Two thirds of y6 pupils at my ds's school are currently having extra lessons for level 6 sats. The lessons are being tutored by teachers from the local academy.
The decision on who should attend these lessons was taken after they all completed practice papers earlier in the year. Anyone who didn't make it into the group was discretely moved down a group. This resulted in some pupils, who had previously always been in the top set and were predicted a comfortable 5 to lose confidence and self-esteem. The effect is compounded by there being very few y6 pupils around on the mornings and break times that the level 6-ers are having extra tuition, which makes the ones who aren't being tutored feel like they stand out as less-than.
The thing that confuses me is the need for extra tutoring for those put in for level 6 SATs. Surely, if they are good enough to get a level 6 they should be put in for it and if they pass, fantastic, if not it shouldn't matter. However, why are the top performing students getting extra lessons and support to gain an even higher grade in their SATs when the lower performing ones continue to just have their normal lessons and no additional support.
It doesn't make sense to me, as my way of thinking is that those that are exceptional should have the opportunity to attempt the level 6, if appropriate for them. Those that will comfortably get decent SAT results should be put in for standard SAT papers and those who are the lowest performing should be the ones to get additional help and support, because they are the most in need of it.
In our family, ds1 was one of the children who was moved down a group and it did knock his confidence, especially as he had made a monumental effort in y5 and been told he had earned his place near the top of the set and should be proud of himself. He didn't perform as well as expected in their first test papers last Autumn, for various reasons and ended up feeling a failure as a result.
He's ok with it now, as I have told him all he has to do is do his best and that's that, whatever he achieves, as long as he does his best, is all anyone wants or expects. Ds2 is a couple of years away from year 6 and he is a strong mid-range student, so I wouldn't expect him to have or need any additional tutoring either and to be honest I feel he's better off for it.
I was surprised our school has gone this route with level 6 tutoring, because historically they have always had excellent SAT results without excessively pushing the year 6 pupils. (They only start revising at Easter and the rest of the year it's business as usual.)
I get the impression, contrary to what others have said on the thread about secondaries not liking pupils to come into y7 with level 6's, that in our case the pressure has come down from the local academy, which is very results-orientated and rapidly becoming highly selective, despite being state funded.