So here we are- KS2 SATS Week...

[ampere]

Feeling more nervous than DS2!

He's 'borderline', particularly in Literacy. He'll be so happy if he gets a 4 (as will I!) so off he went just now with me offering my last minute bon mots ('Read carefully! Most of the answers are in the text! If it doesn't make sense, you've not read it properly' etc).

Can I ask people why SATS results matter to them? Obviously we want our children to do their best. And in my case, it's very important that ds does well because the secondary school he's going to sets them from day 1 based entirely on their SATS results- and there are only about 15% "high" ability children in the intake.

But for most children it doesn't make much difference. Most schools don't set in this particularly bonkers way, and GCSE targets can-and are- revised upwards as they progress through secondary school. So do please try not to worry!

It does matter to me because maths will be set from the beginning and SATS will be a big part of that, and your maths set is your MFL set too. Which is a bit daft, but there we go.

It also matters in terms of DD's self-esteem - although I've back-pedalled a bit and told her that even if she forgets everything she knows and writes nothing, her year 6 teacher would surely add a note to that effect on her records! This is response on Sunday evening to her sudden panic that she might randomly forget all knowledge. I think though that whatever I say she and I, against my better judgment but not against my nature will care and she will compare herself to her friends and her older sister. So I do want her to leave year 6 with results she is proud of.

Our school are teacher-assessing on today's writing, so that should be a good thing. She suddenly worried this morning that she would lose marks for not writing passive sentences, which she says she can only think of when writing 'a pamphlet advertising a hotel' but not a story. So we practised them before school ('does your face need to be washed, or it is in a state of washedness already', 'the car should be got into now') until she told me to stop it .

Well, my ds has gone in expecting to be doing Maths- not sure if that is a good or a bad thing!

Lawks, that could be a nasty shock for dd! Or it could be both, I suppose. I'm sure she said writing and spellings...

No- I'm sure yours is right. Mine is so laid back he's practically falling over, and is focussed on the extra play time they are getting....

And the poor child's SATS are being put in the shade by his big sister's GCSE histrionics. Good family planning there, huh?

My ds (level 5a in all his test papers) just told me he answered the 'cool' question saying it meant relaxed in that context and it would be confusing cos it's slang . Oh and he forgot to try and make his handwriting neat (his neat is your average year 3 child's scrawl so God knows how an examiner will regard his mess...)

He did finish the paper but I'm wondering what he actually put now..... He's suddenlty got very stressed about them - apparently his teacher emphasising lots of relaxation and early nights is simply making them seem more important that he (and I) thought they were. Grrrr.

Seeker - in 5 years I'll have GCSEs and A Levels at the same time...... I'll be leaving the country for three months- dh can deal with them

Asked my ds this morning and he put 'cool in this context means calm and unnerved' for the first part of that question. Sounds like he's got it wrong if it was meant to be 'not warm' but I don't care - I'm proud of him using the word 'unnerved' and know he's going to do well at secondary in English! (Told him about some of the other dc only knowing the modern definition of 'cool' and he said 'Some people have no sense of the past, do they?' - he's so Aspie!)

You would never say, surely, in any historical period 'Sarah looked cool' meaning that she looked as though she would like a coat on? Ah well....

Seeker, we have a year fewer between our two, so at least avoided that clash!

DD has been going to bed at half eight of her own volition for the last two nights - it's really weird!

x-posted with titchy whose ds also put 'relaxed' - who knows?!

Oh and dd said she put 'hip' in inverted commas for the 'cool' question! Hope the markers are up on dated slang....

Seeker. Re. GCSE targets - what practical difference do they actually make? Does it affect which subjects you can take, or what?
I'm assuming being given a B as a target wouldn't actually preclude you getting an A?
(I didn't grow up in the UK and the system is unbelievably different. Time to clue myself in, I think)

I haven't asked DS about the cool question - must interrogate him tonight!

He was more worried today as his writing can be a bit hit and miss (and that's only for spelling and legibility, never mind content)

SATS results don't matter to me. I already have a fairly clear idea of my children's abilities (got one doing ks2 sats this week, one did them last summer), and so do the teachers. If the SATS results are different from expectations, if they have a bad day or something, I'll just shrug it off and I think the secondary school does too, as the secondary tests them on entry so it uses a mixture of SATS and its own tests to set.

I tell my dc quite clearly that the GCSEs are the first exams that are going to matter and they're the ones to worry about. SATS are, at best, a useful way of practising exam conditions for the longer term.

As I understand it, the GCSE targets are set in Year 7, and can be revised up, but not down. And the school is judged on how those targets are met. So it will be in the interest of the school to do everything they can to help the kids meet them.

On y10 dd's last report, we got a column of 'predicted grade' and another of 'most likely grade', one of which I think is based on recent performance and one is KS2 SATS, FFT, and god knows what else. Bizarrely, some are 'predicted' higher than is 'most likely', and some have given a 'most likely' that is not the 'predicted'.

So what's the point? . Is it any advantage to know what grades are "predicted" or even "likely" for you??

It makes sure the school is constantly reminded what you are capable of, and will keep you up to the mark.

In the context of the passage, cool was being used as in calm, undisturbed, not cold.

But calm and unerved mean the opposite to each other....

Schools I think it's important we don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Yes, there will be DCs arriving in secondary without any indication of their ability, but that doesn't mean all the DC for whom you do hold data should have that date ignored.

This has been an interesting discussion as it has ranged from doing the SATS, to people fundamentally opposed to the existence of SATS, an argument about what the SATS measure and whether they should be used in secondary setting.

SchoolsNightmare Round my neck of the woods most of the secondary schools assess children when they first arrive - I guess it is easier to just assess them all. They've also said things like: kids' abilities drop over the summer, we know they are taught for the SATs etc.

In some way I find it comforting that other schools have narrowed the curriculum, berated pupils who are seen to have turned in disappointing practice results and bored the kids to tears. Not a great way to run a school and says more about the teachers' ability and confidence than it does about the children. But has the advantage that pupils are so bored, fed up and disruptive that they cannot wait to get to secondary school. And they like the free breakfasts...

eek, Rustbear. Just realised what you've said is right (can't believe as an English graduate I'd gone along with my son's use of 'unnerved'!!! He did use 'calm' though - wonder if he'll get the mark or not??)

Maybe, hopefully, he really put 'un nervous'? Not a real word, but more accurate:-)

Wonder how they're doing now? Long writing, short writing and a spelling test!

Wish we didn't have to wait so long for the results- I think the 'cause and effect' message might be a bit lost by mid July!