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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

YR 2 SATS today

21 replies

AllabouttheE · 12/05/2014 11:05

My dd arrived at school and I just left her at the door as normal but she came running back to me in a mild panic as her desk had been moved (all the desks!) and she didn't know where to sit. There was a paper and pencil set out at each end of the tables so I figured SATS.
I think not knowing where to sit made her worry more than the realisation of a test.
Her teacher was busy at her desk, with her back to the door, not welcoming the children in.

YR2 teachers, wouldn't you prepare your class that this sort of thing would be happening?

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Elibean · 12/05/2014 11:08

Blimey. I would be shocked if that happened in my dd's Y2 class, tbh. Yes, I would expect a Y2 teacher to either prepare the class for change or just handle the whole thing in a more low-key way

redskyatnight · 12/05/2014 11:49

Wow that's a bit formal. Neither of my DC even realised that SATs were taking place. That said, the furniture at their school regularly moved about, so I don't think they would find it unusual!

DeWee · 12/05/2014 12:24

In dd1's time (6 years ago) that happened-but they told the dc they were pretending at being a Victorian school. They never realiesed they were doing SATS and came out talking about the funny Victorian days they were having.

Ds is year 2 now, and he is aware that he will be doing SATS this week. He says he hopes he doesn't die of boredom but he thinks it's a real risk. He's not stressed out about it though.

pointythings · 12/05/2014 12:53

That's seriously OTT for Year 2 SATs - for a moment I thought you were talking about KS2 SATs!
When my DDs did them, they moved the tables a few weeks ahead of the tests and then moved them again afterwards - furniture movement was quite common as ability groups were very very fluid and so regrouping happened quite a lot. No-one noticed a thing, the DDs just talked about the 'fun activities' they had been doing.

Oh would that KS2 SATs were like that...

Fuzzymum1 · 12/05/2014 13:00

My DS3 took his Y2 sats reading paper last week and has no idea anything different has happened. He came and told me he'd done a 'fun reading quiz'

noramum · 12/05/2014 13:06

Wow, for what? Do they really think they will cheat?

DD has no idea what is happening, they did various booklets and texts during the whole of Spring term so far, so it will feel like another day for her.

Original poster

AllabouttheE · 12/05/2014 13:43

I'm glad to hear that it seems way over the top.

My dd is naturally anxious and also a little bit OCD in a organised way so I wasn't surprised it worried her. She is absolutely the type child who will now under-perform because of this.

Not that I hold much weight by SATS scores or her teacher's opinion in particular.

I will wait for the teachers to finish work later - please do give me your views.

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PastSellByDate · 12/05/2014 13:50

AllabouttheE:

DD2 was asked to come to the teacher's room (the room naughty children are taken to to discuss their bad behaviour with teachers/ deputy HT or HT) when it came time to sit a NC L3 paper in Year 2. Nobody thought to explain she wasn't in trouble - they just suddenly announced 'DD2 come with me to the teacher's room' which I guess was just a case of the teacher using the only available room that afternoon.

DD2 burst into tears and was absolutely beside herself because she felt ashamed to be in trouble and because she knew she hadn't done anything wrong that day. (kind of class where children were adept at blaming other children for things - and younger pupils less able to explain themselves were frequently victimised). It took them close to half an hour to calm her down.

I agree AllabouttheE - signalling a bit better to parents/ children a formal test is coming would be helpful. Certainly in your case the teacher should have been prepared to receive pupils into a differently arranged class to settle them and put them at ease.

But as ever - I suspect time was short/ teacher was rushing/ teacher may have been interrupted and didn't get all she needed to get done on time/ teacher may have been making some last minute decisions on seating or who to put forward for L3, etc...

HTH

MotleyCroup · 12/05/2014 14:22

Ds came home with a letter from school, apparently everything was being kept low key. However at the end of last week ds told me that SATS were coming up and their class had been told that they would need to work really hard and that they wouldn't be allowed to go to the toilet during the SATS exam! I'd already been on here wondering whether to tell him or not but it's already 'out there' it seems.

