Do you/did you do specific SATS revision with your DCs?

[XBenedict]

I didn't - am I an awful mother?

DD1 and DS have been through sats and apart from the usual reading most nights, doing homework set, playing on mathletics I didn't sit them down and do sats revision. I have a lovely (but extremely competitive friend) who can't let her DS out during the week at the moment as he's "cramming for his sats' (Y2). Tell me this isn't what everyone is doing and I have completed missed this part of my role.......please!

I think it depends on schools.

if school always get good results then they out pressure on well they do here at 2very well performing state schools. freinds d year 2 in up its own arse infant school small affluent catchment has discussed and practiced sats since sept.

mine does not even know what a sat is:
very well performing oversubscribed primary school on new estate just got oustanding ofsted and its results v=baffle me with 100%success but heard they streamed, pushed ffom early age and saw amount homework they get its nuts.

dds old primary-tricky one had downgraded ofsted due to attainement ie kids suppost to make so many levels progress, sats falling not dire but not best of pack within local area.

schools response to this pile on extra homework.
start becoming pshier in class
this year advised year 6 parenst they might what to think about private tutors or exclore learning at sainsburys to boost results, extra homework and hardky any fn stuff for year 6 ,

sue lots unhappy stressed parents an sad kids as no longer buddy time with there reception kids.

I think the pressure be too much and make situation worse.
also number of competative parents there, freind already told by year 2teacher that her july year 2 advanced and on steady level 3, she asked me what she could do to help with sats I failed to respond.

i moved my child after 1ter year 2 she made zero progress in 8weeks and year 2 teacher piled on pressure,

new small village school-no homework apart from reading.
she does maths factor and ccbbc keystage 1 games for fun.
spoke to teacher who said kids not prepared sats may ot sure when that dd has progressed still not sure enough as was slightly below expectation end of last year as need to raise 3sublevles to get to expected 2b..

But dd 1 no longer stressed and is happy.

maybe year 6 will be different but not heard any negatives,

teacher says sats sometimes how they perform on day day their end of term /year nc grading might be different.

Might be dd2 school and fact they get good results but when looked before moving got new prospectus with printed table year 2sats results so even though not published was avaialible to prospective parents an results seemed good.

Im not sure i be blase about year 6 sats but need to do some 11=prep anyway as backup for independents of dont get any decent state schools alwys imagine 11+be tougher than sats.

Regarding yr6 (I see the thread is including posts re yr6 too) it's an odd message we are sending to dc. Or at least at our school it is.

I'm constantly saying don't worry, it's not a test for you but of the school blah blah. The school are 'saying' don't worry blah blah. And yet in reality they are being pressured to worry due to the landslide of homework, leaflets home saying How To Get Through SATS, constant constant cramming, some doing specific revision papers.. Children aren't stupid, they know when they're being sold a bum steer.

So to sum up: It's a test that is/isn't important and that is of little or no direct benefit to the person taking it. Utterly bonkers

It matters to the school alright, big time. I do wish they wouldn't promote the fiction that 'it's no big deal, no of course we don't pressure our kids' (another Ofsted brownie point no doubt) when in reality they're doing the opposite.

DD does the Naplan in a couple of weeks for the very first time. She is in year 5, so I brought her some Naplan Style Tests on the Ipad. If we were still in the UK, I would not have worried about it.

I'm more cynical. When schools used to be judged on the 'raw scores' of how many got over Level 4 at KS2 SATS then schools tried to get as many borderline kids as possible over the Level 4 line. Brighter kids weren't really pushed to do the Level 5 because this wasn't recognised in league tables. Thus my v academic dc1 (now in year 8) was not given much support in year 6.

A couple of years ago the rules changed and league tables now measure whether children have made the 'expected progress' from their levels at KS1. This means my dc2 in year 6 - who got all Level 3s in KS1 - is now being pushed very hard to achieve Levels 5 and 6 as are most of the class (it is an unusually high-achieving class).

I've noticed a big difference with the school's approach at KS1 as a result - whilst the teachers used to encourage the brighter kids to pass L3 at KS1, my dc3 - who has been predicted level 3s at KS1, has been given no help to achieve this. I suspect this might be because if he passes, it will only raise expectations for KS2 SATS and then the school will have to make sur he passes at least Level 5 at KS2. so it is actually in the school's interest now to downgrade students at KS1 and so make their life easier at KS2.

Of course, I may be being unfair - it may not be as a result of any concerted 'plan' on behalf of the school, implicit or explicit. The lack of appropriate work he's had from the school may just be because his teachers this year are crap. Which is quite possible. Certainly, they keep giving him homework on topics he's never covered in class - either I teach him them myself (which I seem to be expected to do), or I send back sheet after sheet with notes in the margin explaining that he couldn't do it as he's never been taught it. I have had to do this with some astonishingly inappropriate ones eg the ones testing his knowledge of ALL the times tables up to 10X10. He's only 6!!! I have no intention of making him learn all his times tables by the end of year 2.

In answer to the OP, yes,I have done work with both my dcs. My dc1 in year 6 is determined to get Level 6s and on course and very motivated to do so. I've gone through half a reading paper with her and discussed GAPS topics with her where she found them hard. We also looked at maths topics she found hard like algebra. But this has not been against her will - she is determined to get 100% in her maths tests (her decision NOT mine). And maths is her favourite subject. And yes, I have told her many times the tests test the school not her.

As for my dc in year 2, I am very reluctant indeed to do any 'academic' work with a child of this age, other than encouraging him to read and helping him learn 2/5/10 times tables.

But I have had to do work to explain how to add/subtract and have now been told by his teachers to teach him joined-up handwriting, apparently because they think this is my job. (My older dcs' teachers managed to do this quite happily in class time.)

Um, no. No specific revision. TBH even the homework gets left to her unless she really wants my help. Am slack parent. Twitch, twitch.

In my defence, her anxious older brother needs my help with his A-levels a weeny bit more than Littl'un needs help with made-up governmenty league table nonsense especially SPAG tests where even the practice questions have spelling errors.

Why would a child revise for SATS. What is the benefit to them? How will it positively impact on them to gain a result higher than their natural ability - serious question, genuinely confused by the idea.

School hasn't been pushy in any way or form.

DD wants to revise because she wants Level 6s. For her own satisfaction.

She is very weird ambitious.

I am a failed pushy mom because I haven't managed to devise a whole mock L6 maths test for her.