Bloody SATS

[Ledkr]

I know they are important to schools but its madness at dds school. They've gone on and on at them a out it for months, extra homework, extra lessons and generally created a great deal of expectation and stress.
Poor dd gets migraines and they are currently rife due to her worry over sats. She thinks they will impact on her going to her already allocated secondary school.
Then yesterday she came out with a list her teacher had given them. Apparently it's bed early a d a good breakfast (preferably cooked) which obviously all children need everyday.
It seems ott to me but hey.
Anyone got any comparisons?

Mrz what are they for then because I did think they were to test the teaching in the schools?

Genuine question by the way

The results are used to set statutory individual GCSE targets for children.

But those targets are used for the schools to judge how well they are teaching and value added etcThey are not used to incentivise the children . I cannot even remember what ds1s SAT results were and certainly was not aware that his teachers at GCsE knew or were even interested in his SATs .

But his teachers will have been very aware - they will have known what they needed to aim for with him, determined by his SAT results.

No his GCSE target were set using something called MidYis ,or something like that , neither of my younger two have ever done a SATs exam so they would have difficulty setting targets using them

Sorry didn't mean to sound argumentative ,but if the child doesn't then reach that GcSE target is that used to judge the child or the school,because if it is used to judge the school then the tests are for the school's benefit and not the child's if you see what I mean.I just can't see what the child is getting from these tests but maybe I'm missing something.

"This year , it is expected that as a minimum standard, all schools should have at least 60 per cent of pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 achieving a level four or above in both English and mathematics"

Then the standard has gone down

Level 4 was the expected level that all children should achieve (barring SN or major social factors like ESOL/newly arrived). And so it should be close to 100% at level 4. To set a new standard which accepts 40% of children not achieving the basic expected level staggers me.

But using Y6 SATS results as a way of predicting GCSE results is incredibly flawed, as my DD proves.

Y6 SATS, she didn't achieve a lvl. Mostly because she was still working on p-scales. Her GCSE predicted grades are now done the old-fashioned way, because she made so much progress in Y7 and Y8 once the Secondary actually gave her decent help with her SN's that the computer generated ones bear no relation to where she is working now in Y10!

According to the computer generated GCSE grade predictions, my DD will get U's in every subject. According to the teacher predictions (who h I trust FAR more!), she will get G-D, mostly D's and E's, depending on subject, and may just scrape a 'C' in Science.

Why use results from a test at 10/11 to determine what GCSE grades a 16yo is likely to get?! It's quite plausible for a DC to have a major developmental leap between 11 and 16.

What was wrong with teacher predictions, like when I was at school? They were usually spot on.

Or DC's that have unsupported SN's at Primary level being far better supported at Secondary level, thus rendering their SATS results useless for the purpose of GCSE grade prediction...

I trust DD's teachers to know what level she is working at now than some computer program that thinks that her achievement at 11yo will be able to predict her GCSE grades at 16yo!

So do the schools try to aim PAST that grade set by a bloody computer? I'm glad DD's does, or her Secondary education would have failed her as well as her Primary education!!

If all the school taught my DD was how to get U grades on her GCSE's, I'd have been hopping mad!

Instead they ignored the predictions based on her SATS results, and pushed her and helped her to get where she is now.

The only lesson she is on the borderline for a U grade is Maths, and her goal is a G, as she desperately wants to achieve a grade, rather than no grade.

I hope spanieleyes doesn't mind I'm going to repost her comment

" It gets harder every year to escape the clutches of OFSTED! This year , it is expected that as a minimum standard, all schools should have at least 60 per cent of pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 achieving a level four or above in both English and mathematics( which is relatively easy to achieve) and not be below the median school scores for the percentage of pupils making expected progress between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 in English and in mathematics. In 2012, the median school score for English was 92 per cent and for mathematics 90 per cent.
SO you need to be above average to be above floor targets, and so everyone has to be above average!!"

This is why your DCs are having such a shitty Y6 and why my DD2 had SATs coming out of her ears last year and her big sister didn't.

