Why would you report final attainment to Y6 sometime w/c 14 July?

[PastSellByDate]

Hello there!

In following discussions on KS2 SATs (accepting some prefer NCT) and looking at the governments own schedule for KS2 SATs www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/278150/2014_KS2_assessmentandreportingarrangementsARA_DIGITAL_HO.pdf - which suggest results are available (thresholds published) 8 July 2014 -

I'm slightly perplexed why our school has issued a little addendum to their calendar for July saying that Y6 final attainments will be released sometime week commencing 14 July.

Why the delay? Does this imply there are problems?

They've been locked into lots of meetings and slow to open doors this week.

I'm now in a position where we get the end of year reports without KS2 SATs results, have end of year parent/ teacher meetings without KS2 SATs results and may only get these results on the last day of school for us (which is 18 July).

AIBU - or is this all a bit odd?

Our last day of school is the 18th. SATs were back in May. Our year end reports will be the children's SAT results which they have sat on for months. There will be no end of year parent/teacher meetings.

Surely the reports and parents evenings are to discuss how your DC have done all year, though? So you don't actually need the SATs results?

Even if the SATs results are not as expected, there's not a lot the teacher can do about it other than make pleased noises (better than expected) or mutter about having bad days (worse than expected).

Last year my DD's final report was issued once the school had received her SATs results so that they could comment on them.

That's the only reason i could think of whay there'd be a delay in getting yours.

When my school released SAT results very late (2nd to last day of school) it was because there were problems.

If there were no problems they could release them 8th July.

Our last day of school is the 18th. SATs were back in May. Our year end reports will be the children's SAT results which they have sat on for months. There will be no end of year parent/teacher meetings.

What do you mean? Y2 don't report SAT results and Y6's aren't back till July

Toomanyhouseguesrs if you're talking about Y6 SATs, the school has not 'sat on' the results. The school do not know the results yet and will not know until Tue- 8th July.

OP, it does take a little time to process all the results and get them out to parents, so it's probably not realistic to expect them on the 8th. However, it does seem as though 'wb the 14th' I'd quite slow. Why not just ask the teacher why it will take so long?

Until the 8th July schools don't know their year 6 "SAT" results if you mean year 2 it would be very stupid to submit end of year assessments in May when there are still months of teaching and learning ahead.

My DS got his year 6 SATs results in October. It was a year of marking chaos and his schools papers got lost. So a wait of a few days won't make much difference.

Level thresholds for ks2 SATS can vary significantly from year to year.

So while the school knows a raw score, they cannot apply that score to a particular level.

As far as I can see, the thresholds will depend on what spin the government wants to send out. Gutting for teachers if they're looking at marked tests which would last year have been well within a, say, 5c which this year might be a 4a. I don't understand why they aren't capable of setting a test that is pretty much standard from year to year in terms of mark boundaries.

I don't have any dc in year 6. My dc both sat something they refer to as "SATs". I assume these are optional sats marked by the school.

They are internal tests used by some schools as part of their overall assessment process and not reported in the way end of Key Stage levels are.

don't mean to hi-jack this thread but , I was surprised to receive my dc's KS1 (yr 2) SAT results today; but notice no one is on mn discussing any sats so I'm assuming we've been given them early?

Y2 SATs are different- schools schedule them at their convenience and they are marked in the school so there's no national 'results day' as there is for Y6. Also the test result should be used as part of the overall teacher assessment, it's not seen as important in its own right.

Parents of Y2 pupils will be receiving their levels around now, usually with the end of year report.

Hi

Just to say I am talking about Y6 KS2 SATs (NCT) results - and yes I am aware that only some scripts (I guess NC L3 - 5 Reading/ Maths) are with schools at the moment (as of today - 2 July) and understand completely that thresholds and externally marked scripts (NC L3-5 Spag/ all L6 papers) results won't be released until Tuesday 8 July.

I get that perhaps that day (8 July) the NCA website might be very slow and generating reports could be a long drawn-out process.

However this is just a cohort of 30 pupils. The neighbouring schools with cohorts of 60 and 90 pupils respectively, are releasing their SATs results on the 10th or 11th of July.

