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).

dd2 made me do the marbles and the class question when I picked her up. She got them right - I am very impressed

Relatively bright ds1 announced that he got one question wrong; on questioning the method used in his mental maths paper, he declared that he couldn't have done the chimney sum method in his head because written workings weren't permitted and "they would know" ... maybe I should be marginally less laissez faire

Hmmm.

Apparantly in DC class a child asked for the 'number of children in the class' question to be read to them. Then after a pause the teacher said quietly "if you take a quarter away from something how much is left?" and that clue helped DC to the right answer.

However in the face of a kind of Venn diagram they have not seen before, a hint from the teacher has led them to the wrong answer, from what I can gather.

Hmmm on both counts.

Written workings are allowed in the mental Maths paper - they are just not encouraged because they take too long and may mean you miss the next question.

Fgs!

If it 'helps' in any way, shape or form, DS1, almost 13, second to top set in our county's top academically performing comp- needed hints to get the 'number of children in a class' question right!

Why on earth is anyone bothered about SATs? They're only to show how good/bad a school is in a league table. So many kids at DS's school are getting themselves into such a state over it. I will tell DS what I told DD - don't even think about it. Do the tests as well as you can on the day, then forget about it. Ridiculous over-testing if you ask me.

Yesterday dd2 announced that she was apprehensive about ratio questions because she just didn't 'get' ratio. From my position of mathematical stupidity I was unable to offer any support other than a bracing 'never mind darling' I certainly know she achieves what she achieves based on her own efforts as I am plainly a hopeless 'tiger mother'

Dd had also never seen a venn diagram like that one before.... And has done it wrongly. Oh well...

Boris- read the whole thread, please.

This has already been 'done', both on here and on other OPs.

It has already been established that:

a) the existence of SATS mitigates against the prevalence of less academically able DCs going from 4-16 with only one externally moderated test happening in their entire school careers (a failed 11+).
b) a DC who goes from a level 2 to a level 4 in the junior years has shown that 'learning has taken place'. A '5' shows that an acceleration of learning has happened.
c) Although SATS results are not the be-all and end-all of secondary streaming, they are of importance, sometimes of prime importance.
d) the attitude of 'don't bother, darling, they don't matter' can have a hugely detrimental effect on a DC's application and motivation in the ensuing secondary years.
e) some DCs like to be able to 'strut their stuff' by performing well in SATS. Children are not always as lily-livered as we helicopter parents like to imagine.
f) Big School pulls no punches in the 'show me what you can do' stakes. IF they know their stuff.
g) The 'posh boys' at Public Schools parents demonstrate no qualms about allowing their DC to be tested and graded against their peers, cos life owes no favours. And they get the 'top jobs'.
h) Glaring failure to attain cannot be ignored. Funding will be easier to get if a DC demonstrates, at KS2 SATS, that they are struggling.

And...

i) They are not perfect, but they certainly do 'matter'.

Q: Will you be saying: "don't even think about it. Do the tests as well as you can on the day, then forget about it...." to your DD come GCSEs? In oh-so-few years (believe me! A Y6 is over half way through their compulsory schooling). I know I bloody well want my DS to 'think about it'- which will involve some preparation in order to ensure he 'does the best he can on the day'. Is it on this thread or another where a parent (mum?) laments that her DS is mad as hell with her because she downplayed the SATS to such an extent, he put in his usual (boy) minimum effort, then discovered that it was SATS, which mattered to him.

Ampere - personally I encourage my dcs to do well BUT I place a far higher premium on their mental and physical well being than on any academic achievement. That applies now whilst they do SATS and Year 9 exams and it will continue to apply through tehir lives. Even at degree level if you mess up, you can find away through. There's no exam written that decides your life course irrevocably.
If their health is knackered though - there's no way through that. There's a fine line between helpful encouragement that motivates and pressure that is destructive.

So Ampere, what should parents say to children who are in a state about SATS, unable to sleep and crying about wrong questions? The average ability 10 year olds feeling upset because they can't do the questions your very able older child struggled with?

Just because you believe something and just because you tell someone how they ought to feel doesn't mean they will be able to feel like that.

Can somebody explain the marble question to me please, I tried to do it using algebra like so:

(x + 5) + (x + 2) + x = 30 but you don't get a whole number for x

Has DD got her facts wrong/misunderstood the Q?

Tell them what's done is done, and that you know how hard they worked and that is the main thing, and that the only crap thing would have been not to have tried at all, so do not worry, and we will have a special tea on Friday?

Pickledsiblings, try (x +5 +2) + (x +2) + x = 30

Ah, so someone had 5 more than the one who had 2 more - got it! Thanks Ellen .

Yes, that's it, but for the Y6 DC, trial and error method might have been easier.

Oh dear.. what happenened to our "fun" thread of yesterday...sugared plum has not been mentioned on this one yet...much better than how many children in class or marbles questions !!!!

Has anyone here had their school selected to do science SAT on Friday ?

Only tomorrow left except any that are doing Level 6 next week.

My other DS has his ' optional SATS' next week , in my day they were called end of term tests !

Maths is a serious business.

My friend's school has been picked to do the science SATs. They are gutted as they are in a tough area and would have preferred to have concentrated on the maths and literacy.

DD's school doing science too.

DS has got science on fridaynand the level 6 SATS on Monday and Tuesday.
All a lot less stressful than the 11plusnanfew months ago - is is a breeze by comparison!

I can tell DS until I am blue in the face that it doesnt matter, as long as he has tried his best but it doesnt matter.

We are not doing Science, but DS is doing level 6 on Monday and Tuesday.

One of mine did the marble question by trial and error - starting off by giving the lowest child 1 marble and then extrapolating.

Only problem was that he has ENORMOUS handwriting so that by the time the sum added up to 30 he had covered the entire page AND half the table.

Show your working or what!

I bet line graphs and averages come up tomorrow - no sign of them today.