KS1 SATS

[lmorr]

My daughter's school has been really disappointing. For the last two years and to be honest she might as well not have gone at all. To give you an idea in reception she was told "it is not your day to write" - they watch entire Disney movies during school on a regular basis (not just in break times/rainy days) etc etc.

She is now in Year 2, and finally has a good teacher, but, I fear a little too late. I think they do KS1 SATs papers in January - is that right? Or are they not til May?

I have just looked at the papers on the internet again and there is no way that from what she has been taught she would be able to do them. They haven't done punctuation or fractions or bar charts or graphs or clocks - and I just don't know how I can catch it all up by the start of term. She doesn't know what a verb/noun/adverb is etc etc (or didn't til today!)

The school doesn't seem to be fussed by standards or SATS - for example when I went to the Head about my general concerns at the end of last term and told her as an example that my daughter couldn't write 5 the right way round, her response was not to worry because some of the Year 5's couldn't either.

I feel the standards at the school are generally lower than they should be - and I obviously want my daughter to achieve what she is capable of (which at the moment on paper is very little).

In Year 1 - the class were only given four sets of spelling - when I queried this, with homework I had downloaded from another school, I was told "We only give those spellings to our brightest 2 pupils". The spellings came from a school which did have a poor OFSTED, now has an outstanding - where the majority of the pupils don't have English as a first language, so they were presumably fairly typical of what you would expect for Year 1.

I am just gutted, as she went to school an exceptionally bright little girl - way ahead of her age ...and school has utterly turned her off learning.

Two questions:
*Are all schools like this? Is this just the state of education in Britain now? Or should I be asking for/expecting more?

*How much SATs preparation have you done with your children for KS1? And if you have done some - what have you used?

Thanks for listening/replying. Obviously we've been extremely careful not to pass our disappointment onto our daughter - and praise her etc etc etc.

KS1 tasks and tests can be used at any point in the year but it is the teacher's assessment level that is reported based upon a whole years work not a single test so you can't really practise for the SATs.
All the work your daughter has done in class will be used as evidence

Parents
National Curriculum teacher assessments and key stage tests

The National Curriculum teacher assessments and/or tests are designed to give you and your child's school information about how well your child is doing.
Teacher assessments

At the end of each key stage, your child's teacher will formally assess their performance to measure your child's progress.

Of course, your child's teacher will be informally assessing their learning at other times to help them plan future teaching. They may, for example, listen to your child read or look at their maths work. Some schools will also use optional tests to assess children's progress.
National Curriculum levels

During Key Stages 1-3, progress in most National Curriculum subjects is assessed against eight levels. At the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 the school will send you a report telling you what level your child is working at.

At Key Stage 1 the level will be based on the teacher's assessment, taking into account your child?s performance in several tasks and tests.

At Key Stage 2 the level will reflect the teacher?s assessment and your child?s national test results.

At Key Stage 3 the level will be based on the teacher's assessment.

To find out more about National Curriculum levels, see ?Understanding the National Curriculum?

Understanding the National Curriculum

'End of key stage' tests

Your child will take national tests at the end of Key Stage 2. The tests are intended to show if your child is working at, above or below the target level for their age.

This helps the school to make plans for their future learning. It also allows schools to see whether they are teaching effectively by comparing their pupils' performance to national results.
Key Stage 1 teacher assessments, tasks and tests

Teacher assessment for seven year olds covers:

reading
writing
speaking and listening
maths
science

These assessments take account of how your child performed in Key Stage 1 tasks and tests for seven year olds. The tasks and tests cover:

reading
writing (including handwriting and spelling)
maths

The tasks and tests can be taken at a time the school chooses. They last for less than three hours altogether. The results are not reported separately but are used to help the teacher assess your child's work. By the age of seven, most children are expected to achieve level 2.

