Third of Yr 2s not being entered for SATs ....

[razumov]

Is this normal? It is apparently an outstanding school but they said that they will only be entering pupils who are guaranteed to get at least level 2? Sounds pretty suspicious to me especially as it has never really felt like an outstanding school to me. The 90% plus stats they quote are pretty meaningless knowing what I now know, right?

Only children who are working at level 2 or above take the tests.

Headteachers have a statutory duty to administer National Curriculum assessments to all children who have completed the programme of study for Key Stage 1 and are considered to be working at level 1 or above.

Schools do not have to agree to parents? requests to not enter a child for tasks or tests. Similarly, they do not have to agree to requests to enter a child for National Curriculum assessments where the school has decided this is not appropriate.
In these situations headteachers should explain their decision to the parents. The headteacher?s decision regarding participation is final.

Their results will be reported and will indicate that these children are working below national expectations.

media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/k/assessment%20and%20reporting%20arrangements%20key%20stage%201.pdf

The level 1s will still be reported, OP - so if you are right, the number of children attaining level 2 and above this year will be 66%, not 90%+.

How does this work wrt children on the SEN register - I suspect there is a clever calculation involved in magicking away potential candidates without affecting the final statistic? The school always reports results in the high 90s and there have always been many children not entered

No, not possible - all children are included as having attained a W (working towards level 1) or a 1, and this will show on the statistics.

I mean all children who aren't assessed as level 2 or higher.

All children's results are reported including those on the SEN register (recorded as a P level) children working below level 2 will be reported as a W or level 1

Okay, thanks for explaining. I'm sure their results will be just as high this year - is it normal that such a large cohort of pupils would be excluded by any school; let alone one that is considered outstanding? I would add that there are many ESL children so maybe that is having a positive influence on the figures?

It's unusual to have such a high number of pupils working below level 2, especially that's not the norm for the school. They are not 'excluded' though. ESL children's results are included in Y2 results, even if they are recently arrived and speak little English.

The law states

Reporting and using results

Reporting teacher assessment results to local authorities or other accredited agencies
Schools must report the following for all children at the end of Key Stage 1:
? a teacher assessment level in reading, writing, and speaking and listening;
? a separate teacher assessment level for each science attainment target; and
? an overall teacher assessment level in mathematics and science.

For children with SEN who are working towards level 1, a P scale must be reported.
Children working towards level 1 of the National Curriculum solely because they have English as an additional language should be reported as EAL.

it isn't optional it is a legal requirement