How many get all level 6?

[Verycold]

That's what dd would like to know. She got level 6 maths but not reading or writing.

proudmama well of course tests are a part of life. What is important is how you did, did you pass, did you get the grades to enable you to move on to whatever your next challenge is.

A 10/11 wanting to know how many children got "all 6's" is not perfectly natural. It sounds a tad obsessive. I suspect it is her parent who is the keener to know.

My DS and the rest of his cohort could not be less interested in who got what. Too busy being children.

Proud,

Secondary schools HAVE to measure progress from y6 SATs - in the same way as junior schools HAVE to measure progress from infant Y2 NC levels. They can't 'restate' the base line by doing their own tests and depressing the starting point in this way.

Raisinboys - that may well be a boy thing.

My DD is year 5, and she and all her friends have been discussing what levels they got in their Level 5 optional sats. They seem almost obsessed with it. Then there are her friends from year 6, who have all been uploading photographs onto Instagram.

I find it all quite amusing, because as a secondary school teacher, I know they are not reliable at all. I keep reminding my daughter of this, but she likes to participate in the mutual obsession of sats grades with her friends.

At the moment, it seems like it is not possible for them to even contemplate thinking about another topic.

It is most odd.

Wow! I guess it must be lecherrs

Hmm...dd, also in Y5, is not at all interested in what levels everyone got in optional sats. She was marginally interested in her own, in the sense that she wanted them to confirm her belief that she was doing well, and then not heard them mentioned since.

I think if her friends were obsessed, she would be too - don't get me wrong, she is far from immune from obsession. It just depends what the focus is for the class at any time stares at the small multicoloured bands littering the desk and it is not levels, yet, for these girls.

The school doesn't make a huge thing about levels either, mind you. That probably makes a difference.

LOL at it being a girl thing and boys not interested in what others got! Certainly not my experience with my dcs' year groups. If anything, ds was more interested than dd.

My DS did level 6 English, Maths and Science last year and passed them with flying colours, so it can happen. He was 7a and b this year.

We're getting there - we now know it's between 1 and 900 :)

According to my old year 6 teacher (who now teaches my baby brother) I am still the only student she has ever had get all level 6's and that was in 1999, before they stopped and then reintroduced the level 6 papers, this is at a school that gets more level 6's than most, so I think it's safe to say hardly anybody does.

We know it's between 1 and 900 out of c.280,000 Adikia - that is hardly anyone :)

I'm amazed at all the talk of level 6!!

My dd got level 4 in maths and level 5 in all others. She was so amazingly proud that she could barely breathe when she phoned me at work to tell me- and she kept squealing.

She has worked amazingly hard and put in loads of effort and we are proud as anything. Results have been photocopied to death and posted out to all old relatives

How do you celebrate a level 6??!!

Levels really quite meaningless. I know a child going to Tiffin Girls' School who was assessed at a level 4 in English writing at the end of Year 6. Level 5 in maths (but obviously brilliant at VR and NVR!)

We laughed, said well done and got on with life.

DD is able, as is DS. L6 represents 'expected' for them, particularly in Maths - so in many ways probably much LESS admirable than your DD's L4 and 5s. It isn't inherently more 'celebration worthy' to get one level rather than another - L3 for some children might represent far,. far more cause for celebration than DD's level 6s.

Dd was told by her teacher that she was 3 marks off a level 5 in maths- she was so happy it was unreal!!

Agree with teacher

ohtobe anonymous, Given the ease and prevalence of coaching for both NVR and VR, I would suggest that perhaps her VR / NVR markes - and her place at Tiffin - are probably more meaningless than her levels...

Teacher, I concur completely!!

I was under the impression that super selective schools like TGS took the absolute 'cream of the crop' of students, but this child is by no means in that category. And yet she was offered, and has accepted a place at a school that didn't offer to my friend's daughter (who was not tutored for VR and NVR) but is simply one of the most intelligent, creative and amazing children I know (who also scored level 6 across the board in SATS btw)

Slightly off-piste with this comment, but what correlation is there between the so -called 'natural intelligence' supposed to be measured by VR and NVR and outcomes in terms of maths/English levels??

Just to add that some schools do not allow children who have done the level 6 work to actually take the level 6 SAT exam, so the numbers who do get it, could be even larger. My BFs DD was level 5a SATs but at the end of year 7 is level 7a. Yes - two whole levels in one year at secondary school. Seems very odd to me that a primary school would teach the level 6 work and then refuse entry to the SATs exam, but this is what happened. This may be a case where the child really was better than the primary school's assessment of her!

tametortie My mum let me choose a small present (I chose a fountain pen) and Grandma bought me a milky way, same as all my siblings have got for every exam/good report/other achievement as my family reward effort rather than actual grade

Saying that, baby bro got 3 level 5's and was bought 4 mars bars by Grandma yesterday, which is clear favouritism, especially as I got uni results this week and didn't get a present or chocolate.

Can I ask (because DC is too young to be there yet) what is the thing about not entering for level 6?

I'd assumed that you got a SATs test, and did it and then depending on how many you got right, you got a level as a 'mark' - like you might get an A to E on a GCSE.

Is it instead discrete papers that are pass/fail? Or is there a paper that can get you a level 1c to 5a depending on your score, and then a separate pass/fail for level 6?

Also, why does it stop at 6 when there are levels 7 and 8?

It would make sense to me to have one paper that could give you, say, level 2 to 5, and one that could give you 5 to 8. Have I got totally the wrong end of the stick?

Most children will sit a paper that levels from levels 3-5 in reading SPAG and maths. A few children will be below the level of the test and will be teacher assessed only. Some children will be considered to be working at level 6 so there is an option to enter them for an additional level 6 paper in those subjects.

The levels do go up to 7 and 8 but they are used to assess all children from year 1 to 9. Levels 7 and 8 would be considered above average for a 14 year old so it is very unlikely that many, if any children will be working at that level. When there were tests at the end of KS3 rather than just teacher assessment, there were tests levelled at 4-6, 5-7 and 6-8 depending on subject. I suppose a teacher could use that as evidence towards their teacher assessment level (which is uncapped and can go up to level 8 or beyond) but it wouldn't be externally marked or used for te test level given in year 6.

Thanks - so there are two papers?

It seems odd to me to have a second paper for 'above level 5' and not use it to test for levels 7 and 8 - they might as well.

It seems odd to me to have a second paper for 'above level 5' and not use it to test for levels 7 and 8 - they might as well.

I've wondered that too, i doubt there are many children who are capable of 7's and 8's in year 6 so maybe they don't think its worth adding the extra pressure? I mean you hear of children who are hothoused to get level 6 so there would no doubt be parents that would try to push their children too hard.

That's true, sadly - I hadn't thought of that.

So we don't get an accurate record of how able the most able are because society doesn't want the kids to be put under pressure by, er, society. Us grown ups should just grow up.

(Interestingly society seems accepting of putting pressure on children whose 'natural level' is less than 6 to get a higher mark)