I'm not alone am I? How can I help my stressed, overtested Y6 dd to cope with the relentless pressure that comes from the school. Grrrrrr

[northender]

Apologies in advance for the long post.
Just that really. I'm not alone am I? Ds did Y6 3 years ago at the same school and it just bears no resemblance to what is going on this year as a result of the new testing system.
She is bright and in the top set for most things but that, apparently, is not enough. Already this school year they have been tested several times in each subject, in the hall, under exam conditions. Today they got results of an arithmetic test. Dd got 80% which she was pleased with but was then told she had to resit it today and if she didn't achieve 88% then she would have to do another test type exercise for homework. She missed history this afternoon as a result, to do the resit. Last half term she missed 2 sessions of history/geography to try to improve her reading comprehension skills.
Dd takes everything to heart and has taken a couple of hours to calm down tonight. She was upset and angry.This is not an isolated incident and although I recognise that dd's temperament does not help her, I can't see how this level of pressure is helpful in the long run. She seems like such a tortured soul at times and I feel pretty helpless. We have discussed with school how much to heart she takes things but I'm not sure they really get it as her teacher said to her today "Don't go home worrying about it"
We do lots of hopefully distracting stuff with her at home which she loves. She helps me with cooking & baking, is helping dh research my family history and does sewing & all sorts of crafty things with my mum. These things aren't forced on her but things she loves to do. In terms of formal extra curricular stuff she does drama and music both of which she loves.
I genuinely don't feel that going into school again will help, but as much as we say to her that it's not all about results, the school say the complete opposite.

If you've got to the end of my post then thank you

That would be £60 per parent, happyminimalist.

Jeeesus. This is completely alien to me. My daughter is in year 6 in Wales and they're not doing anything like this. They do tend to send practice papers home in the month before the National Tests we get every year but that's about it. I can honestly say my girl would be absolutely in bits if she had to go through this. I think I'd have to take her out of school or move her for the sake of her mental health. Please do something about it OP - it's really not right. Your poor little girl

I think it's fair to say that the history of testing in Wales is very different!

Perhaps it's also worth considering www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11968066/Nicky-Morgan-100000-children-will-forced-to-re-sit-Sats-tests.html when advising keeping children off during tests.

I'm a year 6 teacher and agree that we have been 'dropped in the shit'. We are preparing children for an exam which is significantly harder than in previous years and the government will not tell us what score a child needs to get to be given the 'acceptable' standardised score of 100. And they won't tell us this until after the children have sat the test. So I have no idea, really, how well my children need to do. We have been issued with one sample paper for each subject. Whereas in previous years we have been able to have a good idea who would reach the desired level and who wouldn't, now it is much harder to know, and the effectiveness of my lovely school which works so hard for the childen is based so much on these tests. These children have been taught the new curriculum for two years, yet the trsts are testing them as if they're done it all the way through. It's not fair.

HOWEVER, saying that, what has been described is honestly unnacceptable. My kids were tested once at the start of they year so that I could identify gaps. They won't be tested again until after Christmas. They've not missed any other subjects, we're going on a trip to a museum on Monday, we spent two days on a DT project and are about to begin rehearsals for an enourmous Panto for Christmas. Yes we teach grammar daily and only do maths, english and grammar up until lunch time but it's still a good mix and certainly no tests in the hall and stress of resits as you've described.

Basically what I'm trying to say is don't see the school as the villain - they are a victim in a horrible system. This board is littered with parents saying 'this school is good, this school is outstanding' and so much of that judgement is based on SATs results.

But I couldn't bare the thought of any child I teach seeing themselves as a failure. How damaging. I could not allow that to happen.

My DS went through all this too but managed well because he takes it all in his stride. We have never cared about exams or how well he does. He gives it his best stress-free shot and generally does well. Can you and your DD care less about exams, making them less emotive.

This is where the government policy of rigorous testing and threats of children having to repeat tests if they fail to reach a standard leads to.

vikingvolva Governments intention is that the education is high quality throughout, so the tests should be no biggie.

Oh how naive you are.

The government's intention is that a percentage of children fail tests so they can:
a) Repeat their mantra that when education has been more humane in how children have been assessed, standards have been lax, teachers have cheated and that is why so many children have done well. Now this rigorous system has been put in place, these are the real figures
b) Keep people in their places. It is the same at GCSE. The testing system they are putting in place favours the few rather than genuinely assessing what children can learn and their skills. Only 48% will be allowed to achieve a grade 5 or higher- however well they do, just the top 48%. They will just move the pass level every year for level 5 so only the top 48% achieve it.
As level 5 is the new measure of the C grade (currently 65% achieve this) and a C grade in English and Maths is a pre-requisite for sixth form, a levels, university, many children will not have those opportunities.
It is social engineering - reducing access for groups of children to better futures.

