KS1 SATS RESULTS - advice from teachers out there please?

[chickenrice]

My dc in Year 2 has just received the school report. Did SATS a few months ago but the results do not appear to be included in the report. There are levels within the report but these are based on teacher assessment. Are we entitled to receive the separate SATS results / score? Thanks.

AbigailS, maybe you're right. Perhaps that's what they were. In any case, wish all schools adopted a similar method of reporting. Seems here that some schools report SATS results as well as the teacher assessment.

Teachermumof3, the levels mentioned in March are those in his July report. SATS done in May. Maybe these were as AbigailS mentioned predicted levels after all.

Mrz, 'Explain' is perhaps the wrong word. I was hoping to see if the SATS reflected the extra effort dc put in since the consultation. The SATS result would have provided an extra measure of progress if any. We don't get any feedback at any other time unless the teacher has an issue with the child's work or behaviour. Also as dc had to endure the stress of sit all the SATS papers, it would have be nice to know how she did. Why hide the results? If one was to do a test in any area of life, is it not reasonable to expect to know the result?

Even if the test result had shown an extra measure of progress, it wouldn't be enough on its own to prove that your dc was secure at that level.

I hope your dc wasn't put under any stress at all sitting the test - they ar designed to be closely matched to normal classroom activities in Y2 - most children don't know that they are doing them at all. There are horror stories on MN of Y2 children being removed from class to do them, or sitting them in the hall - this is totally unnecessary for 6/7 year olds, and I do hope this wasn't the case for your child.

Thanks Elibean and Feenie.

I started this thread as I was concerned about how my dc's doing. Unfortunately, been told we are not entitled to know the SATS results. Anyway, maybe I should just leave it now. As some on here have said, teachers know best- I'm just hoping they're right.

If all teachers were like Feenie everything would be fine but they arent,plenty of stories on here of best practice not being followed on ks1 tests,if you want the test results all you have to do is ask,its as simple as that.(well it took a data protection act request for us to get them but hey ,thats another story...)

I agree with Propatria.

Do some teachers not appreciate that a parent supporting a child's day to day learning might then want to know SATS results as well as other results available such as the teacher assessment ones?

I don't get this really - surely a teacher working with a child on a daily basis is much better able to assess the level at which that child is working than a random one-off test. I couldn't care less about the SATs.

Having said that, I don't think that the school should refuse to share information that it holds about your child, if you specifically ask for that information.

Honestly? No... how does knowing that your child has been teacher assessed as a 2A but they managed to get 1 additional mark in the maths/reading test which takes them into a 3C help?
I can see that knowing which type of test questions the child had difficulty with would be useful to supportive parents (which we provide) but not a broad level (which as a teacher I don't find very informative).

Parents have the right to know all the information available ,what parents do with that info is up to them,as I said not all teachers are like Feenie,if a teacher doesnt know best practice for the test and its clear from numerous threads on here that these tests are not run as they should be in all schools,then why should anyone think the assessment will be accurate,it might,indeed it should, but then again...Parents have the right to know the whole picture and if the tests give a different result then as teacher assessments are, as we were told 100% accurate,then it will be easy and helpfull to explain how the asssessment differs...

If the OP is really concerned, she can always buy a KS1 practice paper from WH Smiths, and do it with her DD over the summer.

Then she'll have all the info she wants.

The teacher assessment and test results are moderated and if there were important discrepancies these would be investigated.
In writing for example children's levels can vary from one piece to the next not just between a test and daily work. Some children write very imaginative non fiction, others are happier writing reports or information texts, a few children write well across all types a test only provides evidence of how well the child wrote in a narrow band. So unless children are asked to take tests in every genre taught the teacher assessment is more accurate. The same would apply to maths where a single test can't possibly assess everything a child should know.

Thanks to all again. I appreciate what everyone is saying and agree with most of what it said. Only thing is regardless of whether it is meaningless, why withold SATS scores-why not state them and then mention that they are only a minute part of the assessment and not a the true indicator of a child's ability? Why not just be transparent with the information? If there are some parents who think they do not need to know the SATS scores, then they can ignore them completely or not request them.

AbigailS says "At Spring parents evening I often talk to parents what levels I am targeting for their DC in the End of Key Stage 1 assessements (i.e. in May) and whether they are on track for them, sometimes mentioning what they child still needs support on to reach that target. Maybe this is what your child's teacher was talking about, rather than where your child was in Feb/March parents evening?"

This is exactly how my school did it. And dd did get what was predicted. I asked her teacher for the sublevels, and she gave them to me. No problem! It doesn't change anything - it just clarifies what I know about dd's progress.

I think if a parent is interested, the teacher should just tell them. Some of us like to know. Really doesn't have to be a big deal - and I can't see why a teacher would be precious about it.

I don't think its a case of withholding test results just a matter of following the law ... teacher assessment must be reported ... so that's what schools do.

i think the reason for "witholding KS1 SATs results" (even thought withold is thw wrong word!!) is because there are a lot of parents out there who see that score as the be all and end all!...it causes far too many problems than the ones it solves.... the KS1 tests that are given in year 2...represent a tiny part of the assessment programme within year 2....if you want to see the SATs results then you might as well ask for ALL relevant assessment paperwork that has been done in maths and english...and while your at it...dont forget any assessments that have been done in all the other subject..ICT, SCIENCE, History, Geog, PE, ART, DT, RE, etc etc!....you might as well get as full a picture as you can...as the SATs results are just a snippet of it all!

should you have been given the results...lets say 2b for writing...2c for reading 2b for maths....what exactly would that have given you???....do you know from those results what level your child is?...do you know what their strengths/weaknesses in each subject area?...those numbers and letters mean nothing.....even more so if in fact your child is teacher assessed as 2a writer...2b reader...2c maths.....just shows that your child got different results in a test than they did assessed by their teacher!...

i wouldnt get too hung up about numbers and letters....just be reassured that the teacher Assessment is worth far more than ANY sat result...and find out what areas your child needs help with and you can help them improve!

In the past I have requested all sorts of evidence from the teacher to support her assessment - the reality of the situation was that the teacher had not communicated my child's performance adequately to me before the end of year report and I didn't rate her teaching ability - something was wrong, Head admitted grades were inflated and then deflated, the school was a mess and we moved.
My motive for information seeking was that things didn't add up...in my case I was right but I think when schools are reluctant to share info with parents, its very hard not be be suspicious.

What sort of evidence were you looking for Betty? The teacher is making judgements based on what your child does in class.

Teacher told me a lot of rubbish Mrz about my child's performance - none of what she said could be backed up. We were told grades were accidently inflated for the whole class the year before which explained my child's lack of progress...or they forgot to update assessments - in fact the excuses changed everytime we asked - depending on who we spoke to - in the end it didn't really matter what the school were up to, my faith in them had long since evapourated - on a generous day I'd say their grip on administation was dodgy, but something did not feel right, the wheels seemed to be coming off and after a few attempts to get to the bottom of it, we didn't stick around to find out.

As someone who is going to face parent's displeasure next term because the previous teacher has over inflated levels I do have sympathy with both you and the teacher. Assessment should be continuous, daily so I'm assuming by "updating" they mean entering data into a tracking system ... I can see why you are angry.