Year 2 SATS

[Thejokeisover]

Still very confused about year 2 exam.
Are they Sats? What do they do?

Your child's "level" at the end of Year 2 is based on teacher assessment. Most children will sit SATS papers, the results of which will inform this assessment.
Most schools make the actual sitting of papers very low key (my DC were told they were doing a "fun quiz" and got a drink and biscuit afterwards).

it is teacher assessment (from throughout the year - so they look for skills to be demonstrated consistently) with some tests thrown in to help with that. It really shouldn't be stressful. My daughter has done a maths one and found it fun! I don't know of any parents saying the children didn't like it, I think they all found it quite exciting and interesting but then it depends how the teacher puts it to them. if they say big scary test then the children will think that, if they say they are going to do something exciting then the children will believe that.

I think Mrz said on an earlier thread that she had had children score say a level 3 in the SATS test but marked their overall level as a 2a or whatever because it is what they are consistently achieving not what they can get sometimes.

Ok, so, i will not know what the day of the exam is, athere is not a real exam, right?
When will we know the results then?

I am expecting to be told in the end of year report in July although we do get online reporting so if it has been updated before then then I suppose we could log on and find out sooner.

The children might get told they will be doing a test tomorrow or next week but that won't be all it is based on so it isn't like taking an 11+ Yr6 SATS.

OK, all clear now! Thank you so much!

Hi Thejokeisover:

Can I just add, because you clearly are treating this as an 'exam' of your child that it may help you more if rather than see it as a high stakes test of your child it may help to view this as a means of the state ascertaining whether the school is doing their job.

The high stakes test: 11+ (if you're in a grammar school area that is fiercely competitive) - pass it you go to the grammar school/ fail you don't.

KS2 SATs - high stakes for school because of league tables/ and benchmark of 65% of all pupils achieving NC L4+ in english/ maths combined.

for your child this is important because some schools stream/ set pupils on this result (sometimes also administering their own testing on visit days as well).

I think rather than get worked up about these tests the attitude to take is that if the school is doing their job by your child this should be a breeze (the threshold isn't that nose bleedingly high - despite various teachers here complaining that NC L4 is a high standard - NC L4b (so a secure Nc L4 pupil) is now considered secondary ready. see this: www.gov.uk/government/news/step-change-in-ambition-for-primary-schools-will-raise-standards-for-all.

so as a parent - basically wanting your child in a position to go on to secondary school and thrive - you should be wanting your child to aim to achieve NC L4b or higher (and worse yet the terminology for all this is changing so you're going to have to learn the new system & schools can use their own system independently). So really what you should be worrying about over KS2 (Y3 - Y5) is whether they're on track for that or not.

The test shouldn't be an issue if the school has done its job well by your child.

HTH

PSBD OP is talking about KS1 SATS in Year 2.

Thanks redsky & sorry The joke

I think I lost a paragraph out which should have read:

I agree that KS1 SATs (which are largely teacher assessed) really aren't a huge issue or anything you should be preparing for.

The rest was written because I got the impression 'thejokeisover' was feeling she should be preparing her child for things like SATs tests - so I was just trying to explain that during the course of primary the only high stakes test (and it is totally optional) is the 11+

KS2 SATs may influence streaming upon entry to secondary school.

Mainly I was just trying to get across that if your school is doing a good job by your child you shouldn't have to do anything exceptional/ additional in preparation for these tests.

I should add that the fact that our school opted to teach only English/ Maths for five months and have endless practice SATs exams and SATs buster photocopied homework sheets sent home by the hundreds - is very definitely a sign of a school who's waited until the last minute to get pupils where they should be.

They did indeed get 97% to NC L4 English/ Maths combined - but the kids didn't enjoy being dragged there and such an all out last minute effort totally skewing Year 6 doesn't strike me as a school that delivered curriculum in a steady, professional way over KS2.