Yr6 Sat booster lessons-what are your views of them as teachers

[ggirl]

Ds is doing them for maths and english. One during school time and the other after.

I appreciate they are good for school and child but I do kind of feel for the teachers having all this extra work to ensure best SATS results possible

In an ideal world you'd have the time during normal school day to ensure kids were at their best.

Interested to hear teachers views .

Our school run them before and after school. We have refused for our son to attend any. We have asked for extra help for years (ASD no statement) and they refused (they could "handle" him and no budget for extra help). However now the schools SATS are looming they suddenly want him and the rest of the class to attend extra lessons.

Too little too late. Our school knew this particular classes attainment was low right from Reception but were allowed to "coast" all the way through.

My children go to the school that I teach at. To guarantee starting in our top sets children need all level 5s in their SATS and even better if there is at least one level 6.

We were offered booster classes of some kind for all of our children and turned them down . For the last child it was a level 6 booster. She wanted to take the tests but not do the boosters , so that was what we did.

I would rather my children spent time being children.

But shouldn't a child be set according to their ability without booster?
Ideal world and all that I guess...

They need to get rid of league tables.

League tables are the reason for it.

The thing that I find bloody amazing is when the teachers try to get me to do stuff to boost my child's position is the Sats, I told them the Sats are for the school not me and my child and I didn't wish to hear another squeak about them. The dcs hear enough of the Sats bullshit pressure at school there's no way I'm doing practice papers with them at home. I want to support my dcs at school and I want to help them prepare for secondary just not through the Sats. The school have been banging on about it since Sept and it brings out the irrational rage in me.
I really wish we had a HT with enough courage to put the kids ahead of the league tables but she's nearly qualified and has a lot to prove, so that's what matters to her, not too surprising is it?

I agree ggirl which is why my children never do them .

However the school wants as many level 5s and 6s as possible and parents want their children to be in top set.

No Head Teacher can afford to put the kids ahead of league tables, people base their school choice on it. The school only has to be top for them to be inundated with enquiries - not only from new parents but from those in other schools. I know this for a fact. I ignore them completely, as do a lot on MN, but the majority set great store by them. They can't even get an outstanding OFSTED without good SATs- sad for a school like my friend's where English is not the first language and many arrive from Eastern Europe with no English. The school does wonders for them but they won't get the SATs if some pupils arrive aged9/10 without English. Consequently they can't get even a 'Good' OFSTED and some parents start removing their children. Do not blame the Head!! It matters to those who are well established. Their performance is judged on them.
Blame the league tables.

Schools also get funding for booster classes- the teachers don't do them without the pay.

I know I was as guilty as anyone else in choosing a school with good Sats results - back then I naively assumed it meant good teaching, I quickly learned it meant lots of the parents had tutors for their kids, the school obsessed over Sats results in year 6 and the school was a bit shit despite a glowing Ofsted report. I moved my kids to a school that seemed more interested in kids than Sats - they had a Satisfactory Ofsted and the school was creative and happy...4 years on the school has become just like the rest of them - Sats chasing, Ofsted pleasing, league table obsessed...and I'm just a bit pissed off - there's no escape! They are sucking the joy out of learning. What have our primary school become?

Yes 'glowing OFSTED/impressive SATS' has a hollow ring to it nowadays. I now equate that with 'hellish yr6 where children are crammed in the worst way to learn work that is around 2 yrs ahead of where they should be, in the space of a few weeks, at no benefit to them personally'

As a secondary school teacher, I have never worked in a school that uses them. All the secondaries I taught in, retested the students in year 7 with CATs as they found the SATs too unreliable. And this is exactly why! To offer booster classes is essentially faking the students' results. Makes the school look better, but doesn't really then give accurate information about the child.

I really hate SATs and if my yr5 child is requested to do such things next year, I will refuse.

Exactly what ours did lechers. It's all such a lot of un-necessary stress and worry and it's all shoved onto the children and parents to 'worry and stress' about. I think parents and children should collectively take a massive step back and refuse to be goaded into reacting to it. I thank heavens that mine are all at secondary school now. The work is interesting, enriching and relevant. Not only that the results benefit both the school but mainly the pupils themselves so everyone can appreciate what it is they're working for.

Snapshot Ofsted reports and annual league tables have a huge amount answer for.

DDs school went down to satisfactory on DD1's less able and less confident cohort and up to good on DD2's brighter bunch. Likewise it's league table position and number of children applying for nursery/YR went up in the next few years.

It's a small school ~15 in a year one or two extra L5 makes an enormous difference to the figures. One DC can be worth 8%

It's very hard not to get carried along by it though as a parent! Other parents talk about nothing other than SATs and the extra tuition their dcs are getting.

I hate them! They have created a two tier system at primary school, where those schools which play the Gove game are considered to be 'better' than those where the teachers work just as hard, but create a well rounded creative curriculum where the children learn masses but not necessarily what can be ticked in a box....

Sorry grammar pedants - that last sentence was embarassing

Tamer B Y6 teachers often do run booster classes for no extra pay - I and all my colleagues do anyway. We run hour long classes in our own time, for which we plan, and we set and mark additional homework. We also run lunchtime booster clubs, which are more games-based, but which still require support and supervision and which eat into time which we would otherwise spend marking and preparing for our normal classes.

I hate SATs, and as a parent I told my DCs not to stress. As a teacher, I know if we drop below the DfE's floor targets (many of which pay no heed to the fact that we have well above average pupil mobility and a very high proportion of children with English as an additional language), it will trigger alarm bells, inspections and eventually forced academisation. Whatever your political views, some of the academy chains have management styles and employment practices which are far removed from those teachers signed up for and it is 'my way or the highway'. There is considerable anecdotal evidence that the teachers who are suffering most from academisation are those with most experience - they tend to be higher up the pay scale and so more expensive. I can't imagine many people feeling more confidence in an NHS which had an ever increasing proportion of its surgeons and nurses newly or recently qualified, with fewer and fewer experienced staff to call on for advice, but that seems to be how many academies intend to boost their profits raise standards.

Not in my area, partystress- there is funding for it.

It is an LEA that comes near the top of the league table for SATs.