The teacher assessment is moderated by your local authority. This is to make sure teachers make consistent assessments of children's work.
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/ExamsTestsAndTheCurriculum/DG_10013041

Hi Imorr:

First thing (and I'm sure some teachers out there can confirm this) - but KS1 SATs scores are not publically reported (as in on League Tables) - so it is just a private result between you and the school.

Second - Y2 tend to sit SATs in May (I think that's still the case - but perhaps teachers can confirm).

Difficult - as not prepping your daughter means she'll not do so well, possibly below expectations nationally which will make the school look bad (which they deserve).

However leaving things to be ultimately harms your DD's life chances.

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So the issue here seems to be that you're unhappy with how your DD is doing.

The writing backwards thing is typical in KS1. I had two DDs who came into their primary school able to write 1 to 10 correctly, and then gradually started flipping numbers. I was horrified by it - but suspect that working on tables and seeing teachers/ TA materials upside down may have this effect.

Solution: Try and catch it. Have them practice. Make up little mnemonics - and use drawing hints. So with 5 and 3 - draw a little monster on the right. Under the horizontal of the five draw the face - five suffers from curiousity so turns to the monster on the right.

Draw a face under the upper curve of the 3. Poor Shy Three can't bear to see - so turns away from the monster to the left.

with 6 and 9 - I try to have my DDs imaging they're small plant and draw a sunshine on the top left of the page. With the 9 it's the height of summer - the flower in the 9 (the circle) turns to the sun. With the 6 it's late winter (say February) and dark and cold. The little shoot, first creeping out in the deep dark winter can't find the sun, so goes the wrong way. Mad - but it seemed to work.

With two, three & seven - draw a little ghost on the right and faces under the curve of the two & 3, and draw the face under the horizontal of the 7. The 2 runs from the boo, as does the 3 & 7 - so you now know which direction.

Fortunately 1, 8 and 10 are well behaved until you DD gets into topping and tailing the 1. I then add it to the 9 scenario - the first pettle of the flower heads toward the sun. (Yes, DD2 decided to catch me out on this)

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If like me you're unhappy with how things are progressing.

Join a library (or on-line book club) and start practicing reading yourself. Read book review sections or look at websites about recommended books for certain reading ages. Examples include www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/children/best-book-guide/ or the guardian's advice on building a children's library: www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/building-a-children-s-library or try the family education lists: school.familyeducation.com/literature/reading/34576.html

Take every opportunity to write - thank you cards, invitations, captions to pictures, scrap books, etc... Encourage your DD to practice writing styles - so fancy, swirly, big, huge, small. Have the write with a stick in the sand on the beach or in the dirt in the garden.

Join an on-line maths learning site - there's a number. I've posted about Mathsfactor themathsfactor.com/ - but there are others. It really depends on whether you're looking for replacement teaching (which was our situation - teaching at school & homework just not that good) or whether you're after a bit of practice.

KS1 bitesize - www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/ - offers lots of practice/ fun play in all the categories examined in SATs - so is a useful resource and frankly once you've got your DD set up on a game, you can get on with cooking, doing the laundry, etc... and they're fairly content.

Finally - If you feel that you'd like more info/ learning materials than check out BBC Learning (still in BETA).

www.bbc.co.uk/learning/
select schools on the options on the right

on the next screen, select teachers on the options on the right

on the next screen, select the KS1 tab

and then select the subject you are interested in. This will link you to all sorts of resources - lesson plans, worksheets, videos, games, etc... - but it is a great way of understanding what's possible and I've downloaded a lot of extra worksheets, which I use selectively - inset days, doctors/ dentists waiting rooms are great for worksheets & when my DDs are really into something and want to find out more.

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Are all schools like this?
Short answer is probably No - but many schools seem to go through arcs of getting really lax and them whipping themselves (and the students) into shape pre-OFSTED. If OFSTED is due to inspect in the next few years I can assure you things will improve remarkably.

As a parent - what you should be looking into is what will teachers next year & beyond be like. So if the school ground consensus is KS1 is lousy, but wait until they get Mr XXXX, he's fantastic and gets great things from them - then it may be worth hanging in there.

