Level 6 SATS

[Girlyheaven38]

Hi was just wondering if any pupils gained a level 6 in the sats reading test this year..? Apparently many pupils who were consistently gaining level 6 in the teacher assessment did not gain it in the actual test and national results suggest the overall results were less than 0.5%!

Hi thanks for this tiggytape.. have just been a bit baffled with it all!! The ludicrous pressure the children in DD2s class were put under plus the difference between the marks received in practice level 6 papers in class and the eventual results! DD2 received level 6 in both maths and SPAG which was amazing as these aren't really her strong areas and was surprised and a bit put out that she didn't get one in reading which is her strong area. In addition to the fact that she was coming home with 2 papers on average to do at home in the 3 weeks running up to the tests! Beg to think the reading test is set too high or the maths and SPAG are set too low. Far too much pressure and expectation to put on 10-11yr olds!

The expectations aren't too high. The expectations are that level 6 is the level a 14 year old should achieve.

The point of 11 year olds sitting it is to make sure the most able are stretched and challenged.

I've seen a couple of secondary English teachers say this year's KS2 SATS L6 Reading was very hard when held up against their concept of L6. Which is very odd, because it's typically the other way around.

As a Y6 teacher myself I would say the L6 reading paper is harder than the L6 maths or SPAG. It's also worth noting that the reading test followed a new layout/format this year and so any practice tests may not have been exactly as the real test was arranged and, for some children, this may have an impact?!

"The point of 11 year olds sitting it is to make sure the most able are stretched and challenged."

No it isn't. It's another stick to beat teachers with, and a sop to middle class parents.

Problem is without looking towards level 6 for those very near 5 or who have got level 5 in year 5/6 pre Sats there is no incentive to keep pushing them.

My dc has had no guided reading sessions all summer term,no input whatsoever as regards home reading material and booster extension lessons stopped as soon as Ofsted sailed up the road.I guess there is little incentive to push such children if it's already job done.They're hardly a priority.

Focusing on level 6 as a goal(however hard to attain) ensures all kids are pushed right up until they leave primary and not just those who will be borderline 5 or in danger of not getting a 4 come Sats in year 6.

But you can see why parents get fixated on 6s.If your kid is in a coasting school who can get enough 5s with buggar all effort and you don't think your kid is being pushed you'll want them to at least aim for the next level.

Out of interest I'm guessing there are no sub levels in the year 6 a Sats?So if your child is very near a 5c end of year 5/in beginning of year 6 and has made enough progress from ks1 Sats there is very little incentive for a school to aim any higher for ks2 Sats ie resources,priorities and time will focused elsewhere. So such children can in effect coast for much of year 5 and 6.

"But you can see why parents get fixated on 6s.If your kid is in a coasting school who can get enough 5s with buggar all effort and you don't think your kid is being pushed you'll want them to at least aim for the next level."

Why?

Because if it's pretty much job done as regards 5s by year 6 some will want assurance that their dc aren't just going to put their feet up prior to Sats and will be worked hard right up until the end.

If I had a child in my class who made no progress in a year it wouldn't matter what level they were, I would still be hauled over the coals!!

However what I can't teach are maturity and life experiences, children will aquire these at their own rate. So if this is what is holding a child back from achieving level 6 ( and it usually is) then no amount of booster groups/additional support/targets set will make any difference.

My DS got it in reading, but 5 in the others. The weird thing is he isn't what you'd call a bookworm. I'll be thrilled if he actually finishes the two books he chose for summer holiday reading; no way would he be interested in the summer reading challenge!

I guess you mean level 6 reading.Some kids are mature for their age and if able readers are reading at an advanced level very early on and encounter consistent stretching in the years prior to year6 surely a 6 isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

As regards the other subjects(maths,Spag) I'm guessing maturity isn't needed so much.

They aren't coasting, they are growing up.

As the parent of a Y3 who can do her sisters SATs practice paper with ease and was top in
Literacy all through primary this is hard to get to grips with, but as the mother of a Y11 and a Y8 it makes total sense.

Senior school English and primary school English are very different subjects.

The breadth of styles of writing the students read and write and the way they are expected to analyse them is completely different. As DD2 has been heard to complain "we don't write stories any more". (She does, she's taken to inflicting fan fiction on anyone daft enough to read it)

Despite being pretty much at the top of set 1, she got L5a at the end Y7 and then L6b and finally L6a by the end of Y8.

This is how it should be, if L6 is the average for Y9. Then the above average DCs should get it in Y8. It was never ever designed as a target for Y6.

Oh I should add DD1 is dyslexic, her literacy grades are all over the place and I have fingers tightly crossed she got her B - very borderline due to that bastard Gove removing speaking and listening.

I guess you mean level 6 reading.Some kids are mature for their age and if able readers are reading at an advanced level very early on and encounter consistent stretching in the years prior to year6 surely a 6 isn't beyond the realms of possibility. Yes, I did mean reading. Emotional maturity and life experiences aren't achieved by consistent stretching, they are achieved through time and personal development

As regards the other subjects(maths,Spag) I'm guessing maturity isn't needed so much. Which is why the percentage of those achieving level 6 is much higher in these subjects.

There's so much to learn in yeqr 6 that isn't academic.

There is no real advantage to getting level 6s early- you'll still do GCSEs at the same time.

@tiggytape: "And some years timings are an issue."

Conflicting instructions relating to timings were a serious issue for L6 Reading this year. Perhaps that's why they shoved the threshold up i.e. an artless attempt to compensate for a problem (they claimed wasn't a problem) that would punish children who didn't get the extra time.

Still it's only SATS and whether secondary spends much time figuring out what they can do as opposed to assuming what they can't do looks like the much bigger issue.

Such as Hak?In reading in particular if your dc are already avid avid readers who read a wide breadth and have done so for a very long time?

Also you could say that re any level for anything.

What should those who are capable be doing and is it ok to expect higher levels in subjects such as maths or Spag but just not reading?

Just asking as genuinely interested.

I do feel there can be a tendency in some schools to not push those who can easily get 5s- because there is no need to.How do you stop that if 6s should be forgotten?

@ Hakluyt, my quite analytical summer-born was the class comprehension queen who had been knocking out near-perfect L3-L5 scores for quite a while, thus tackling some L6 Reading questions instead was a definite Good Thing[tm]. She learnt some new tricks, acquired some new concepts from some more advanced texts, added one of the source books to her must-read list and generally seemed to enjoy it.

'Quite analytical' does her no favours though, because logically defensible correct answers are not the same as correct answer to a Reading SAT question.

@ SeagullsAndSand, letting high attainers attain more highly apparently makes lower attaining children feel like failures. Or the high attainers might decide they're Bright[tm] and that absolutely always ends in fixed mindsets, unrealised potentials and tears. Or [insert Kafka-esque excuse here].