Do schools only run y6 SATs booster for pupils who are very near a level boundary?

[reup]

My child's school has them before, during and after school. My child struggles with literacy and is not doing any but my friends daughter is doing level 6 ones,

There are lots doing them so they can't all be level 6. So do they just target those they think are capable of reaching the next level?

Are they really all about making the school look great rather the identifying kids that need help?

They will target the support where it will have most 'impact' yes. If your dd is low level 3 (ie very little chance of getting a L4) then she probably won't receive much 'booster' support. Sad, but true.

Its such an awful skewed system. The local secondary doesn't even set in y7 and all this effort to get them onto a higher level when my child can't spell simple words or use full stops. ( I have done tons of work at home and had a cahms assessment but nothing much seems to improve)

SATS help at my dcs school is for all kids, guess the school needs it's overall results up. No differentiation, at least it's fairer

Ours are having booster lessons for maths for children who are level 5 but can reach level 6 if taught the content. Children are taken out of normal lessons for this, no different to struggling children who are also taken out in small groups to help them work towards their potential.
Bright children should be stretched, not all children would benefit from booster classes, no point sitting there and not understanding it.
By syphoning off both groups more time is available to the bulk of level 4 children, who also generally get to have the teacher rather than a teaching assistant, win win .

Surely pushing children for the SATs is counter productive - surely those struggling with subjects should be given help regardless of if an exam that really only counts for the school ofsted report is looming. I would not want my child to be helped to go up a level in her sats if actually she was working below that level generally. This would possibly mean she would be set too high when she goes to secondary school, struggle and then become demoralised. I know you are always going to get parents who are somehow bothered by "levels" but i want my child's education to stretch her according to her ability generally and not just working towards a single assesment.

The l6 classes are outside of school hrs so a very different situation.

All the secondary teachers I know say their schools (private and state) knock off about 2 sub levels from sats results. So it is really pointless.

it pleases ofsted - and that after all is what the education system is about these days :( They want tests to show how well the SCHOOL is doing.

In order to reach L6 in maths, a totally different curriculum needs to be taught. The content simply isn't covered by general lessons in KS2. Therefore extra lessons or lessons away from other child are needed. Children on the border of a level 3/4 probably get boosters to try and get them on the L4 too.
There are only a finite number of resources and if your child has struggled it is likely that they will have had support in the past. If they have had a CAHMs assessment are the school following the recommendations?

In our school the kids get an extra hour 3 days a week, and are split into ability groups, the head takes 2 groups, the class teacher another 2 and a TA ( who happens to have 2 degrees, is fluent in several languages but prefers to be a TA? The school is lucky to have her ) takes the other 2. So work is suitable and at correct level for all kids. Top group only is aiming for level 6.

Perhaps the school wants to be in a trial for mr Gove's new 10 hour school day!

No sadly. no support. No extra resources. It wouldn't help their data so they don't really care. The chams referred to ot and we do all exercises at home. But that doesn't help with spelling etc.

I know that l6 is another curriculum but it just a weird use of resources. All the bright straight level 5 kids I know all went on to get straight a* and all at Russell group/Cambridge. They managed without extra l6 tuition so it's hardly vital.

At our school your child would be getting extra help - the school is keen to show that each and every child has made the required 2 levels of progress or better. The official data on RAISE only shows so much so we use our own tracking system to give more details - for a child achieving L3 we would want to show Ofsted our own assessment of whether they are a 3a/b/c etc.

The nearly-L6s get what they need too.

I wouldn't worry too much about secondary schools - they seem to reassess the children on entry anyway. I believe there is money allocated to secondaries specifically to target children who didn't achieve L4 in Yr6 SATS.

L6s will help the school's data. It's so so horrible thinking of children as data but Ofsted have turned it into a nightmare. Really. Don't blame your schools or teachers.

My top group are doing L6 style work - whether they'll achieve it or not I really don't know. The pupils who struggle the most try really hard and have made great progress. I'm really proud of them. That, however, is not good enough for the big powers that rule us. They need to fit into a Level 4 box. Personally, I'd prefer them to be working really confidently at the right level, understanding what they are doing and why they are doing it and trying hard to improve, but what do I know?

Thats what worries me going - that children are under such pressure to achieve, just slightly beyond their abilities, so tht the school can appease ofsted. It has been quite sad to watch at DD's school, which in my opinion is a fantastic school, has a very caring ethos, looks at the overall picture etc. But that wasn't good enough for ofsted and now they are jumping through hoops trying to up their SATs statistics. I want my child to leave primary school confident and happy, not feeling like she is not quite good enough - because this is what all this "stretching" is doing. I hate it.

I definately don't blame the school or the teachers, but many of them are totally demotivated by the whole thing, its heartbreaking. I also live in a 11+ area, so there's another little bit of pressure to my my dd under when she is TEN :( I will have to make a decision, whether or not to risk damaging her self esteem when she only might pass, weighed against the possibility of her ending up in a sink school.

LEM... Her self esteem will be high if she does pass. The problem will be if she does not for her and for you.

I don't actually think children learning to their abilities is just to please Ofsted. It is so they can access the secondary curriculum. It is also necessary for a school to prove to Ofsted that children are making good progress. That is not the same as all children being pushed to be level 5. If you read lots of Ofsted reports on schools which require improvement, it is the rate of progress which is slow, often compounded over several years. Sometimes schools realise they have coasted and now need a big push to catch up. This is where it is tough for the children. Consistently good teaching and good progress is far better than having to push because too much time has been wasted.

If that is the case then booster classes wouldn't be necessary. One could argue that if boostrt classes are needed then the main lessons aren't good enough.