In our case the entire school year has been about SATs (see my post from December and long discussions: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/a1931449-Throwing-everything-at-Y6

Basically I've found this whole NCT/ SATs testing at end KS2 process odd from start to finish. DD1 has done nothing but revise for SATs and now the school are ridiculously spoiling the class - fieldtrips to amusement parks, days playing in the park, special outings, being pulled from class to help with new intake tours/ visits, etc... as some form of reward for endless revision/ test taking for 9 months.

Is it fair to suspect that if the cohort had done well results would be swiftly announced - but if there are problems (and I get it could be querying marks quite validly) or results are a disaster then schools tend to delay announcing the bad news?

They're delaying anouncing bad news so that parents can't query them.

They get away with this because it's Y6. The kids will be gone 1 or 2 days after they get their results. The HT is then unavailable for the 2 days and the pupil leaves.

V few parents will pursue it in Sep when their child has left.

It does not take that long to prepare the results. They can prepare it all now with just the space for the level not filled in. Threshold comes out, you look at paper, you assign a level. Takes maybe 2 minutes per child?

Even if they are disputing individual results they still need to give you the original results. Remarked papers won't be back for months and months. So withholding results for a day or two doesn't help.

But, as usual, there's nothing you can do. Schools do whatever they want. They are a law unto them self.

The point is they won't know what the news is good or bad until they get the results next week!

Absolutely untrue.

They don't know the threshold, but they know roughly what it will be. Eg the level 5 threshold is likely to be between 32-36. If a child (or most children) got below 30 it's exceedingly unlikely they got a 5.

So, they don't know the exact result of every child. They do know the results of most children.

Any who types levels because it 'might' be is a fool.

It's far more likely that the school have set their calendar a year in advance and set that date as a likely time to give out reports.

As for being 'a law unto themselves', the law says they have to give out the results by the end of term. That's the requirement.

I don't personally agree with that, and we are generally as excited as the children about the results and race to get them done on results day, even though there are always re-marks. Mainly because we're usually dying to congratulate them for working their socks off and we can't do that until they're reported.

That would be pure speculation on the part of the teacher ... if you talk to teachers (or read TES ) they are all anxiously awaiting the release of the threshold as they don't take anything for granted. The reading test this year, for exaple, had a very different format to previous years and teachers don't know how or if this will be reflected in thresholds.

I really hope you are correct about thresholds as this would make many teachers extremely happy.

DD2's school issues SATs results alongside their end of year reports - which are usually out the week before the last week of school, so approximately 10 school days before the end of term. The school then explicitly offers one to one appointments with teachers to discuss the results for those parents that would like one, but does not offer a blanket parents' evening. It's all in the calendar so parents know what to expect, there's no shenanigans.

Feenie:

Just to say the release of 'Final Attainments' was first mentioned on 2 July in the school newsletter and has never appeared in newsletters or on the website beforehand.

Up to now the school has always called these NCT examinations as KS2 SATs in all documents to parents.

The note is in small print at the very end of the newsletter with no announcement/ explanation of what Final Attainment might mean. Many parents at the school are EAL - there children are very fluent (Chinese/ Korean nationals) - but it was a Korean friend who saw this and said she didn't understand what it meant - was this about next target to be working toward and would it apply to Y6 anyway?

The wording on the release is: "Parents should expect to receive notification of final attainment levels sometime toward the end of week commencing 14 July."

So no Feenie - I can't help see this announcement on 2 July as the school saying 'Oh dear, we don't like the look of these results we've got back. Let's delay releasing them to parents.'

Hope I'm wrong - but very odd behaviour again at school doors this morning and very grim faced staff.

As I've said we've had 62% and 65% previously to NC L4+ combined English/ Maths at KS2 SATs - I don't know but I'm beginning to wonder does another near-floor or even below floor result mean special measures?

PSB I don't do the school run so can't gauge the mood in school, but it will be interesting to see how this year's Yr6 cohort do. They're only the second cohort to do SATs since we went 2-tier and last year's lot were abysmal - 62%, and it put the school in RI. It does sound as if your school may have issues...