Ks2 sats week 2015

[Catbat77]

I have a very nervous dd this morning, wanted to hear other parents thoughts or experiences this week!

HowDoesThatWork - they don't count sublevels, or work off raw scores? i.e. 3c to 5a is more than 2 levels of improvement.

I was under the impression that sublevels are of no interest whatsoever to the powers that be. Children go from level 3 to level 5, hence schools not liking to grade children a level 3 unless they are a secure level 3 (ie at least a 3b).

The thing about SATs results

Dd2 enjoyed doing the level 6 papers ( strange child) even though they had no extra tuition for the English .She does love a challenge though.However I really wish she had been challenged all the way through primary school.Their school reported a maximum of 3 for Ks1 results,no 4's were allowed so any level 6's will look really good on paper.
SATs don't matter - my eldest was put into sets at the end of year 7 depending on her exam results.The only thing was that Science was cancelled that year ( in year 6) and hence dd ( new to the school and an unknown) was given a teacher assessed level of 4c.This followed her through to secondary school where she was given very low targets and exceeded them brilliantly .Given that she wants to be a Vet and is on course for A*'s its all totally spurious.

As I understand it, it depends on what you are looking at. If you are looking at 'expected progress' then they only look at full levels. So a child going from 3c to 5a is counted as expected progress, as is 3a to 5c.

The Average points score progress and value added do use sublevels. But even here, more is better, particularly if you have a small number of children who have made less than expected progress. It certainly doesn't pay for schools to just get children to their target grade from ks1.

BreconBeBuggered - that's hilarious!

canny1234, I also thought children were only allowed a 3 at the end of year 2. That is certainly our school's policy.

Ks1 assessment is based on teacher assessment and there is no ceiling on the level you can give, providing you have the evidence that the child is working consistently at that level. It is astonishingly rare though and like level 6 at ks2 probably more common in maths than English.

The tests only go up to level 3, but those aren't the reported levels.

I don't think you can get 3c. If I recall correctly, there is a gap between 2a & 3b.

Brecon - tears rolling down my face

You can get a 3c, it's just not convenient to.

rabbit stew. You can have a child working at 3c or 3a as much as you can in any other level (given that sublevels never officially existed). It's just that only level 2 is officially reported as sublevels at ks1, and has the point score adjusted accordingly. Everything else just has the level reported e.g. 1, 2, 4 so the point score used is the one for the level.

Which, as rabbit stew says, does make it inconvenient when the same expected aps is given for children at the bottom and top of level 3.

How are the ks2 results reported (both to schools and to parents?) Is it just as levels or does anyone get a more detailed breakdown? DS seems to think that schools will get their marks although he wasn't sure whether children would or not.

Brecon

Thank you for that. Thank you thank you thank you. You get a

MirandaWest - 2 years ago, we just got the levels, not even the sublevels for DS1.

He got a level 5b for reading in year 5 and he got a level 5 for reading in year 6, so it was impossible to tell if he'd made any improvement at all.

You can ask the school for the raw scores - they might give them to you - and you can use them to work out how well your child really did.

I didn't bother though, and I don't know of anyone else who did ask for the raw scores. The SATS results are distributed in the last week of term and by the time the next term starts, your child is busy adjusting to life at secondary school and SATS just don't seem relevant at all.

Love that Brecon!

I'm not particularly bothered about DSs raw scores but I think he might be. In maths at any rate

Lljkk - yes, it does, actually, and a violin lesson instead of PE also won't fulfil statutory requirements.

I am equally as pissed of that my ds misses one out of five maths lessons for his ukelele lesson. I would like music lessons to be done in their own right, not instead of anything. It shouldn't be either or.

All children are entitled to receive a broad and balanced curriculum.

Feenie, but what should everyone else do when your son is having his ukelele lesson?

feenie

I really want to put my son in guitar, but at his school its during maths when they do music.

I hate that I'm ruining his opportunity to grow up, go on Britain's Got Talent, join a boy band and buy me a mansion with his millions. I wish they did the music after school. Can't understand how the teachers don't get pissed off by it.

I don't know if music is supposed to connect the same synapses in the brain (that make you good at maths) or something.

Brecon thank you for that. It captures the sheer ridiculousness of SATs and OFSTED perfectly.

Our results came as whole levels with exam level and teacher assessed levels. Some parents asked for raw scores but our school wouldn't release them as they felt it could lead to some gloating/dissatisfaction. They did tell me dd's results were 'good' level 5s and she had done herself proud which she was happy with.

gleegeek - would a freedom of Information request apply here?

That UTube clip is so funny

(and I'm one of the bloody governors, breathing down their necks).

Gleegeek - I was wrong about the FOI request, but it looks like your school had no right to refuse that information, if it was a maintained school.

They can only refuse if the parents were asking for the results before the publication date or releasing the info might do someone serious harm. (I think it would be extremely unlikely that a parent boasting would cause serious harm!)

ico.org.uk/for-the-public/schools/pupils-info/

"Feenie, but what should everyone else do when your son is having his ukelele lesson?"

Most the music teachers we meet seem to have own children, so not available for after school lessons unless completely private.