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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

So here we are- KS2 SATS Week...

849 replies

ampere · 14/05/2012 08:15

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).

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

sphil · 14/05/2012 18:13

Well if the practice paper Ds did the other week is anything to go by, I won't do very well - I marked three of his answers wrong when they were right. Mind you, his jubilation when I realised was worth seeing!

littlelegsmum · 14/05/2012 18:19

I don't know anything as i've been too busy being insulted by the head teacher in a pointless 1.5hr meeting, where it seems we have too high expectations of our daughter . . who by the way is only level 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I shall be asking her when she comes in though :)

Whoopydofoxpoo · 14/05/2012 18:19

A TA that I know in another school said that her YR6 teachers thought it was a hard or harder paper than in previous years - is this to compensate that the written work is teacher assessed ? .

Any yr 6 teachers here ?

bigTillyMint · 14/05/2012 18:21

Ds said it was easy - I am not sure that is a good sign!

ripsishere · 14/05/2012 18:25

My DD did rounders Hackneylass.
She also had a brainy breakfast but didn't 'chance a banana because they'd been doused with OJ to stop them going brown'.

DrSeuss · 14/05/2012 18:27

Bet your son is NOT borderline in being a lovely boy with a cheeky grin and many, many talents. Stuff Sats! He's 11. Give him some mud and a tree to climb. Of course he must make progress, of course you want him to do well. But he will do well anyway, I'm sure.

bizzey · 14/05/2012 18:29

littlelegsmum poor you ..I have been following your story on another thread i think and feel so sorry for you .

Have a breather and tell us what happen((((hug))))

Original poster

ampere · 14/05/2012 18:39

OK, one down, several to go! Just got in so am not questioning too hard just yet!

I am very pro-SATS myself, or rather, I should say, national testing at this stage.

I always smile wryly when I hear the outrage that mainly 11 year old DC may have in any way have been stressed or put under any pressure by nasty SATS- then as a country, we're non-plussed as to why 'the posh boys at expensive schools get all the top jobs'- who've been doing sit down/shut up exams from at least Y3.

Funny, that.

I worry a bit about some of these DCs in their Y7s. It's a very different pace and expectation level.

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Original poster

ampere · 14/05/2012 18:41

PS- My DS(2) may get a 5 in Maths if the wind's behind him but he'll struggle to get a 4 in Literacy. So I'm not speaking as a parent whose DC are oh-so-stressed about having to do level 6 papers! I'd be delighted for him if he were achieving at that level and had the chance to publicly shine at what he was good at.

OP posts:

littlelegsmum · 14/05/2012 18:44

Thanks Bizzey

Basically we questioned the reaader for the maths, he sat firm while holding his head up and said

"I provide MOST of the children with support and we ENCOURAGE them to ask for the questions to be read to them. I don't know if you understand those guidelines you've brought. DD has NOT received any support in lessons as she DOESN'T NEED IT, nor will she be provided with support afterwards. I am simply putting this support in place for the sake of pastoral care/pencil sharpening/toilet trips/reading questions to the children and am WELL WITHIN MY RIGHTS TO DO SO"

I need an drink!! :(

bizzey · 14/05/2012 18:51

litttlelegsmum... unbelievable.....I think i need a drink as well after reading that ....!!! I just dont know what to say...hopefully someone else will...

JustGettingByMum · 14/05/2012 18:54

Can I ask does anyone know how much help teachers are ble to give during the SATS?
DD was talking to a friend about their answers to one question, and friend replied she had put the same answer because it's the answer the teacher told her to put.

littlelegsmum · 14/05/2012 18:58

No, I was amazed at him being so blatant too :O|

Oh, the teachers are definitely not supposed to give them the answers - but could he mean another day maybe they were talking about the same subject by any chance??

pointythings · 14/05/2012 19:07

Well, DD1 said it went well but she didn't think she'd get full marks. She's been scoring high 5s in practice though so she should be OK. Best of all - she is much less stressed now that she has done the first day and is actually looking forward to mental maths .

