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).

DS was rather distressed about yesterday's SATs - he said that everybody but him finished, that his teacher had commented about it being easier this year but he got less than half way through. Unfortunately he could not read the word 'plague' - he told me the paper was about the Great Fluid - when I
worked out what he meant we both laughed hysterically (blame the stress).

What kind of mark can we expect - the teachers are insisting that his mocks would be 3b or even 3a (even though the same teacher could not give him a 3c at the end of year 5 before the new head took over?!)

ampere my older dd was in the year group where the results all got lost for bloody ages, and even now there is uncertainty over whether everyone got the right ones - I'll just be grateful for the results when I see them, and if they seem right then that'll be a bonus!

Nit- yes, heads should have rolled for that. Spectacular incompetence.

I have it on good authority that todays paper was about hot air balloon rides.
DD was strangely quiet about yesterday's SATs but very voluble about the rounders they played after.
Good job really, for the last term they've lost a whole 50% of their PE time due to these wretched things.

Hot air balloon rides for writing?

Losing PE time to revise for SATS?

Apparently it was diary entries - one anticipating and one after a balloon ride

I think that that is quite a difficult writing task - out of most children's experience. Compared to the one DD did which was about looking after an imaginary pet, it seems much harder.

Oh well, we've been to a hot air balloon festival for the last two years, so hopefully DS1 will draw on that knowledge. Won't stop him writing balon, balone, balloone though... even if it is on the paper in front of him!

Am loving this inside knowledge..!!.

Can't wait to pick him up and ask him "So how was your hot air balloon ride then" !!

I asked my DD the Italic question from yesterday this morning, she was most indignant asking where had i got that info from. Didn't tell her. I like the thought she thinks I have some real inside knowledge. Can't wait to ask about the balloon ride when she gets home too

Little test SATS for you all while we wait.....

Spot the mistake in my comment above....

Well there's no question mark after then.

but also you should really start your first sentence with an "I"

KITTEN a bonus point to you ...ha ha ..i send to quick !!! forgot about the begining of sentences !!!

ok ok I should have done a I as well ...

Hot air balloons?

Anticipation and reflectioon?

DIARY entries?

DS2 would have loved diary entries, they were always the best bits of writing he did. Not so sure about the subject matter, though. However, his school is not doing the writing and spelling tests.

Air balloon ride tommorw.......

Went on air balloon ride today...

Feel sick..don't like heights....

Then he will tell me he finished with lots of time to spare !!!

My year 7 daughter asked me the other day what she got in her SATS as she had forgotten ! A year on and they are totally irrelevant. Most senior schools will use them, along with their own tests and assessments for setting, and are very good at spotting the ones who have been coached (why kids with Level 5 in maths ended up in bottom set). Her targets have already been revised and the sets have been tweaked to make sure everyone is now in the right group. I know it's easy to say but don't worry as in 12 months you will wonder what you were so stressed about, and please make sure your kids don't think they are important. Yes, it's always good to try your best, but SATS have no bearing on the rest of their lives !

Most things once you've jumped through that hoop have little bearing on the rest of your life. My 11+ pass became neither here nor there once I'd secured a slew of
'O' levels. These became 'meh' after I'd used them to secure a 6th Form place. My subsequent 'A' levels ceased to be of enormous interest once I had my Diploma, which in time paled against the degree I took on the back of that diploma.

And so it goes on. That's not to say my 11+ 'didn't matter' or 'wasn't important', though.

Well 11+ has a bearing on your future as it defines the school you go to, but SATS don't. I know is easy to say as I've been through it 4 times and have one more to go next year, but I see kids coming out of school being quizzed by parents about the minutae of the paper and feel so sorry for them. I like the little boy yesterday who went 'it was alright' and then went on to give mum a detailed account of the football game they had in the afternoon. I suppose I just wanted to give a bit of support to mums worrying so much about them, and know it all comes good in the end (my eldest got level 3 in maths and is now at Oxford studying ...... maths !!).

I don't, obviously, believe in coaching for SATs. Or anything else. But I am puzzled by people who say "oh, they were coached for SATs- then ended up in the bottom set at Secondary school".Whether they did it at school or with a tutor, they've still actually learned how to do the Maths and the English. SATs are just maths, reading and writing- they aren't some strange separate alien subject called "SATs".

I know this happens with the 11+ - which is a strange alien subject called 11+ - but not with SATs.