Level 6 SATs - as well as level 5 ones?

[Bletchley]

DS2 has made good progress through the juniors and I was told at parents evening that school would put him in for the level 6 SATs. What I didnt realise is that this would be as well as the normal level 5 ones and would mean him doing SATs for two weeks instead of just one.

Is this how it is done everywhere? Seems bonkers to me.

And we don't even care about his SATs level, as the senior school that he is going to won't ask...

As the writing tests are being marked internally this year Sats run over 2wks at our school anyway. We haven't been told whether the L6 papers will be slotted in amongst the first week's papers or taken in wk2 with the writing tasks. Some children want to do them just to challenge themselves.

I don't mind him doing the level 6 ones at all. I just don't understand why he has to do both. Surely if he took a level 6 paper and wasn't good enough to get the level 6 he could still demonstrate that he was at level 5? In the same way that when he takes his GCSEs if he isn't good enough to get an A he will get a B?

School are right.

The only way you can get a level 6 is to get a 5 on the 3-5 paper and a 6 on the 6 paper.

I understand that a child has to take both and gain the right amount of marks on EACH to be awarded the L5 and the L6 ie. they wouldn't be awarded the L6 if they hadn't passed the L5 aswell.

X-posted with Indigo .

With the writing tasks being internally assessed this time are many schools offering a L6 writing paper?

I think it is called an extension paper, so that the more able, ie those who are likely to get a 5a can demonstrate further ability. It is a bit like getting an A*.

He is doing a level 6 writing paper as well as reading and maths, yes, according to the letter.

Is he bothered by it? Ds is taking level 6 in maths and reading. Since it is just one paper a day he isn't bothered at all. They tend to do lots of sport in the afternoon on SATs days so he only has to do the paper as "work".

If he just did the level 6 paper then you'd be happy if he got nothing if he didn't achieve the level 6?

Dd1 is doing all of the level 6 papers and it doesn't bother he that she's doing extra papers. I think she thinks it'll be quite fun.

Whereas the normal SATs paper assesses levels 3 to 5 ( so if you don't get a level 5 you might score enough for a level 4 or 3 ) the Level 6 paper ONLY assesses level 6 skills so of you don't score enough you don't get anything! ( Similarly if you don't score enough to get a level 3 on the normal paper, you aren't given a level 2 but an "N" as it doesn't assess level 2 skills.