Mastery in reading comprehension. What, if anything, comes next?

[CliveCussler]

So dd (yr 6) just came home with her report which shows mastery as the level for reading comprehension.

We have parents evening next week so I'm just wondering what I should be asking or expecting to hear.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

May I ask what people (teachers in the loop) know about what SATs will be like in a few years time, if anything, under the new curriculum? I know they don't matter for the child particularly and it's more to show how the school is doing at challenging and teaching children appropriately, but I have some concerns about DD and her future progress/level of challenge and I would like to know what's ahead. Some people said that there would be just one paper for all Y6 children. Will that be something that is able to show how far a child has progressed beyond the age-related expectations (in a L6 kind of style but obv not called that as it won't exist?) or will it be more aimed at children demonstrating that they've met the expectations for that year group?

THIS IS NOT A STEALTH BOAST, it's a genuine question from the mother of a child who is fully aware how well the child is doing. My kid is very clever (unstealth there) and keen on school and learning, I know that, I am not asking how well she is doing. I know she is doing more than well. It's really nothing I've done, btw, I haven't taught her anything in particular, she just came like that.

I ask because I've just had a parents' evening for DD and her teacher told me that under the old expectations she would easily be at a 4a in maths, writing and reading (she is in Y3) though I expect she'd be lower in other areas as she has pretty much no interest in history or geography. I am just wondering how she will be dealt with in the years ahead and if she will be given work that's appropriate if all children are sitting the same paper. Or will that paper be something that contains material that most children won't have covered or be expected to have covered? I would have concerns about that too, not for my daughter but for other children as it doesn't seem very fair to them. So far the level of challenge has been fairly minimal for my daughter, which doesn't matter too much atm, as she has plenty of other areas in her life to explore at the age of 8. It is not currently a big problem as she is very good at finding things to think about for herself and also loves helping others in the class when she has finished her work. But I wonder if it's going to be a problem when the class is oriented towards one test for everyone and wonder also if that test will appropriately challenge a child who has already met quite a lot of the expectations for the end of primary school in Y3. It's not a pushy school or one with a particularly privileged or advantaged catchment, they don't teach to the test as far as I can tell (which I like). But they do have to demonstrate progress and most children are not working at a similar level right now (I guess that may change with time and hope it does as it would be really nice for DD to have peers at a similar academic level). I do realise that this is a v minority problem!

I just wondered if people who have more inside knowledge than me might know what the tests will be like when my daughter gets towards the end of her primary years.

Historically all children in Y6 sat the same paper ... The level calculated on the score achieved and the thresholds which were set each year (when the tests were first introduced they covered levels 3-6 then for many years there was only a level 3-5 test with a separate level 6 test is fairly new) so a single test isn't new.

Oh OK, that is slightly reassuring, particularly as many of the staff have been there for a long time so will hopefully be up for making sure DD has stuff to do that is new to her and will be (I hope) experienced in that. I hope that DD will continue to get some level of having to think about stuff in her work. I am just slightly worried that if the focus is on getting children through a paper aimed a lot lower then she will switch off a bit. I want her to keep on wanting to learn and not feel like it's not worth bothering.

The new expectations for Y6 have elements of the old KS3 curriculum so plenty of challenge

That's very good to hear. Thank you! She is forging ahead at the moment and basically invented simultaneous equations last week on a homework problem that was clearly intended to be solved by trial and error. So I do sometimes worry that she won't be challenged. The teacher wrote on her work 'how did you learn how to do algebra?!' but she really did come up with the method herself. I did then tell her how to set it out as she was confusing herself with her notation. But she worked out the entire method entirely alone. I was pretty impressed. And her dad couldn't understand any of it when she explained it to him.