Also Viking most children have to be taught to pass tests. Teaching them content is one thing but unless they know exactly how to answer questions in the way the test rewards marks for, they often do not perform well on tests.

So don't blame schools. Of course schools are worried about their results and league tables. However, they also know the impact on a child if they don't get results and how their choices are narrowed down by this government's policies

Also, schools are very different with different social and ability intakes.

A leafy green suburb school will invariably have children who naturally do better under testing. They have 'cultural capital'- better general know.edge, more educated parents, learning is given a high profile at home, their speech and language is often sophisticated- they get a headstart (would be lovely for all children but it doesn't happen). So for the other schools with numbers of children who don't have these advantages, they have to compensate for that to give them any chance.

Also, schools are scrutinised by OfSTED and the DFE every year as to how their advantaged children perform in comparison to children who receive pupil premium. What is the gap? Has it widened or closed? OfSTED pounce on this figure. Of course schools will do everything they can to get all children through tests at the highest standards.

As parents we should be complaining to the government about their inhumane policies for children, never mind moaning at schools trying to do their best for our children.

Only 48% will be allowed to achieve a grade 5 or higher-

You'll have a reference for that, I take it?

I've got the Ofqual technical document for 2017 awarding of GCSEs in front of me, and it says no such thing. It explicitly rejects norm-referencing (paragraph 24). You're welcome to find support for your paranoid claims:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/377771/2014-09-12-board-paper-for-new-gcses-in.pdf

This sort of thread will have Nicky Morgan licking her lips and rubbing her thighs with delight.

The entire mantra of the government is to test the bejesus out of all children because the best way to ensure they do better is by testing them.

Just like if you're short, keep measuring yourself and you will grow.

Forgive me for I am not good at stats but they are going to norm-reference the KS2 results. It will be centile scores with '100' being the median. There will be a normal distribution (how can there not be) so only half of the children in each cohort can ever meet national expectations- however high or narrowly distributed the actual achievement of the cohort is.

Correct me if I am wrong, but on this system it is NOT possible for all children to get 100+ unless the all get exactly the same score and as such 'failure' of many is hardwired into the system.

100 is the scale score not the standardised score as someone said. The raw score will be converted to a scale score each year (to take into account small variations in test difficulty) and 100 (scale score) will be the expected level. What no one knows until after the tests have been taken (not even the DfE apparently) is what raw score will equal 100

Wow, your school is obviously obsessed with League Tables?
My DC is in Year 6 and I don't think they've done any testing with them yet. Her school and class is so laid back they are practically comatose. Up to half term they have already spent 2 full days doing "forest school " (fun in the woods), had fun preparing for class assembly, she's had a whole day of doing music activities, and I anticipate loads more fun leading up to Christmas. She still managed to pass the eleven plus exam for a top grammar though, without too much additional work.
The kind of pressure you describe is completely unnecessary.

There will be a normal distribution (how can there not be)

Very easily. There's not the slightest a priori reason to believe that the distribution of children taking an exam is normal, or even symmetrical, even after the marks have been normalised around a median for the purposes of comparison.

However, obviously half will fall above and half will fall below the median, by construction. However, I don't recognise from anything I have read that the "expected" level will be set as crudely as you suggest.

Low door the video from the testing agency explains how the tests work and how 100 is the (scale score) expected standard www.gov.uk/government/news/new-video-published-on-changes-to-2016-tests-and-assessments

I've watched that video before mrz but it is still my best understanding that if the whole cohort did better the raw score that would be '100' would be higher?

They claim that this is to even out differences in test difficulty, but it would also iron out over all improvement in achievement over time would it not?

In 2016 a child gets 65 raw and that is 100. Next child along gets 60 raw and fails (and has to do them again in Y7, thus starting senior school labelled a failure). Schools work really hard, standards improve. In 2019 a child gets raw 75 and that is 100. Next child along gets raw 73 and fails as the distribution is narrower.

If that is not how it works I apologise as, despite best efforts, I have misunderstood.

Now it would be very cynical of me to suggest that the system would allow them to manipulate the results to their own advantage ??
Under the old level system the raw scores were equated to levels but the threshold for the levels changed each year "adjustments for variations in difficulty in the tests year to year" ...see a pattern?

