is year 6 always this dull?

[sausagesandwich34]

all they seem to have done since september is sats practise

they have had 2 practise sats weeks

they talk about sats constantly

do children generally learn things in yr 6 or is this standard practise?

I understand why it happens to a certain extent

I know lots of children worry about tests and they are just trying to get them so they are familiar but they are doing nothing new

dds scores aren't improving, but some children's are

the scores don't matter to the dcs anyway but work ethic going into high school does and dd is just coasting

years ago when I was tutoring in school the SATs obsession was so sad . Year 6 should be a wonderful year and yet it's been reduced to sterile exams and still 15%-20% of children aren't really ready for secondary school after all this exam force-feeding battery stuff. Oh for a change............

This is not standard practice in my DCs school. And their SATs results are excellent. They've done all sorts of interesting stuff this year. I've been in school a lot in various roles and the children are having a ball. I feel really sad that some schools have so little imagination, but I don't believe it is typical.

Seems to be the norm in the DCs school and that of friends DCs

So far this year our Y6 children have been to Granada with the Comenius project, a team building survival course, taken part in drama workshops and become Eco- warriors.

So far this term my DS YR6 has been to a Crucial crew alcohol/drugs awareness course, had a visit from a Shakespeare workshop and a Drummer from Status Quo.

Admittedly they have also been doing some revision and also DS says they have been looking at level 6 work for maths and Literacy, but as parents we have not had to do any revision or practice with them.

In January we will get some homework booklets given out every week that we need to work through with them - I will wait and see how that is handled, as DS will get himself worked up if they put too much pressure on him.

This is in a bit of a SATs factory.

I work in year 6 and yes we have had some SATs practice but we've also had about half a dozen trips to various high schools running various workshops to try and pull in the pupils.
We've had a work experience day. We've had the Xmas fair prep and we've had bikeability.
Next wk all lessons are scrapped for the wind down to Xmas.

No, this would also not happen in our school. Our Y6s have been busy with robotics, been to galleries and museums, and have been working on some fab, engrossing topics. We also have excellent SATs scores/OFSTED.

No it isn't all about SATs. In Y6 there was a residential holiday, several trips to local places of interest. Activities to help with secondary school transition and think about future careers. This included road safety and bikeability training.
Y6 children were also given helping roles in the school e.g. helping younger children at play time, helping with assemblies, acting as recycling reps etc,
There were also lots of "fun" things after SATs including the leavers Prom so overall my dd has good memories of Y6.

Not at our school I'm glad to say - so far my ds's Y6 have been away for a week with PGL, worked on their term's topic of 2nd WW including being evacuated, been out on relevant trips to see Goodnight Mr Tom and the Cabinet War Rooms, had a trip out to the British Chess Championships (for those who do chess), been to the local library to look at how the war was reported in local papers as part of both topic work/literacy covering journalistic styles, been to maths workshops at a local secondary school and next week they've got the local panto. They've done a number of SATS papers and next term their teacher says they'll really crack on with that, but they try to keep the autumn term as free of SATS pressure as possible. School results are pretty good at Y6 so I think teacher has the balance about right.

Year 6 appears in many schools to be a dreadful and energy and morale-sapping experience for children who should be enthusiastic and eager to learn. I'm afraid that our solution for our older children was simply not to have them in state primary at that age.

Our Y6 is very similar to Y5, Y4 etc. They do a normal curriculum and have one piece of HW a week which is the same for all of KS2. They do a set of practice papers in January which is when the rest of the school have an assessment week as well. All quite low key.

DD2 had lots of fun, but most of it was May- July, post SATs.
Sports, PGL, play all shoe horned into 8 weeks.

Before that, yes it was dull.

School got down graded by OFSTED mainly on results, didn't push DD1's cohort enough they decided.

Partly true, but her sisters class really suffered for it.
Especially as there was no longer an external science SAT, so they got endless English and Maths and not a lot else.

(I should add dyslexic DD1 got one of the only 2 English L5's, by one mark. Unfortunately several DCs missed their's by a similar margin.)

DD1 was in Yr6 last year, the SATs stuff didn't start until after Christmas and even then it wasn't too bad - maths and English were very SATs heavy but there was no replacing other parts of the schedule with extra lessons in SATs subjects, thank goodness!

DD did bring home some worksheets over the Easter holidays for maths and English - we recycled them, and no-one asked about them.

We normally look at the format of the tests after Easter so the children aren't put off by something they haven't seen before. Last year the week before the tests our children were on an outdoor course learning to build shelters and find their own food.

My DC''s school sounds very similar to prettydaisies' - in Year 6 last year DS did a practice SATS paper in September, I think another one in the Spring term sometime (genuinely can't remember as it was totally low key), and looked at a few questions in normal lessons during the summer term just so that they weren't thrown by the format.

He was vaguely aware that SATs week happened, but tbh was so busy with plays amd visits and proper curriculum learning and 'oldest in the school' responsibilities that frankly it formed a very brief hiatus between the Victorian topic and the week-long residential.

Excellent SATs results, btw. Very high value add school, if you're into that sort of thing - because they are genuinely taught new curriculum material for all of every year that they are in primary, rather than spending time focusing on tests.

DD does exam technique each week, for a double lesson. They do mock exams for entrance exams. They don't do SATs. They only do it this term though - entrance exam for local school is January.

They still do lots of other activities though, plus days off timetable for activity days. This term they've been to town for a radio 5 live event, done a day of sculpture making from brieze blocks, a forensic science morning, a visit to watch young Shakespeare, and more. They've done more of this enrichment type stuff this term than in previous years.

I know later in the year they do a lot of enrichment activities again as part of the prep for senior school. Things like diving lessons, additional language classes. etc.

Not inundated with tests.

DD is in y6. For her the school is about the social life, anyway. Normally DC school does an assessment week in early December that I'm aware of. This year they've had one or 2 other assessment periods, so far, plus usual December week. I presume that will step up in intensity next term.

They've done tonnes of other activities, though. Museum trip, written projects, challenge day, Assembly to parents, Art portraits, swim lessons for 6 weeks, within school X-country challenge, lots of PE (DD loves PE).

Our school has completely mediocre SAT results, thank goodness, maybe that's why they take a more balanced view.

Our school doesn't do SATs but they do practice for entrance exams in January . They did some practice tests in Nov but they were spread over the week .
Otherwise they have done a themed Victorian Day at a local stately home , plus just had another dress up day and a Victorian Christmas Day in school . Lots of matches , visits to Senior school attached to the school , Food Tech , prose reading competitions , turning the classroom into a Victorian mine for an afternoon ( ds was the evil mine owner , not sure what that says ?!)and all the other subjects on the curriculum ; French , history , geography , science etc.

I hate the obsession with SATs and it is a big reason we went
Independent.

No SATs here (Wales).

To a certain extent I think some dc do find the work in year 6 a little dull - the older ones in the cohort are really ready to be going on to secondary / separate subjects / bigger pool. (I think the fact that it is a mixed yr 5 & 6 class and quite a small school makes that problem worse.) So it isn't just necessarily a SATs thing I suppose.

DD is definitely finding the work reasonably easy now, though in her case that is a really good thing as she lacks confidence & could do with that boost.

I agree Y5/Y6 classes don't help, they spend too long as the "top class"

I confess I was also a bit scared about the Sats drilling in Yr 6 because the school is very academic with outstanding Ofsted...but so far so good! They had an assesment week in autumn but that's that. They are doing topic, trips, activities, workshops, PGL camp, school play...Cross fingers it all continues like this.

Not for my DCs primary (they even have the "fun" of sex ed week this week).