Question re YR 6 SATs marking

[Hopingforaplace]

I got my ds's report which included year 6 sats results yesterday and he got a 5 for reading & a 3 for writing; however the overall award given for english is a 5!. How can this be possible (am seeing teacher later so will find out from him but just wondered in the meantime if anyone else has similar experience) Thanks

DS has always been better at reading (despite not liking it) than writing- until year 6 when thankfully he has progressed admirably. I can see how it is possible though - particularly with boys as they tend to not see the point of embellishing their basic writing skills. It would suggest that he doesn't necessarily translate what he is reading in a book to practical purpose in his own work?

I agree with you that it seems somewhat unusual though! Does he do lots of reading out of school? Could it be more a reflection of how he has been taught writing skills?

Could it be that he did very badly on the actual test (although I know these were internally marked) but that his overall writing on a day to day basis is significantly better?

I can't see how a 5 and 3 in reading and writing (which are fairly equally weighted) could equal a 5 overall. Seems strange to me.

His reading has always been great (constantly has his nose in a book) but not so keen on writing, so I never expected a high score for that.

What makes it even more strange is that he was entered for the level 6 english & maths test. Wasn't suprised he was entered for maths as he's always been fine with that but was floored when he told me he did the english as well!. He got his level 6 in Maths that thank goodness so he didn't even notice his writing score!

Hi It does seem odd. I don't have my son's results yet but he got a 3 in writing last year & 5 in reading even though, imo, he is a below average reader. The reading level is actually the comprehension score so not actual reading. My son's school can't understand that ds is not a fluent or good reader yet can score a level 5 for reading in yr 5. It is because he is dyslexic and although cannot read fluently he can somehow do comprehension .

Do these scores follow on from his mocks/last years results, were you expecting them? I still don't know how they combine 3 & 5 to get 5, maybe they have made a typo. Let us know if you get an explanation.

I have a feeling ds's school will inflate his writing score so they look good even though his day to day work leaves a lot to be desired.

If the level 3 in wriring was his actual sats result it just means that this is the result for that particular test. I seem to recall someone explaining on another thread that the writing test this year would be used to back up their overall written work throughout the year, so in other words his performance on the day was below the standard at which he had been working as a whole. Do let us know if we were right, though.

At the end of year 5 he was assessed as a 5B in reading and a 4A in writing so something has gone horribly wrong with the writing in the meantime!

Hopefully i will get to the bottom of it this evening. He was predicted to get a level 5 in English (which, as per the transcript, he still appears to have acheived!) so a 3 for the writing part is a bit of a shocker and can't understand how the whole score for english is still a level 5!

sorry need to brush up on my own writing achieved!!

Are you sure it's not a typo???? It seems highly unlikely that he will have gone down a whole level in a year particularly if he was predicted level 5s - unless he was ill on the day he took that exam (DS and some of classmates were not well on several of their SATS exam days - two were called in from their sick beds to do the tests then sent home!)

Hope it's a typo! as would hate for his english score to go down. I suspect it may do if he really has scored a level 3 in writing as I cannot see how a 5 & a 3 still make an overall score of 5!!

Dying to find out why they put him in for a level 6 English paper too though as it must've been obvious his writing wasn't up to it! (when he told me he did it, I thought great! he must have found his inner James Joyce; alas sadly it was not to be!!)

Meant to add, did they make your ds do them even though he was ill??. I'm not British so initially had no idea that these tests were such a big deal for primary schools. Never thought tests would matter until secondary school can't believe they would call in a sick child to sit a test at 11 yrs old - seems maddness!!

I kid you not! I guess if they were off for the whole week the children wouldn't have featured in the results but I guess that if they've taken at least one English/maths test then non-attendance would probably just markedly bring down their final mark? (don't know as I'm not a teacher - can anyone clarify?).

Does seem like madness but then the results matter more to the teachers/schools than to the children!

DD is another dyslexic, who somehow manages to get high comprehension marks without being able to read accurately.

I think partly the right word must enter her head and the wrong one come out her mouth and partly she's spent so long extracting meaning from the bits she can read that it's second nature.
And of course any pictures or general knowledge of the subject gets thrown in too!