Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

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

Flip

Original poster

SATS L6 Maths

22 replies

TeddTess · 03/05/2015 12:44

hi, dd is due to sit L6 maths
this weekend's homework included things like feet, yards, gallons, pints, inches etc...
it is just the next couple of tests in the mental maths workbook
surely they don't need to know how many pints in a gallon, feet in yards etc..?

and if they do, WHY? i had to look it up on google to help her

TIA

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

MrsHathaway · 03/05/2015 12:47

To manipulate interesting times tables in a real-world context.

My Y6 equivalent was to do sums in £sd ... decades after decimalisation!

RitaCrudgington · 03/05/2015 12:48

It's handy general knowledge if she's ever going to read anything written in the past or the USA, and it's easy to find out so why not?

Original poster

TeddTess · 03/05/2015 13:04

ok so she needs to know

12 inches in a foot (30cm)
3 feet in a yard (roughly a metre)
8 pints in a gallon (roughly 4 litres)

i'm not going to start on US gallons being different RitaCrudgington

OP posts:

mrz · 03/05/2015 14:00

It's usually about knowing that a litre is more than a pint and a mile is further than a kilometre and an ounce us heavier than a gram on the rare occasions imperial measure crops up

Original poster

TeddTess · 03/05/2015 14:47

thanks mrz exactly what i needed to know

OP posts:

TeenAndTween · 03/05/2015 17:13

A litre of water's a pint and three quarters.

Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram.

It's 5 miles along the lane, but 8 kilometres back again.

A metre measures 3 foot 3 - it's longer than a yard you see.

TeenAndTween · 03/05/2015 17:15

Oh and a block of butter is about 8oz or a bit less than 250g, but I don't know a rhyme for that.

rumbleinthejungle · 03/05/2015 17:34

Teen and Tween I always quote those and have never heard anyone else use them. I remember reading them on a cornflakes box!

TeenAndTween · 03/05/2015 18:31

rumble I thought I was imagining the cornflakes box thing so didn't write it! It comes from being a child in the early 70s I think (for me at least) when everything was switching over - or so they thought! I never studied imperial units at school, it was all meant to be disappearing. Now my DD1 has to know some conversions for GCSE.

HowDoesThatWork · 04/05/2015 01:45

Bin the homework.

Knowledge like that is not required. The three papers you have to look at 2012, 13, 14 have hardly any L6 in. I think the L6 KS2 maths paper is best thought of as L5 extension papers.

A bit of algebra, use of formulae, ratio, proportion, prime numbers, correlation, conversion graphs,... Have a look at the papers.

mrz · 04/05/2015 05:42

No but it has appeared in the level 3-5 paper in the past so could easily pop up in a level 6 paper ...

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 04/05/2015 05:59

Imperial units are still widely used, certainly in day to day conversation even if they are disappearing from shops and cookbooks. Pint glass, weight in stones, height in feet and inches, distances in miles.

mrz · 04/05/2015 06:10

I agree it is useful general knowledge if nothing more

cece · 04/05/2015 06:38

From the National Curriculum

? understand and use equivalences between metric units and common imperial units such as inches, pounds and pints

cece · 04/05/2015 06:40

and

? convert between miles and kilometres

Iwantacampervan · 04/05/2015 07:24

Teen and Rumble - I use the rhymes too, I could only remember the ones about a litre and a metre. I'm sure there was another that didn't really rhyme - they were printed on cereal boxes.
Goes off to google...

LePetitMarseillais · 04/05/2015 09:51

My dc are doing the,level 6 maths and haven't been taught this.Really don't want to overload and confusd things now.It hasn't cropped up in any of the level 6 practice materials we've seen.Eek- what to do?

Original poster

TeddTess · 04/05/2015 09:53

that's why i was asking LePetitMarseillais the yards/gallons question on this weekend's homework has appeared out of nowhere.
i think the advice that it hasn't been on any of the recent past papers is good enough.

OP posts:

mrz · 04/05/2015 10:00

There's a thread on TES Primary discussing what needs to be taught and how likely a question will pop up.
I think many teachers will consider that it's quite low priority considering everything that needs to be taught.

Chewbecca · 04/05/2015 21:22

DS is sitting it too but I don't think he's covered this. lepetit what do you do? Absolutely nothing I think? If school haven't covered it, that's fine, I'll leave them to cover the syallabus as the see fit. Am I being idealistic?

goingmadinthecountry · 04/05/2015 22:42

I have absolutely no idea what dd has done for L6 maths. It was entirely her choice to take it - she's competitive. I'll support with stuff she brings home but don't want to load extra work on her. I also hope she has worked out from me that it's so much more important to be able to do stuff than to be classified as a particular level. As a teacher I hate it when children (from other schools) say they're a level whatever, just because they got it in a test. There's such competition to move up levels that I worry that children lack a secure grounding and understanding of subjects. Thank goodness this is the last year. Hopefully children will be less likely to compare themselves as very high emergings or whatever.

rabbitstew · 05/05/2015 08:59

They'll compare themselves as percentages, instead, goingmadinthecountry... not really an improvement, I don't think, as they can then be even more competitive with regards to SATs test results.

Flip