sats in year 2

[parentsevening]

Have just had parents evening and been advised that our DS should obtain a level 3 for reading and maths but a 1a for writing in his end of year 2 sats.

This was better than we had expected as we had thought his writing would result in all subjects being below average, despite reading well, as he often still reverses his numerals and struggles to write the answers to the reading tests. I guess they must have taken this into account as they said he is a 3 already for reading and maths but they dont think he will be beyond a 1a for writing and certainly not a 2b.

We would like to understand the sats grades. Is our understanding correct that the expectation is to achieve level 2b at end of year 2? Are the statistics published nationally or by school so to show what proportion of children do actually achieve a 2b and a 3 etc.

Apologies if i am not understanding the procedure correctly but is the 2 levels increase that the school is measured on between ks1 and ks2 for value added based on the reading or writing ie would my ds need to achieve a 3a or a 5 at ks2 for school to have met their target of 2 levels increase or is it averaged out between both to become english in KS2?

Are there any websites that explain the whole sats system clearly for parents as have tried googling it and searching MN without it becoming any clearer. Many thanks.

1. That's a big discrepancy between reading and writing. Are school concerned? What are they doing to help him? Are you concerned?

1. Yes, 2b is the expected grade for all kids.

1. Results for KS1 SATS are not published nationally anymore. You should get the results for your school.

1. 3 in reading is approx top 30%. 1a in writing is approx bottom 20%.

1. School would be aiming for him to get a 5 in reading and at least a 3 in writing - but they would also be aiming for him to get at least a 4 in writing :)

Thanks very much Indigo.

Sorry but in reply I have even more questions:-

1. School are not telling us they are concerned as he is finally starting to write but they did in year 1 but the NQT was unable to help. Yes we are concerned hence the post but are far more concerned with his medical needs and pain levels to be honest and that is my main focus but I have helped writing significantly at home as he was unable to form letters at end of year one. There is more we could do such as some of the things you have tried but at the moment have too many hospital appointments etc to do any more external intervention.

1. Do you know what percentage achieve 2b nationally?

1. How do we get our schools results ie do we have to ask or will we be told at end of year and can we get results for our school for previous years and again do we have to ask?

1. If these figures are known are there some statistics available on line that I can look at even if not published officially?

1. Is reading and writing still separate at KS2? The tables I looked at just showed an overall result for English. If so what proportion is reading and writing and would they then expect him to achieve an overall average ie of a 4 in order to achieve their value added?

Thanks again.

1. Legally I think they are meant to hand out the school's SAT results when they give you your individual one.

You'll have to ask for previous year's ones.

1. Reading and writing is still separate at KS2.

If you look at the league tables here you can see it's all broken out.

Here is the national data.

72% got 2b+ in reading
60% got 2b+ in writing
73% got 2b+ in maths

81% got 2+ in writing - so your DS is in the bottom 19% for writing - but he's in the top 26% for reading.

Thank you so much Indigo. This is the type of chart I hoped was available. Very interesting with figures for boys and girls and regions too.

Hence if my DS did say get a 2c in writing by the end of the year then just 52% of boys actually achieve a 2b or above in writing. All very irrelevant of course as my focus is to get him well but still interesting to see the gender differences and the actual figures all the same.

Re KS2 I see the charts you link separate reading and writing but our school just show the combined as english so how would they combine them? Presumably adding points for each but do they each contribute 50% and in practice would a 5b and a 3b roughly become a 4b?

Thanks again.

It would be roughly a 4b, but how it actually works (I think :) ) is that the reading and writing test is each marked out of 50, which then gives you a mark out of 100 for English, which then translates to it's own scale.

So it would be possible to get a 5b and a 3b and not a 4b.

Your school will be on that website though. You should be able to look it up.

Hi parentsevening:

Our DD1 had similar problems without medical issues in KS1. Basically just an awkward left-hander. School were concerned but decided to take a gentle approach but we decided to encourage writing at home.

I suspect your school are aware of medical issues and probably believe that it is best to gently encourage improvement because these issues are involved as well.

What I do know is that 'writing' was marked down for poor handwriting for my DD1 and that she also found letter formation and control of pencil very difficult skills to pick up. We dealt with it by encouraging as much writing at home as we could.

Sending cards
Sending postcards when away
Sending off to enter competitions
Writing to Father christmas
Sending Thank you cards

We also encouraged a lot of doodling with coloured pencils (crayola twistables are excellent). Amazon has a lovely range of geometric colouring books which also really work those fine motor skills.

I know it is concerning for you to have a son doing 'below expected level' in writing. But this is something that can rapidly catch up later - as we've witnessed with our DD1 and some of her friends. I'd suggest you talk to the school about what they feel is holding him back. I suspect it isn't his use of language, punctuation or comprehension, it is the physical writing. If this is the case, then this can be rectified. It may just be practice or as Indigo has suggested on other feeds it may require specialist support - possibly occupational/ physical therapy. At least you know there is an issue and can now start to investigate what the problem is and help support learning in this area at home.

Sorry parents evening - DD1 who scored 1a at KS2 SATs - now working to 4c in Y4 according to teacher, who as a personality is not the type to inflate performance.

So things can come around honest. DD1's handwriting is beautiful - but mainly because she's very visual and started to treat it like an 'art project'. Practicing her signature and cursive letter formations until she was happy with the outcome.

Its actually a 2C that is expected at the end of KS1, that is seen as 'meeting requirements'.

thanks everyone.

pastsellbydate - it may not be the medical issues that cause the problem in our case either but my main focus at the moment is to address this. Having said that I have followed all tips on here for a couple of years and do get him to write without realizing I am instigating it and to practice fine motor skills at all opportunities even though they dont seem to be the problem. I am fairly confident that he will do very well eventually. School would blame it on medical issues and lack of willingness to write previously so it is hard to discuss other reasons. There are plenty such as refusing to hold a pencil even to draw or colour before starting school, being cross lateral, reversing all numbers until end of year 1 and still reversing numbers now. He still finds it an effort to hold a pen and has to think about the way each letter faces so although he normally gets it correct now it really slows him down and takes focus away from content and spelling etc. Thanks for sharing your positive experience.

Indigo thanks for this - when you say our school should be on the website presume you mean for KS2 only? Presume ks1 figures have not been upated since projected 2010 ones on the link you posted?

Lucy - is this government expectations or is this just that school are expected to focus help on those not achieving a 2c? Is this on dfes website or any link you would be able to post? thanks.

Yes, only KS2 on the website.

It is not clear whether it's 2c or 2b which is the govt expectations. I've asked before and no one was able to find a document saying either way.

As you can see by the doc I linked to both 2+ and 2b+ were shown.

In Y3 some schools will put all children below a 2c on an intervention, and some schools will put all children below a 2b on an intervention.