Ricardian www.letsthinkinenglish.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Effects-of-new-GCSE-grading-system-summary1.pdf

A recent research paper about the grading of the new GCSEs.

The diagrams come from OFQUAL and I saw them two weeks ago used at an ASCL presentation where there was an HMI presenting.

66% of children who currently achieve a C in English will not achieve a Grade 5 which is the new C. They were very clear that the only the top 48% of candidates will achieve a grade 5. The HMI confirmed this.

A great deal of discussion took place around this with questions being put to the HMI raising concerns. Their response was 'We know, we understand, we are very concerned and lobbying the DFE but we are not the DFE and they do not listen to us.'

Presentation at ASCL to a group of 80 Secondary Headteachers.

Please don't call me paranoid.

What you link to is a summary of the Ofqual publication which I pointed to. As you say, the number of children who in 2017 get a Grade 5 will be smaller than those that got a grade C.

However, what neither document says is your claim that "Only 48% will be allowed to achieve a grade 5 or higher", or anything remotely like it. I suspect you're confusing "statistical prediction" with norm-referencing.

You used the term 'norm referencing' not me. I pointed out that what has been said is that only the top 48% will be allowed to achieve a grade 5, which has been described as the key standard grade which the C is now- around 65% achieve that.

I am not confusing either term as I have not used either.

However, I will repeat, only the top 48% of children will be allowed to achieve a 5 which will be the grade equated to a now C grade. That is what the diagrams show and is what was said at the meeting I attended. It may go up or down a percentage each year but the boundary will be less than 50%. In that case, it must be about numbers being allowed to pass rather than children meeting the criteria to pass. Call it what you like.

Approx 66% of children who currently achieve a C grade will not be allowed to achieve the new grade 5. That is not my paranoia.

I think you need to take a step back here and look at the bigger picture. There is no doubt that schools are under enormous pressure with SATs and that feeds down to the pupils. However in my opinion your childs school whether you like it or not is having to respond to curriculum changes foisted on to them by the government. They are hamstrung. And you will! find as I have when they get to year 7 the testing will continue. Because education is now all about retention and recall of facts. You really need to calm down,as blaming the school and threatening to withdraw will not help your child. I have had two dc go through this, both struggled at school to achieve national expected targets. Go and see your class teacher and ask about how they will deal with the pressure but in my opinion they are trying to model and prepare the children for what will happen in year 7.

It is quite unacceptable - and I say this as a teacher who used to do 'boosting for SATs' .
Explain to your DD that the results don't matter to her - they matter to the school and it us the school that is being tested. The secondary school will do their own tests- if they use the SATs it is as a guide only.

Make your mind up. Is it "It may go up or down a percentage each year" or "They will just move the pass level every year for level 5 so only the top 48% achieve it."? Those are very different statements. And "but the boundary will be less than 50%"? Says who?

Anyway, I struggle to understand your concern. Consumers of GCSEs adjust their requirements based on numbers. There is no statutory requirement that sixth form colleges or employers treat particular grades as sacrosanct, any more than universities have to ask for AAA for certain courses. If there are more students with particular grades, requirements go up. If there are fewer, requirements go down. Suppose for the sake of argument A Levels were modified such that only 1% of the cohort got As, rather than the current 30% or whatever it is. Would (a) the upper end of the Russell Group close down undergraduate teaching, as most AAA+ courses would have no takers or (b) would all the AAA courses become BBB courses?

The government can say what it likes about the the "good pass" level is. If they set that to low, then grades required by consumers of the qualification rise (hence the crazy situation where it's routine to have courses at university requiring two or three A*s). If they set that too high, then grades required by consumers of the qualification drop. Are employers going to say "well, we'd like to take on some staff to run our new shop, but we can't, because they've all go 4s rather than 5s at GCSE, so - shrug - we'll just leave the shop empty?" More to the point, are sixth form colleges going to bankrupt themselves, or adjust their requirements?

It is unacceptable but what is more unacceptable and makes me increasingly angry is the absolute fuck up Give and Morgan have made of our education system. We all need to be engaged and understand the wider picture, teachers and parents alike. Teachers leaving the profession in droves, ta's being laid off and their pay cut. I spoke to the head at our secondary school and she said on average pupils will be sitting 30 exams every year. She said she has been on a number of department of education conferences and not once are children mentioned and it is upsetting. It is shocking how bad things have got. And if you're child struggles with exams as mine do then I could cry.