyandbetty]

My DS was below average (2c) in YR2 SATs for English and above average for Maths. End of year 6, 5 in English, Maths 4a although has been working at 5 all year. My Friend really disappointed as her DD got 3 in Yr2 in English and then disappointing 4 in Year 6 English, the school expected a 5, which is the level she has been working at. How accurate are the tests in either year as the education authorities seem to place a lot on these results when they can vary so widely between Year 2 and Year 6?

The writing paper is very subjective and not many year 6 teachers have a good word to say about it. The reading and maths papers less so and I generally find they are pretty much in line with my teacher assessment( if not perhaps a smidge higher as I'm a very tough person to please

Why wouldn't they vary between Y2 and Y6?

As Cortina keeps on reminding us a child who is below average at age 6 could be above average by 11........

However if the teacher assessment is very different to the test results, then it was probably just 'exam nerves'.

Choose the better result (between teacher assessment and exam) to believe

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14142191

Thanks Mrz. My friend's DD's paper has gone off to be remarked. A lot of their results did not reflect the ability of the kids. Last year my DC's school was one of the ones that boycotted the SATs. It is a shame when the first main external exams the children sit is so erratic as it could have a big affect on the children's confidence and will have an impact on the stream in secondary school. Fortunately ours do speak to the school as well and look at raw scores.

I know it's not the question you actually asked, but my sister went from a level 5 in her year 6 maths SAT, to a 4 in her year 9 one . She went from a 4 to a 5 in English, and stayed at a 5 in Science. When my mum went in to ask her maths teacher why, he spouted a load of crap excuses about how the marking was much stricter in year 9, the levels were different, etc, before mum told him that she was a year 2 teacher herself, so she actually already knew all about SATs levels. The teacher was rather .

bitsyandbetty - I don't know how widespread it is but, in our area the high schools all do their own tests / assessments in Sep to decide what stream to put the Yr7 children in. They claim the sats results don't have much bearing on what level the children will be working at, they are more an indication of which feeder primary schools spend all of Yr6 preparing for sats.