What do the year 6's do after May SATS?

[Supermum222]

Hi,

Once SATS are over in year 6 what do they do at school? Carry on with the curriculum or start preparing the children for secondary? Is it more laid back as they are about to leave? I just wondered what happens as my boy goes into year 6 this year.

We do become a bit more laid back but there is definitely still more they will learn, we just take it at a slightly easier pace and fit in as many fun activities as we can too! So we have a residential trip to London for the week, we arrange plenty of sports tournaments with other schools, have a trip to the local cathedral for a church festival ( more fun than it sounds-honest!!) The children are organising a school talent show and a couple of other things too. But they will still have literacy/numeracy/science/etc to keep them busy, there's nothing worse than a class full of under-occupied year 6 children!!

At my DD's school they have an 'activities week' with all sorts of fun stuff as a reward for the hard work then carry on learning all the core stuff but also do a lot of personal and social stuff including sex and relationships ed and transition stuff.

There will be at least one visit to their new schools, some children with additional needs visit several times (my ds with ASD did).

I teach year 6. After SATs we carry on with the curriculum, put together a leaver's production and church service and of course prepare for transition to secondary school too.

There tend to be a lot of enrichment activities too, we do a church schools festival, a cluster sports festival and local schools orchestra and choir event.

I love this last term with them as I get to teach really creatively and the pressure of revision is off.

My children rehearsed for and put on a show, compiled a year book, did a Geography project and a History project, and had a trip to a theme park.

My ds's both had a great time at school after SATs. It was when they had their week long residential trip, there was another day trip related to their topic, and as the vast majority went on to the local secondary, there were visits from the teachers there and they visited the new school a couple of times as well.

Then a lot of time was taken up practicing for the leavers concert, and a leavers service at the church because it was a CofE school.

They had sex education lessons after SATs as well, all fairly basic and mild stuff stuff though.

Other lessons focused more on their topic than on SATs work, but they did still have proper lessons as well. My ds's particularly enjoyed maths lessons after SATs, as rather than just learning maths formally, they did mathematical investigation type projects. I can remember it that well, but one of them was where they had to work in groups and make business plans and calculate expenditure and profit and that sort of thing.

In my experience, they got a lot more learning out of school in the months after the SATs than they did in the months before.

Dd didn't do SATs but they had entrance exams at the end of January. After that they still did normal lessons but a lot less stress and homework. And a lot more enrichment subjects introduced too. So she did things like First Aid, genealogy, additional languages, etc also visits to secondary school, a longer residential, extra trips out. And they created a class band with their teacher.

All lots of fun but lots of learning opportunities - breadth as well as linear learning.

And yes - the end of year 6 show, which y6 have all the main parts.

Our school has a residential visit after SATs where they do lots of geography and science based activities. They also produce a show for the leavers' assembly.

Play, activity week/residential (alternates because it's a joint Y5/6 class). Loads of inter school sports. Generally had fun.

End of year show.
Transition work for the high school(s).
Keep working to improve their levels.

Residential
Cycling proficiency
Visits to high school
'Fun' science
Yr 6 show and leavers assembly

Very much the same as they have been doing since Sept, business as usual.

My DD had a fab time with trips, preparing and performing the year 6 play, cycle proficiency etc. I was a bit concerned though that they only had one maths lesson during that whole time and that was when ofsted visited.

1 week residential,
lark about, wind up the dinner ladies
socialise, rehearse for final performance
induction days to other schools, odd other activity
sports tournaments
Help out with assemblies & activities in other classrooms

ps: they had math science english lessons, too, but they were more activities than learning new things experiences says DD.

As with mrz - business as usual (it's a school that doesn't make a big deal out of SATs in the run-up - all years have a testing week at around the same time as SATs each year, so it just feels the same as that, they then pick up again and carry on).

However, there is a slightly higher ratio of 'extra stuff' - all years have trips, arts and DT weeks, an annual show, lots of sport etc, but Year 6 has a residential trip and cycling proficiency, and their annual show is at the end of the summer term, so their 2-3 week preparation period for that falls after SATs. There is also a visit from all the secondary schools, and an induction day.

Dd's school don't make a big thing of SATs so there hasn't been much different to normal for her tbh but afterwards there is a big push on enrichment so cycling proficiency, swimming, Bhangra dancing, mini enterprise, community projects, transition to next school, performances, dd's school is big on inter generational learning and so OAPs come and teach crafts like woodwork, whittling, knitting, crochet, quilting and they produce items for the summer fayre and the local uni's lay on days focusing on science and humanities so there are days out.

Mine are at an independent school which doesn't do SATs and so the focus is on their entrance exams for secondary. By spring half term, all the dcs are done and dusted and, bar a few waiting lists working through, everyone had their next schools lined up.

They did a lot of the things people here have mentioned (play, residential trip, special projects etc), but I have to say that there was quite a bit of muttering from parents about how under-occupied they were. The play was genuinely fabulous, but if you did not have a main part there was probably a reasonable amount of hanging around, eg, which is Not Good for bored Y6 children. Obviously all the parents thought that the children really deserved a break from exams, but I think they all disengaged a bit and fell out of the habit of working a bit, tbh. The problem really was that it is a funny age and a funny stage in their schooling and not having enough to do really tipped them into a bit of social argy-bargy. There were quite a few fallings out from what had largely been a harmonious class. My extremely easy going Ds certainly got pulled into a few things that he should not have done and I think we were all quite pleased when the term finished.

For us, it was a bit of a shame that the last term and a half finished off a very happy time since nursery on a bit of a down note. But maybe it was inevitable and is all part of the needing to be ready to move. We certainly felt DS was noticeably more engaged right from the start of Y7