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

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

Primary education

Practice mock SATs KS1

70 replies

LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops · 26/03/2013 19:14

Does anyone download practice SATs tests to do at home with a YR2 pupil?

I'm a parent and would be keen to know whether other parents do this and if any teachers reading this think it a good idea?

Thanks in advance.

OP posts:

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mrz · 29/03/2013 19:06

"The entire shape curriculum isn't that much, quite likely."

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plainjayne123 · 29/03/2013 19:07

There can be 2 questions in each area then. I think weaknesses can be identified.

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mrz · 29/03/2013 19:09

oh dear

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Feenie · 29/03/2013 19:10

But only in certain areas, for the reasons described.

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Feenie · 29/03/2013 19:10

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ipadquietly · 29/03/2013 19:12

Plainjayne why didn't you just google what your dd needs to learn within level 3, and, as you're so inclined, work through it with her. That would mean that she covered all of the requirements.

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mrz · 29/03/2013 19:12

www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/QCA-99-460.pdf

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mrz · 29/03/2013 19:14

www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupDownloadFile.asp?GroupID=717006&ResourceId=2971621

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LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops · 31/03/2013 12:36

Thank you to all of you teachers who have responded.

My thinking was akin to plainjane's, so I'm delighted to hear from the teachers regarding how the levels are decided.

Thanks too for the links Mrz...much appreciated.

OP posts:

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Otherworld · 01/04/2013 23:12

Why does it actually matter what the child got? At this stage it's about overall school performance rather than any individual child isn't it?

As I understand it, the government are measuring the effectiveness of the school to take a group of children an average of 2 levels a year and this is part of that measurement. It doesn't matter to an individual child whether they got a 2, 3 or 4. Just that the school is making the right progress.

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mrz · 01/04/2013 23:16

No it's about the individual child, the data is used to predict and measure the child's progress for the next four years.

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GoodDaddy · 01/05/2013 11:06

plainjayne123 you are a good parent. Any parent who sees an area that their child is struggling and seeks to help them is not doing anything wrong. If it was only to get a good score on the KS1 SATS then it is obviously not going to improve their marks significantly. But, but testing your child at home you have been able to find areas of weakness. Even if you only help your child in 1 area.....its better than none.

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GoodDaddy · 01/05/2013 11:20

Last term my daughter came home with a terrible report. It said that based on a mock SATS exam she was not going to hit her end of year target (10 out of 27 on a level 2). The teacher said that my Daughter could read well but obviously didn?t understand what she was reading. When I got home I printed out the same English exam (plus 1 other) and explained to my daughter that she needed to read the passages, then read the question, then search for the answer in the passage. She got 23 and 24 on both of the exams. I took these to the teacher and gave them to her as evidence of what she can do. The following week the school made her do a level 3 exam and she got 20/27 (passed level 3). So she went from a 2c to a 3c in 3 day according to her teacher.

I have since found that her teachers dont really know what level the kids are at. And if I had just left them to it my daughter would be doing terrible. I can achieve more in 1 Saturday morning ( 1 on 1 ) than any teacher can achieve in a school week, I would home school her, but she needs the social life!

So to any parent out there who feels that they want to help their child....go for it! The only people here who are telling you not to are the teachers, because they know that you can do just as good a job as they can! (in less time) Teachers should be encouraging parents to help in areas of need, it would make their jobs easier.

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MirandaWest · 01/05/2013 11:30

I'm not a teacher. I'm saying not to do SATs tests with DC at home. Helping in areas of need is different from going through SATs papers.

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redskyatnight · 01/05/2013 12:27

GoodDaddy the score on a single SATS paper is not the level that the child is working at. My DS's teacher thinks he is working at 4b in maths, but the last assessment paper he took says that he is a 3b. This doesn't mean the teacher has got it wrong, just that DS needs to spend less time staring out the window, read the questions properly and not rush the paper practice his assessment paper technique.

If your child was really doing terribly, spending 5 minutes explaining how to do the paper would not have helped her.

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GoodDaddy · 01/05/2013 14:30

At school she got told that the first test was not important....so thats how she treated it. She missed out questions, she didnt even finish it!

Every child is different, and only a parent knows how to get the best out of their child. There are 26 children in my daughters class, so the teacher has 10 minutes per day to dedicate to her, and she doesnt know her needs or level at all!

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GoodDaddy · 01/05/2013 14:32

I think we just have a terrible teacher. Last years teacher was OK. There are twins in my dd year, and the mother has noticed a big difference between the 2 different classes/teachers.

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Feenie · 01/05/2013 16:44

I think you had a terrible teacher too! She should know your dd's ability much, much better than that, and she shouldn't be assessing using simply test papers.

If your dd truly was reading at a 2c, simply teaching her test technique would not elevate her one jot.

Every child is different, and only a parent knows how to get the best out of their child.

I agree with your first statement, but can accept that I as a parent may not know how to get the best out of my child. Children often behave differently at school.

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GoodDaddy · 02/05/2013 10:14

Hi Feenie, We hope her teacher next year is a bit better. The reason she did so bad in the test is because she was told it was not important (just a workbook). My DD is a bit of a chatterbox, which is why she didn?t finish it. If she is told its a test and its important, she will stop chatting and concentrate. At Easter we went to the parents evening to discuss her bad report (in English) and she told us that she had based her report on the test results alone.....stupid eh! She really doesn?t know what level she is at. She is reading ORT level 10/11 with no problem at all, but the teacher just said "From her exam result it obviously shows that she doesn?t understand what she is reading!" It made me so furious!!

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GoodDaddy · 02/05/2013 10:22

I need your opinions on something guys.

I found out that my daughter and 4 others had been separated from the class for an hour every day. I found out that they were being put in a class doing really basic English, games like you get in reception (she is in year 2). When I asked the teacher why she told me that they get extra credit from Ofted if they put on special classes for children who speak more than 1 language (she also speaks Spanish). I had her removed from that class immediately.

Shouldn?t that be something that is assessed individually? Isnt that prejudice/Nationalism?