Can anyone tell me a bit more about Practice SATs in year 5?

[Hattifattiner]

My DS has brought some Year 5 papers home today, from english and maths. The English (reading) one has his level on, 5, which seems a good start!
His maths is generally a lot weaker. There are results in numbers but no level. Now, I don't know if this is because his result is so poor they don't want to depress him, or some other reason. But obviously I am curious and don't want to wait until Monday to ask the teacher.
He got 11/51 and 18/35.

Each paper is out of 35 ( there are two papers, a paper A which is non calculator and a paper b which is calculator) and there is a further mental maths paper which is out of 20 so I'm not sure where the 51 came from!!
The maximum mark is therefore 90.
A total of 29 would give you a level 3c.

I was adding up as I went through / so maybe I counted some stuff twice. It was 18 on the calculator paper. He hates mental maths.
Thanks for reference. He has been 3c for two years. Well, I suspect he wasn't really 3c two years ago but the teacher was trying to motivate him.
So, no need to panic!

A 3c at the end of year 5 isn't panic stations but it isn't where I would like a child entering year 6 to be. There is a big gap between a 3c and the notional "average year 6" of a 4b. Certainly any child entering year 6 on a 3c in my class would be on an intervention package to help close the gap. It might be worth asking what additional support is being put in place for your son.

Bear in mind there is a big difference between the Y5 SATS test and the Y6 one. Y6 is appreciably harder to get the same level.

I find the opposite! In fact, I give my Year 5's a Year 6 SATS paper at the end of year 5 as their Optional SATS as I find the level is more reflective of what they can do.

Thanks Spanieleyes. We do have some extra support for him in maths. Not huge amounts at school, as they say that he's not far enough behind to qualify. He has some specialist help outside school but only an hour once a week. He is less upset by maths now, which is progress in itself.

For year 6, good old fashioned column methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are key, with secure knowledge of times tables to help with fractions, understanding of decimals and measures will go a long way!

Thanks. Timetables are pretty stressful, unfortunately.