She's doing the L6 literacy once all this is over, but is treating that as a challenge for fun more than anything else. I reckon she has now got the attitude sorted and should be fine for the rest of the week - bless. And she's loving the afternoon fun stuff and the fact that she gets biscuits and juice between tests.

bigTillyMint · 14/05/2012 19:11

JustGettingByMum, there is a LOT of cheating that goes on with SATs - it could have been a multi-choice and the teacher walked by and nodded at the answer the friend was putting. Or worse.

DS said they couldn't go out because of the rain, so they debated whether mobile phones should be allowed in school and watched half of "The Incredible Journey" which DD said she watched at SATs time 2 years ago

JustGettingByMum · 14/05/2012 19:13

Littlesg - if your response is to me, then it was definitely the test today.

Apparently they can ask for qustions to be put in a different way if they don't understand what is written. The friend put her hand up because she couldn't see the answer in the text. Teacher came over and agreed it wasn't clear, and suggested the answer to her.
I think I am more as friend went on to say she is sitting the level 6 papers next week!

bigTillyMint · 14/05/2012 19:24

Yes, that's exactly the kind of cheating that goes on and makes a complete mockery of the whole thing.

littlelegsmum · 14/05/2012 19:26

Ah, it was to you, i'm sorry.

They are not allowed help with reading are they? unless previously applied for by the school or for concentration issues.

What I do know is they're only allowed to read the question and in no way can they change theire tone etc when asking it. It does sound like somethings not right there.

ASByatt · 14/05/2012 19:32

I'm sorry to go slightly off topic, but all this talk of the Black Death and Ring-O-Ring-Of Roses etc - My understanding is that this is a popular misconception, as the song/rhyme wasn't in circulation until the 18th century?

Must be true, I saw it on QI

Whoopydofoxpoo · 14/05/2012 19:34

Yes Wikipedia says urban legend too that it was to do with the PLague - perhaps we should ask for a re take ?

Dancergirl · 14/05/2012 19:38

ampere - if any good came from SATS then I wouldn't be so against them. But they end up being just another set of results to analyse and do nothing about.

I'm a parent governor at a good state primary. We know where our weaknesses lie and try to address them....but in the time I've been a governor (about 4 years), nothing has changed. We sit in meetings going over the data again and again, discuss what we are going to do etc. In essence a hell of a lot of time has been wasted in those meetings when that time could have been put to better use.

Sadly schools are run like businesses these days, it's all about budgets, resources, committees, data analysis and often pointless meetings. I wish teachers could concentrate on actually teaching.

Oh and those 'expensive' schools you talk about will often be selective so of course the academic attainment is going to be higher.

KitKatGirl1 · 14/05/2012 19:40

Am horrified at these stories of blatant cheating by some schools. Completely unfair on the dc who will have inflated levels and indeed on those schools and dc who have not cheated.

bigTillyMint · 14/05/2012 19:43

They can only help with reading in the maths SATs AFAIK.

Yes, KitKat, this is why secondary schools use their own testing when the children arrive - most of the SAT's results are a pile o' shite

Iwantacampervan · 14/05/2012 19:43

The page on the nursery rhyme in today's paper did state that people believed the rhyme to be associated with the plague but it may not be the case (didn't mention the date discrepancy).

Original poster

ampere · 14/05/2012 19:44

Dancer- the issue isn't 'selection' as such, it's that DC at these 'expensive private schools' know they will be required to demonstrate that learning has taken place. That might mean showing that Rupert, who struggles with maths, has scraped a 'C'- well done Rupert. This isn't about how well the DCs do, it's demonstrating that they started at point A and ended up at point B.

FWIW,- and I should cut'n'paste this I've said it so often on MN- I can recall when it was perfectly possible to go from the age of 4 to 16 having only been tested once, a (failed) 11+, then leaving school with nothing; hand wringing teachers shedding crocodile tears as you slunk out of the school.

Foe fear of upsetting the odd 'more sensitive' souls among our DC, I'll have them regularly tested, thanks. What I don't want is their attainment published in national league tables. THEY are the problem, not the tests.

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