Hawkshaw · 12/05/2014 14:47

DD did some SATS reading stuff last week. It didn't seem to be organised like a formal exam. A teacher took small groups out of normal class work, about 6 at a time. DD really enjoyed it. The school hasn't mentioned SATS to her at all. I have told her that they will be doing tests to see how well the school is teaching them (mainly because she's an anxious child and if they did suddenly mention them she might worry).

Rowgtfc72 · 13/05/2014 13:34

Dd is doing yr2 SATs. They've had a few dummy runs at booklets and sitting on your own so they've been acclimatised to it. She knows what SATs are but they've been played down in the classroom so the children all think its a bit of fun. Dd was delighted she got to do a maths test for all of Monday morning, this is the girl who could only sit still for ten minutes two years ago so the school are doing something right!

HeisenbergsHat · 13/05/2014 15:47

My DS is in year 2 but his school aren't doing the Y2 SATs until June, they've been doing practice papers for a couple of weeks already though. He knows the name SATs but I don't think he actually knows that they're a 'test', he just thinks it special work he gets to do. I think it will be organised with quite formal exam-like conditions so I hope they prepare the children for that aspect of it too.

The school also runs a Y2 SATs club every morning before school and one after-school session per week. DS goes to the after-school one (at his request) because they get biscuits.

TheEnchantedForest · 13/05/2014 17:22

We aren't doing them until June either though of course teacher assessment is done all year. The 'tests' are only meant to help inform teacher assessment so should definitely not be a big thing.

ipadquietly · 13/05/2014 17:34

No-one needs to practise Y2 SATs. Schools doing this are not following statutory guidelines:

'The tasks and tests can be administered at any time during the year but children are not to be tested more than once during the year in each subject or attainment target.
Teachers must not use the content of the tasks and tests to prepare children for the assessments. This could lead to inaccurate results that do not represent the children’s unaided abilities."

Rowgtfc72 · 13/05/2014 20:52

Our school weren't doing practice SATs as such it was more practicing sitting at a desk on your own and answering a book of questions so when SATs happened the idea wasn't new. The school is very good at not chucking our kids in the deep end!

Rowgtfc72 · 13/05/2014 20:52

junkfoodaddict · 13/05/2014 21:53

We've done 2 practice papers with my Y2s and they are well versed in the set-up and logisitics of it all.
Duirng this time, we just sat them at thenir normal tables - nothing moved, just encouraged to keep eyes on their own work and reminded that if they didn't know the answer, how could they be sure their neighbour did?!
We're not doing our SATs until the second week back in June. Results do not have to be sent until the end of June and we like to leave it as long as pssible to give children the best chance of succeeding. Not sure about re-arranging the tables though. Many children lose their confidence and get worried about sudden changes.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 14/05/2014 20:29

Our dd must be taking her Y2 sats but she hasn't even mentioned them. Having had DS take them at the same school a couple of years ago I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't realised.

I would be concerned over the way your teacher had handled this.

Supermum222 · 14/05/2014 21:33

I am dreading next year! My daughter will be in year 2 and my son will be in year 6...enough said :-(

AmberTheCat · 14/05/2014 21:44

I have DDs in Y6 and Y2 this year, Supermum, and what it's like really depends on the school. Ours is pretty sensible, on the whole. It's all very low key in Y2 - DD2 just thinks she's doing some 'booklets', and isn't remotely worried. DD1 definitely knows she's doing SATs, and has done a fair amount of prep for them at school, but nothing too ridiculous. She's a bit bored of the prep and is looking forward to doing more fun stuff, but doesn't seem stressed.

Hopefully you'll be fine next year!

Original poster

AllabouttheE · 14/05/2014 21:46

I have discovered she has done some work on crocodiles and nocturnal animals. Some maths and some spelling.

I also learnt she seems to have finished everything early. She read a whole book on Monday. Today she drew lots of pictures after she had finished the work.

So I assume she zipped through the tests.

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