Is this just the state of education in Britain now? Or should I be asking for/expecting more?
Kind of a major question. Interestingly I've been e-mailed by friends in the US who report that US papers are saying Britian will not come out of the next recession because their education system is only good for a small percentage of pupils who are privately educated.

Now obviously there's an agenda there in this report coverage - but I had an interesting conversation with a teacher friend where I slightly went unhenged about things at my DDs' school and she basically gently said that if I want a good education, it has to be private. The state sector only works if parents keep on top of what is going on and help with learning at home.

So my hobby has become researching what my DDs should be doing and trying to supplement limited homework with good learning materials/ ideas - to just get them through. I send in suggestions to the school and sometimes they take them up and sometimes they don't - but meanwhile we keep paddling away at Chez PastSellByDate.

Are my expectations too high? Probably - but then I feel that if the school will endlessly spout on about their high expectations/ standards, then they shouldn't endlessly disappoint. If they have high expectations/ standards than I should be impressed. I'm pretty clear that so far nothing has impressed. Possibly because in 4 1/3 years for DD1 and 2 1/3 years for DD2 no school work has come home letting me understanding what's going on in class, very little homework came home until Sept, when we entered the school year when OFSTED would be coming & quite often I've had to undue appalling grammar (give me them pencils Mummy, etc...) makes me cringe - that's definitely from school - and not just their classmates.

No Y2 don't sit SATs in May as I posted it is up to the school when they do them there is no set date ... some schools have already done the tests as a base line assessment others will wait until June and some might do them in May with the Y6 tests.

SellBy and OP - your experiences are quite shocking - I have two in the state sector and have seen none of this laissez-faire attitude and total lack of communication with parents. Perhaps it's because I'm in a small town, but we're by no means all leafy. We have quite a few estates with high levels of social and economic deprivation and the schools still manage to do well with better than normal Value Added scores (shame this government is doing away with those, it's the only measure that is meaningful).

The schools do expect parental support in terms of reading to/with at home, making sure homework is done etc. but they certainly don't expect parents to work out what the curriculum is going to be - there is very good communication on topics for the term, what skills will be covered under each topic in maths, reading, writing, science, art and other subjects and the school is also very clear on informing parents how their child is doing against national standards. They also give very concrete information on what needs to be done to work towards the next level, practical things that you can really do something with.

Neither school is OFSTED outstanding, which to my mind says more about OFSTED than about the schools.

Hi Pointy & OP:

I'm glad (and a bit jealous) to hear things are better where you are - and I know many schools (teachers) are fantastic. I suspect the problem isn't individuals but 'culture' at this school. They don't like being questioned about what they're doing and certainly will not embrace change unless it's in their interest (i.e. less work - on-line maths homeworks automatically marked) have been adopted in advance of Ofsted.

I started off thinking I could talk to the school, approach them with my concerns or poblems, but they weren't reasonable or rational frankly. So I've just given up. I find resources (mainly off the web) and put in about 5 hours per girl a week (including school spelling, reading & math homework) and hope it will be sufficient. Whatever else - it's clearly better than what they're getting from 'the professionals'.

DD1 (Y4) is actually spending recess teaching children the tricks Carol Vorderman taught her off Mathsfactor for multiplication to help her friends. I've said 'Won't that get you in trouble?' She says - "But they want to learn Mummy and Mrs. X never sends multiplication homework home. We do it on the bars or climbing wall, away from the teachers, so they won't catch us learning."

Thanks for the advice. Will try some of those websites tomorrow.

PastSellbydate - can't believe that your daughter is teaching the others maths... I am interested in how much work you are putting in behind the scenes - I guess I need to just take responsibility and get used to the idea the school isn't doing or going to do anything. I find it frustrating though that they have the best hours of her day.

Most schools are far, far better than what you describe.

I think you should either home educate or move school.

I don't think it works to send your child to a school you don't believe is any good.