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%!

Oh and if you're white and seen as m/c wanting your dc pushed is seen as greedy and hot housing.If you are poor,in a minority group or immigrant it's seen as admirable.On here in spades and in R/L.Just saying.It drives me bats.Really weird mind set.

And we wonder why kids in other countries over take ours.

"I think extension work and special opportunities should go to children who are capable and willing to enjoy them on a case by case basis, not have some label hung round their neck for all time."

This. And this again!

Yes re the extension work and enrichment courses every child should get that regardless of ability or wealth.

As an aside I think there is a missed opportunity re enrichment courses during the hols and school term.My dc has done some lovely things,my other dc are just as deserving and if priced reasonably I'd happily pay for the other dc to do creative writing,reading,science etc courses.

There is nothing anywhere and in this culture of holiday fines with only the wealthier families being able to go on holiday I feel enrichment experiences(not just sport and music) is even more crucial.

My DS got level 6 in Reading, sPag and maths but didn't get into local grammar school - despite doing quite a few practise papers and feeling it went well on the day.

My DD got level 6s in SPaG, reading, writing and maths. The benifit of doing level 6 SATs meant that she was stretched in order to grasp level 6 concepts, which meant that she wasn't board!

G&T was just an example of an ability label and I picked that one because I was in a hurry and it's a bit of a classic, but I could just as easily have linked something aimed at 'top set' i.e. for that ideological camp the target is anything that marks any child out as better in academic terms. Having asserted some tosh from a field they don't understand, the first link goes on to do just that.

Since we're here though, resources are not distributed equally across the ability spectrum and the pendulum had swung much too far away from the brightest e.g. that Sutton Trust report from a couple of years ago had some straight-talking teachers using words like "neglected" when the G&T program was supposed to be in place and working. Despite their many sins, Gove and Wilshaw have done some things that should help mitigate this issue a little, however state school and exams are made for the middle and the system will likely always struggle to meet the needs of both ability extremes. Resources are of course thrown at the left side of the curve, albeit to little apparent effect. L4 and grade C borderliners have long been the resource winners because of the league-tables.

Meanwhile DD's primary was in the extreme inclusion camp with a serious anti-labelling attitude and it didn't work because the majority of children are not that stupid and school does not exist in a vacuum. The very best friend who struggles with reading knows how she compares to others and has labelled herself 'rubbish' i.e. a reading failure. DD the 'great reader' is a seriously premature cynic and courtesy of attention and process-praise being doled out in inverse proportion to ability she ended up with a quite mixed-up self-belief problem i.e. an occasional pat on the head for absolute attainment from school-side would have helped avoid that.

"The benifit of doing level 6 SATs meant that she was stretched in order to grasp level 6 concepts,"

Same here where some L6 work was overdue by Y6. Not that there's a great deal they can do to teach L6 Reading, but like DD I was quite content with her tackling some quite serious texts (that you certainly don't find on the high-ability 14 year-old 'top 10' book lists) instead piddling about yet again in pursuit of the one or two marks that would give her a perfect L3-L5 score.

Dweck, the US researcher few seem to read directly before dragging her in to support banning ability labels, advocates the very obvious antidote to 'fixed mindsets' and that is to have children routinely working above their 'comfort zone' i.e. what we all mean when we talk about 'stretch' and 'challenge'.