It's the same rubbish with 3 levels of progress at secondary that's put their perfectly good senior school in SM. It absolutely sucks and is ruining any chance of our children getting a rounded education and sucking the fun out of schools

Well i have produced the clear pencil case, and all the pens pencils protractors that are required. Just want tomorrow to come now. DS2 is adamant he is going to do the past papers today and is just about to start the maths one.

No-we are looking at the SPAG one. Synonyms and antonyms. Great.

So do the schools try to aim PAST that grade set by a bloody computer?

Good schools and teachers do, yes.

But these are government set targets, and could affect the aspirations a poorer school/teacher has for a child.

I don't know what the government sets for a child with no SAT results, outtolunch - it's not a typical situation though.

outtolunchagain the prime purpose of the SAT tests is as an assessment of the child and to set individual targets for the child. The fact that KS2 results are used to produce league tables is a bi-product much loved by the press and some parents.

I am starting to feel nervous for DS2. he has just said 'if I don't do very well in my SATS they can always look in my books'. He is expected to do well but his teachers have said he has a habit of making things more complicated than they need to be.

My dd has hardly eaten for a fortnight and has had a sore throat too with no obvious signs of infection. My Mum reminded me that I always got sore throats and mouth ulcers when I was sitting exams. She is only 11 years old ffs - she doesn't need all the pressure that the school is heaping on her. I was all for doing very little (if any) school work this weekend but the school sent home a pile of things that she has got wrong in the past. Great - now her confidence is rock bottom having spent the weekend struggling with the hardest bits. That's really going to help isn't it?

DS's school are providing breakfast all week! Mainly it's a ploy to ensure they are all there on time, but it saves us the bother!

They have been working towards it all year to the exclusion of pretty much everything else and the week before last they had a week of mocks. Past papers, under exam conditions and everything, then last week they have been working on any issues that arose from their mock papers. Thankfully they have been told to have this weekend off to relax. Their justification for doing all the past papers etc is so that when they do the exams it is just another mock up and they will breeze through it.

We've been told to go easy on them, let them have their favourite foods, do what they want to relax (apart from computer games) etc. As if we will let him dictate!

My DS is stressing though . He has a tendency to chew his lip when worried and has today sucked on his own face so hard that he now has a "lovebite" all round his lips and is refusing to go to school tomorrow at all . We have done an emergency shop run to get some arnica cream, but it isn't going to go away by tomorrow. I'm now stressing that he will get the mickey taken which will ruin his concentration and he'll do badly.

Can't wait till it's all over.

Do remember everyone, that this time next year they will be doing end of year 7 exams. More of them, much harder and generally a bigger deal. Don"5 mollycoddle!

seeker Sun 12-May-13 16:53:52
"Do remember everyone, that this time next year they will be doing end of year 7 exams. More of them, much harder and generally a bigger deal. "

Not a bigger deal in any of the secondaries dc, their friends or the dc of friends have attended. Far more hysteria over the SATS ime. Secondaries have their GCSEs to think about. And even those seem to take place in a calmer atmosphere than SATS in dc's junior school.

DS's year 6 of two classes have four teacher and two TA's this year to get them through and achieve the best results.

Great that they have had all the additional teaching support, but the school are mainly interested in getting good results rather than the pupils' welfare and progress. Especially as a rival school has appeared on their doorstep by virtue of the high school next door to them becoming a Through School and now having a primary phase. They are worried about losing pupils and hence funding.

Sparkling, our school are providing all necessary equipment thankfully. Presumably so they don't have kids turning up without the right stuff and then having to rush about finding spare kit. Easier for everyone they said if it's all provided.

Yes it's really weird Lack Ds has supplied all his own stationery since Year 5 so it just carries over into the SATS. I am assuming it's because he is at a Middle School.

This term - half an hour PE per week, no topic work, just English, Maths and SATS revision. DD has enjoyed a level 6 booster group but has gone from being a child who revelled in tests to one who is completely and utterly fed up with them.

Patronising letter home on friday reminding us parents about the need for a good nights sleep and a breakfast before school - isn't that necessary most of the time for good performance? DD is aware that the results will have little or no effect on her future as her secondary school will CAT test her in June - more test - whoopee!