QCA Tests?!

[gabsid]

In my DS's (Y3) school they soon do 4 days of QCA tests!

I had never heard of these tests and just googled them. They seem to be optional SATS tests, and it appears that DS is doing 4 days of solid Sats tests each year?

Do yours do that? It just seems a bit much?

Hi
I am a teacher, taking time out from the job at the moment. Yes it is normal for years 3,4 and 5 to do optional SAT's at this time of year. Teacher's are required to report levels which ultimately are teacher assessment but tests are also used as a source of evidence towards this assessment.

I should just add it will not be four days of solid tests. There will be two maths tests plus a short mental maths test, a reading test and two writing tasks that will be spread out across these four days.

My older boys did these and really enjoyed doing them, there is no pressure on the kids and they just see it as another bit of school work really.

Thanks! It just seems a lot of testing since they do tests every 6 weeks in all areas as well.

Our school does them too - under the heading of 'the more practice doing tests the better'.

I do a bit of maths with DS every day and now printed a practice test go through and do together with him to see which areas he is good at and where he still struggles. I know he is very good with his times tables and plain calculating but has difficulties applying it, so that should be good practice, but his teachers should know where he is anyway from all the previous tests.

I won't talk about tests, maybe the format will be very familiar to him then and he won't worry too much.

In year 3, the children do one maths test (either the higher or lower tier) then the mental maths.

There is one reading paper, a short writing paper and a longer writing paper. Then a spelling test.

We do them all through key stage 2, as did my previous school. I think is fairly normal. We use teacher assessment throughout the year, but then qca as a standardised test.

Thanks again, I was just a bit surprised since there is such much controversy about SATs just to find that they so something similar every year.