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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Is Year 6 a waste of time

15 replies

julienetmum · 01/10/2006 21:46

Dh (a peripatetic teacher) pointedd out an article on teletext that said a private grammar school was taking pupils in year 6 because most of them learnt nothing new in primary school due to the endless SATS revision. Apparently the school found that children were becoming bored and dispirited becasue of this.

I have to say I agree with what they are saying in a lot of cases. There are a few maverick primary schools I have come across who are different but dh finds the SATS year completely pointless in most schools he visits.

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SNORcacKLE · 01/10/2006 21:54

thing is, yr 6 is often worse in private schools as not only do a lot of them do SATs in the summer but also entrance exams for senior schools around xmas.

notagrannyyet · 01/10/2006 22:04

Lots of my friends and family have children in private schools. They say that Yr6 in a private school is one long 'crammer' for the senior school entrance exam.

hulababy · 01/10/2006 22:07

DD's prep school don't do the SATs; just the entrance exam at end of Prep 4. They still do lots of other stuff though from what I know of other children who have been there - lots of non-academic things especially.

PretendFriend · 01/10/2006 22:11

When DS2 was in Y6 the entire spring term and beginning of the summer one was spent doing SAT practice papers, and he got terminally bored; but the other Y6 class at his school didn't, so it must depend how paranoid the class teacher is about the results.

Once they were over the kids had 2 good months but yes, it was very tedious.

Original poster

julienetmum · 01/10/2006 22:25

I have chosen dd's school partly on the strength of the fact that they don't do SATS.

Entrance exam preparation will be covered in class as part of the normal timetable, they have sessions set aside for verbal and non verbal reasoning.

The other private school in the area is a bit of a SATS factory from what I gather

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brimfull · 01/10/2006 23:13

Completely ,yes.When they get to yr 7 it's a real shocker as they haev a huge workload to catch up.

RTKangaMummy · 01/10/2006 23:37

DS was in class 6 last year

and it is deffo SATs all the time from sept til may

and no prep for the 11+

And DS was predicted 5 in all the SATs but still had to spend ages practising

WHY??????????????

And he got 5 in everything but wasted months and months

CHILDREN DON'T LEARN BY BEING TESTED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

btw all my family are teachers past and present so this post is not against teachers but against the system

Original poster

julienetmum · 02/10/2006 00:04

Thought I'd copy the article

Dr Bernard Trafford, Headmaster of Wolverhampton Grammar School, is taking pupils a year early because he believes children waste their final year in primary school revising for national tests. Dr Trafford says hundreds of pupils were arriving at the school feeling ?dispirited? after spending twelve months being coached through key stage two exams rather than learning new skills. Dr Trafford said it was a symptom of Government pressure to meet exam targets.

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SNORcacKLE · 02/10/2006 00:37

To be fair, I think a year of consolidation is good for some children - just not the bright grammar school types. When I was 11 and moved to senior school in the first year we didn't really learn anything as the school wanted to make sure we'd all covered the basics - in those days there was more variability in what had been done in primary, so year 7 ended up being the consolidation year. Although that was slightly less boring as it wasn't targetted at national tests, it was still there. These days, since everyone has done SATs to death by the time they get to senior school they don't have to worry about wondering what's been covered at primary, so can get straight on with learning new stuff.

Loshad · 02/10/2006 04:47

Mine are in a private school ,and they don't do sats in Y6, nor do they cram for entrance exams as it's a 4-18 school, and entrance to senior school is based on performance over time in junior school. New entrants have to sit entrance tests though in Jan.

juuule · 02/10/2006 08:11

I'm not sure that it is consolidation though. My dd seemed to spend from christmas in y6 doing endless previous sats papers and being shown in fine detail how to get the most marks out of a question. Not to waste time answering some questions with full sentences as it didn't give extra marks and that type of thing. PE and games were suspended until after sats. After sats week they didn't really seem to do much.

mell2 · 02/10/2006 11:01

Yes, have to agree. From Sept to May sats revision. From May to July year 6 school trip and work to do with that. dd seemed to go weeks without doing maths and literacy after sats had finished. I think it must have taken weeks in year 7 to catch up.

Flamebat · 02/10/2006 11:14

F*ckin SATS. DD loves preschool, I know she'll love school - but SATs are one of the biggest things that makes me lean towards Home Ed!

cece · 02/10/2006 11:17

My friend took her DD on holiday while they did SATs in Year 2...

Flamebat · 02/10/2006 11:30

You can just refuse to let them do them

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