Year six SATs

[RoadRunner123]

Are parents generally informed about which SATs tests their children are entered for?

My son has been taking part in extra maths lessons for level six, but we have not been told if he has been entered for it. Likewise, he has been getting 5bs recently for the grammar tests, but my son says it still hasn't been decided who is taking the level six paper.

Is this usual?

Hi all. Just found this thread..

Have yr6 DD2 taking Sats this week. Her English far better than her maths, but down to take L6 in both.
Concerned that her school (Ofsted good primary with around 90% getting L4 and above) have never had a a child get L6 overall in English. The teachers think all those taking L6 in maths should get it, but wondering I'd DD2 gets L6 in maths but not English, that this will give an incorrect picture of her strengths when she starts secondary.

Are others also hearing from schools that the Maths L6 is much easier to achieve than the English?

Although going to the same secondary as DD1 (yr12) left last year, they have changed the way they set since then. DD1 went to a different primary, had straight level 5's (about 30% did back then) but Sats results never reached secondary. She was always in top sets, had mainly B predictions but achieved better than that without working terribly hard, though certainly not straight A*s.
She is now seriously struggling with A'levels - AS exams start tomorrow as well as KS2 Sats for us

Guess I'm trying to say, agree with the opportunity for L6, but pointless over pushing. They can plateau when you are least expecting them too.

Hi RoadRunner123:

Data of 2013 KS2 L6 testing in detailed Sheffield Hallam report into this here: www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/ceir-investigation-key-stage2-level6-tests.pdf - Appendix 2 has national outcomes for L6:

9% of all English pupils scored L6 in Maths for KS2 SATs
0% (apparently 0.4%) - scored NC L6 in English for KS2 SATs

I think there was a discussion elsewhere of SATs recently where a teacher made it clear that schools can apply for L6 papers but have until the last minute to make that decision.

I'm not clear whether schools are penalised for putting a child foreward for a L6 paper who then fails to achieve it - but perhaps a teacher will be along here shortly to clarify that wrinkle.

HTH

Dd found the level 5 ok but said the level 6 was really hard much harder than the practice papers they did.

DD thought the L6 practise papers were harder, but they all ran out if time today.

Our Y6 children thought the level three part of the paper was harder than the level four part.

Can I ask people please to not post specific details about the tests. Any child who was ill today could take the reading test in the next few days, so there is the potential for cheating.

Don't think anyone has yet.

One thing to bear in mind is that scoring a 5 or a 6 on one test paper does not really mean that this child is performing consistently at this level. It does not mean they no longer need to work on those skills and in terms of writing will mean that they will still need to work on producing this standard across their work in a variety of subjects. I see so many children who have been awarded level 5 or 6 in Y6 who actually can do very little unaided and unscaffolded writing or who can't use punctuation accurately etc. It is very disheartening and very difficult to get parents to accept that a snapshot, crammed for test result does not represent the true everyday ability of their child. This is the reason I hate SATS with a passion.

I thought for the writing, their portfolios carried a lot of weight towards their final levels.

For writing, continuous assessment over the year forms THE WHOLE of the assessment at all levels. The level 6 grammar test however has a writing element in it but it isn't a level 6 writing test!!

I think MrsK might mean me... In which case my DD2 has already 'cheated' since the text I mentioned in passing in my pp is part of a book she has read and is familiar with... These things happen.

DD didn't seem perturbed by either, but said L6 Reading was easier than the L3-5! I've given up trying to infer anything from anything she says though.

The 'interesting' thing about the L6 Reading is the alleged potentially significant contradiction between what the admin guide told them to tell the children to do and what the actual test told the children to do.

Can you elaborate PiqueABoo? Interested as my dd took the reading level 6 yesterday. All she said was that it was pretty hard and she was the only one in the group taking it who managed to finish all the questions.

SPAG was fair...iny opinion

*in my

DD2 said SPaG was fine, she knew all the answers on both tests and didn't struggle with the spellings. But then SPaG is her favourite thing in the world...

L6 short writing was fine too, we'll see how she did - she knows it's the icing, not the cake.

Nuru- the level 6 reading discrepancy was that there were different instructions for the administrators and in the children's booklets.

The administrator's guide (and published instructions) said 10 min reading (during which time they mustn't open the answer booklet) and then 50 min to answer qs. The children's booklets said 1 hour in total, and that they should read text 1, answer qs on it, then read text 2 and answer the qs.

I have no idea what most schools did, but a pretty big error which may have disadvantaged many schools/children.

Btw I didn't mean anyone in particular when I said about not discussing specifics. I have seen that happen in threads in previous years, and wouldn't want it to be a problem for MNHQ.

I guess if it's being discussed on national radio then it's not a big deal.

MrsK that's bad re the discrepancy... I hope there won't be any adverse consequences for anyone.

That's interesting re the reading test. My dd mentioned that it was different from the previous year's paper because they got to read one text and then answer questions on it, rather than having seaports reading time, so her school obviously went with the instructions in the booklet.

DD said the 10 mins reading plus 50 mins doing is the usual process for L6 Reading and that's what they did at her school. The instructions in their booklet were apparently relevant to L3-5, not L6.