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).

Not cancelled, Sunflowers, postponed until the Yr6 teacher gives the all clear

Flogging , it's generally not the parents (on this thread) who have put the pressure on, but the schools. Some schools do make children feel like their entire future depends on these results

FloggingMolly . . You have no idea of the child's circumstances so how can you basically say "My dd's fine, as are her friends, so why the effin hell isn't your child"

That is just disgusting behaviour from a parent . . God help your child's friends if they have your attitude!

Sorry Indigobell totally missed the fact that your DS has aspergers. Apologies.

They've made it into a huge thing at DS2's school and I know he is worried.

He is likely to be below average, I think it is sad that they put so much pressure on.

DD's school doesn't really seem very bothered about the SATs. They don't seem to have done much towards them. They have spent a lot of time recently doing other things - rehearsing for a musical they are putting on, going on trips and so on.

I'm pretty annoyed about it because it means DD is going to come out with a pretty mediocre result compared to kids who have been taught to the test since Christmas. And of course she is going to be streamed in secondary school based on her SATs results, compared to the results of kids who have been in other primary schools.

I suppose that is really the fault of the secondary school though, for not working out a more sensible way of streaming children.

Well good for you flogginmolly.

Loads of these kids are 10 years old. They are stressed because they are in schools where they have been put under pressure and the importance of SATS has been trumpeted loud and clear. Thye may be worried about not getting a good result, they may find the papers hard, anything.
, they may be bored out of their skulls with endless practice papers, they may find it tedious and disheartening to undertake the incredbly non-creatove parroting of info required in the reading test, they may not be prepared for a LOT of things they will encounter at GCSE age.

Much as I don't want schools to return to my primary school experiences, where we spent a ridiculous amount of time on activities like country dancing and basket weaving, I do wish they would get rid of the SATs.

They are a very poor preparation for secondary school, and getting the correct answers in English and Science is about answering the questions in a test specific way that is irrelevant to demonstrating an understanding of the subject.

I will also say that DS got a level 3 in English writing in his KS2 and is now predicted an A* at GCSE in English. Fortunately he went to a secondary school that ignored KS2 SATs results.

Topic of reading paper was apparently 'The Great Plague'.

Good luck to all those schools not taking SATs particularly seriously. Our school didn't until this year - that's why we are now staring down the gun of academisation.

And to all those schools who manage to keep the stress levels down and get fantastic results, please could you share your methods!

I wish I had known when my children started school what was going to actually to be taught in school, and not be taught. In some ways it would be better if the government just announced that History wasn't being taught in primary schools at all any more, rather than pretending the patchy and wafer thin version they are teaching is worth something. Parents who actually cared could then teach their children History at home or set up clubs.

Yes DS1 has just come home and told me it was about "The Black Death" and that it was easy because they did a lot about that last term Don't they have to answer questions about the text, rather than using what they already know?!

A lot of secondary schools do CATS early on in Yr 7 to stream the kids don't they? Comments on the TES forum are saying it was a much nicer comprehension/reading paper this year than last year.

yes ds came in and said it was about the plague but he is doing his infamous kevin and perry impersonation at the moment and i cant get anything out of him

Viva, yes lots of secondary schools do. But DD's school is using SATs results.

DD has come home, said it was OK but lots of questions and she ran out of time. She couldn't answer one question as she didn't know what italics meant

Didn't know what to say to DS this morning - whether to pretend it was a normal school day or wish him good luck !

DH did check his pencil case last night and sharpened his pencils and made sure he had a spare ink catridge.

Yes it was 'The Plague' today which having a DS I am really pleased because he may have found it interesting to read , he has just said it was 'gruesome - kind of ' .

Seems happy anyway.

oh yes my DS missed out one question because it was 'hard' too.

Thanks for reporting back on it Viva. I explained to DD about italics yesterday, which led to a big argument with the rest of the household because I was using the example of people saying to me, I'm not cleaning it up because it is not my mess. So hopefully she will remember it.

DD has said "yeah, it was easy".

Not quite sure how to interpret that....

Not looking forward to the Maths days.

LOL Viva. I just asked DS1 what italics means he said "I can't remember, but I think I got it right"

I going to take that to mean go away Mum, I don't want to think about it anymore..and I probably should do as he asks

Now, I never thought about explaining italics or anything else to her.

Any tips for anything I should be telling her before the rest of the SATS?

DS has no idea what he's doing this week. Came home today and said he had to do a few quizzes in books and one was about crocodiles and Steve Irwin. I haven't asked anymore than that as I don't really want him to be aware of SATS. School play it down and so do we.

Dd was oddly thrilled that the questions were on a yellow piece of paper rather than the white of the photocopies they've been doing!

Joe moved his chair in an annoying way, DD was surprised to find 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' was about the plague as she'd always thought it was about WWI, and she didn't think any of the 'Sarah was frustrated by...' options were right.

Same as Iamnot, I think the Maths days will be more stressful for her.

just noticed the KS2 bit in the title - DS is KS1

I really would have thought that seeing as they've been teaching to the test for the last term she'd have known what italics was. I think she couldn't read the work "italics" properly. When she was telling me about the question she was pronouncing it weirdly and when I said "italics" she said "oh, like on Word"

She was saying something like Italy-ics. [groan]

Kellamity - I did wonder !

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