How important are year 6 sats

[spicyorange]

Thats it really how important are they? Do you have to let your child take them or can you request that they dont.

Oh, and there's no way my HT would listen to your HT.

That is why it is a good school.

Did you know when you chose it that it always got everyone a L4? Did that not ring alarm bells to you then?

All of the top 100 schools got L4 in English and Maths last year.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11987881

The point is they aren't in school cramming in SAT practise after SAT practise they are learning and having fun and still achieving.
yes mrz that is indeed all we parents ask for, that our kids are treated the same way teachers would want theirs to be.

Presumably you initially chose the school because of those same characteristics?
The school was chosen because it was local and small and betrayed no inkling of the ambition that was uncovered from May of year 5. Your apparent intimation that our choice was results is a little sad, but possibly demonstrates teacher obsessions with SATs. Or possibly a lack of imagination that generalizes that all parents are myopic and think achievement is based on 14 years of good schooling. I've seen enough people at the very top of their fields from incredibly deprived backgrounds that I'm comfortable with giving my kids some slack to explore their abilities. The disgraceful efforts made to keep them on the Roll and paint us as anarchistic hippies after we withdrew them had everything to do with extra level 5s though, which won't be seen as a generalization since it will surely ring no bells anywhere else.

HT teaches every year 5 from May and every year 6 until May, every year, and rotates every child so as to ensure direct contact. The restricted teaching is challenging for class teachers and seems to drive many elsewhere after a couple of years. Again not a generaliztion [this is becoming a bit of a mantra to allay others' consciences] since other HTs trust their staff professionalism to deliver.

% level 4+ in both English and maths
2008 2009 2010
Local Authority Average 74% 74% 76%
England (state funded schools only) N/A 72% 73%
England (all schools) 73% 72% 73%

formatting [grrr]

Obviously I'm a teacher obsessed with SATs that's why our pupils are having fun outdoors not practising for tests ...I can see your logic

Don't teachers do critical thinking anymore? Thankfully all mine are now with teachers who do.

Obviously you need some revision in that area

Also HEing is one thing. But long trips to India and Italy? That's a serious amount of money you're talking. Unattainable to all but the very few. (I'm not short of money - but that's because I go to work to earn it....)

Have you looked at off peak fares? Even taking an unpaid break from work, the lower fares and amazing warmth of people in other countries who we have hosted and offer their homes when we travel makes it a backpacker's bargain.

mrz, you are so funny

but I can clearly see the SATs are so unimportant from how often you keep saying it [for the lovely mrz]

Absolutely there are bad schools out there. There is no question about that. And some of the schools are bad because they don't teach enough kids, and some of the schools are bad because they're exam factories.

But the vast majority of schools are fairly average. Teaching all the kids who are easy to teach, and some of the kids who are harder to teach.

Doing it all so in a very creative way - because that is what is demanded in today's school's.

And the vast majority of parents don't have the resources to take their children to Italy and India for extended holidays.

So your circumstances were fairly unique I think. (Not that I think you need to go to India or Italy to HE your children...)

But certainly lots of schools get 100% L4 English and Maths. Some of those are horrible schools which are both exam factories and exclude pupils who won't make the grade.

And some of them are fantastic lovely schools.

On a thread asking the question "How important are year 6 sats" most people would expect people to be giving opinions

If I take an unpaid break from work, it doesn't matter how cheap backpacking round India is - how will I pay the mortgage and other bills on my house in the UK?

If I could afford to give up work for a few months - I promise you I would. (Although I wouldn't spend that time backpacking round India)

You really have a truly distorted view of the world. Are you the main earner in your house? (I'm the only earner in my house. Which of course is not at all unusual)

Not to mention I have 2 other children. Should they also be taken out of school for 6 months?

"Yes bunbaker, it was recently school of the year... and since there are apparently only four schools nationally where everyone gets levels 4+, it may even be the same one... "

I don't think it is the same school. Which county are you in?

Indigo, while it would have been a backpacker's bargain, you wrongly deduced that I've ever backpacked in my life. Why would I when friends share their homes as freely as I do mine?

I admit to having a world view that is distorted by all sorts of things, but anger management has never been an issue

In my distorted world, other parents have also obtained permission, from state funded schools, to take children out for extended travel, with educational plans built in. We all have to earn a living, some things are higher priority than others, I guess.

Bunbaker, if it were the same school, I promise you that you'd know, they achieved over 90% level 5 maths, including the usual mix of lower quartile CAT children, which reflects the ethos and practices for that specific May to May year 5/6.

Definitely not the same school. I have been checking the league tables. The school has 62% of higher level pupils and is generally considered to be the best primary school in our LA. They also offer a very rounded education with loads of extra curricular activities. It is also an ofsted outstanding school.

out of interest Bunbaker how many pupils per year group?

It is a small school and it averages at about 21 per year.

I'm a secondary school teacher. We use the fine level data from the year six sats to predict GCSE grades and to place pupils in the right class.

Absolutely not important at all, unless you are the teacher.

Slightly bigger than the school my children attended where 100% in English & Maths is now the norm ... data suggests many of the 100% schools have small/v.small year groups

You're quite right. I do prioritise wotking and earning over my kids education.

that's why I'm educating them - so that they can earn a living.

And that's what I'm role modelling to them.

I certainly prioritise earning enough money to stay above the bread line above everything else, besides good health.

I can however afford to HE my kids. And would certainly do that if I ever lost faith in all the schools my kids could attend. I would never again send my kids to school if I thought it was damaging them.

I think what you did with your kids was lovely and great. Not something I'd ever want to do though.

I wonder, though, to what extent that '100%' is a reflection of intake rather than what the school is doing. What is the Value Added figure?

If I saw 100% year after year I would be asking questions about the %SEN, the %FSM, the %EAL, the % with illiterate / subliterate parents. Where are the children with genetic conditions that affect their learning (such as Down's syndrome, but including others), the children who have moderate learning difficulties for other reasons (e.g. meningitis-induced brain damage), the children who have just arrived from non English-speaking countries as refugees, the children on their 8th or 9th foster family, the children who have no literate adult at home? I would be much more impressed by a school with a lower pass rate but with way above national average SEN, FSM, EAL, mobility, parental illiteracy than I would with a 100% pass rate from a school with virtually no children in any of those categories.

nct, I would not take my Year 6 son out of school this year for the world, despite HEing him for a while when he was younger. He's having a ball - best teachers in the school, in all the sports teams, loads of special events (like taking over all the roles in school for the day, loads of theme weeks and theme days and trips), residential, teacher coming in from the secondary school to teach them maths every fortnight, intellectually challenging work, a taste of real responsibity in lots of areas etc etc. It is school dependent, I agree. There is bad practice out there in relation to SATs, but it is not universal or even particularly common IME.

My village school has 100% year after year ...previous head said they had no SEN, definitely no EAL but average FSM and a PAN of 10.