New SATs test on times tables

[BatmanLovesBaubles]

TES link

First three paragraphs:

All children will be tested on their times tables as part of their KS2 Sats, under new plans unveiled by education secretary Nicky Morgan this morning.

The tests will examine multiplication skills in every 11-year-old as part of ministers' "war on innumeracy and illiteracy", the Department for Education said.

Pupils will expected to know all tables up to 12x12, with the skill measured using an "on-screen check" examination to be piloted by 3,000 students in 80 schools this summer before being rolled out across English primaries in 2017.

I am so cross about this.

1. Why remove the Mental Maths test (which did test times tables)
2. More timed tests are NOT what we should be doing at primary where many children already feel under pressure
3. Maths is an area where children often panic and their minds become blank - this is really not going to help
4. What happened to Nicky Morgan's promise that nothing new would be introduced?

I am so, so angry right now

I don't disagree that learning times tables are important. They underpin a lot of maths.

I disagree with yet another test being introduced into Y6.
I disagree with the Y6 teacher being held accountable.
I disagree with schools with a high transient pupil population being held accountable in this instance.

SATs are high stake tests, regardless of the naive view of some posters on this thread. Our local secondary sets its English / Maths groups based on them. I believe SATs results form part of the prediction for GCSEs too.

They are obviously VERY high stakes for the primary schools themselves, for reasons many teachers have given on this thread.

I am happy to be held accountable for my teaching and for my subject leadership. I am not happy that ultimately a large part of this comes down to how children perform in one highly intense week. I came into teaching to teach, to help children be the best they can be, and I believe that the majority of teachers are the same.

And to echo PPs - if a child fails the times tables test in Y6, what then? Isn't it shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

If he fails then he needs to learn and resit(but learn and resit until pass), we all fail at certain things in life and I find many of us trying to protect our children by not letting them taking challenge and allow them to fail. Its ok to fail then learn and moved on

Until writing thesis then timing isnt an issue but for whole life of taking exams timing and speeds are important, the calculation ones should always be quick and easy to do and to check leaving time for more "thinking" stuffs, time tables help you not have to think(but you know the logic) because its supposed to be easy

What I meant Greenleave, was if he / she fails, they fail in May - not a lot of time to retake and pass. I was trying to say that an earlier test makes more sense than cramming it into an already beleaguered Y6 timetable.

Still dislike the huge emphasis on testing at primary (FS, Y2, Y6 all very key tests) but a Y4 test sits better with me than Y6, tbh.

If the TT tests were moved to year 4, I would put money on teachers striking. Why dont schools just teach them in Y4 so they are easy in Y6, its a no-brainer.

Totally agree with Bolognese.
Teachers make sure children are comfortable with times tables by end YR4.
Parents make sure their children learned them by end YR4.
It will make difference at least among children who's teachers and parents are on MN.

What a very strange idea ... Why on earth would teachers strike over this?

On a PD day yesterday our keynote talked about these tests (I'm a TA in Secondary with a 6year old DD) along with the other tests that are being brought in for Primary school children and said that if the children don't pass their test in Primary including key stage 1 they have to reset them every year. So children who don't pass in year 6 and are not 'secondary ready' will have to resist in year 7 and 8.

I'm sorry, I don't understand why teachers would strike if the tests were in Y4 rather than Y6?

If schools teach them in Y4 so they are easy in Y6, what's the problem with a test in Y4 instead of an overcrowded Y6? Other than the overall issue of overtesting at Primary, of course

I took "strike" as a joke?
Point is, if they master it by YR4, test or not, problem solved, isn't it?

the point is the majority of children are already doing just that (it's tested in the maths tests already)
Teachers from what I've seen and heard aren't concerned except for pupils having to face yet another test. It's a total non story!

I work in a medical field where I have witnessed degree qualified health professionals in their 20's and 30's who cannot multiple 2 single figures quickly and accurately in their heads to get a correct drug dosage. Luckily they know they have problems with simple multiplication and double check on a calculator.

I saw the head of one of the teachers unions on TV saying they were against the new times tables test because it would stifle children's creativity and they could just look up the answers on their mobile phone. It was Christine Blower.

If it was introduced for Y4's I could easily see the trigger happy Christine calling a strike to oppose the change to teachers work load under the pretense of protecting children who were being forced to learn things to suit a government agenda.

You're right Irvine it's a huge joke!

In what way would it change teachers workload?
It won't change anything for teachers but children in Y6 will have another test. I don't think it will bother our pupils in the slightest.

1. what do secondary school maths teachers think of the of pupils they inherit from the primary school system?

1. what percentage of pupils are incapable of doing their tables (through no fault of their own) by end of year 6 (just like I am incapable of playing anything musical or drawing no matter how much teaching)?

1. what percentage of pupils cannot do their tables by the end of year 6?

I didn't say it would change teachers workload, but I could see a union using that as an excuse. Haven't you read the complaints from teachers on this post about the strain it will put on them?

If it was introduced for Y4's I could easily see the trigger happy Christine calling a strike to oppose the change to teachers work load under the pretense of protecting children who were being forced to learn things to suit a government agenda.
Didn't you?

I'm not a teacher and never have been. But it doesn't stop me being aware that putting impossible targets on teachers is pointless and unfair, especially for the children themselves.

I think one teacher said that in her school the head would use it as performance management

Trying to pass a test by learning some important and necessary technique and no consequence to the children who fail it except have to learn it again until pass, sorry I dont understand why teachers moan about it either? Even for very able mathematicians, I am sure knowing tables in and out def helps them

mrz, if you dont understand context then maybe you need to go back to school. Lurked agrees with me that pointless and unfair = increased workload.

As lurked said they aren't a teacher they aren't best placed to judge whether this will impact on a teacher's workload. (With respect to you lurked)
The current curriculumexpects children to know all their tables by the end of Y4 as did the previous curriculum. So what's actually changed for the teacher? Not a thing!

I didn't say it would impact workload to teach times tables. I said setting impossible targets impacts teachers and children. And I can say from experience that I suspect same as sats, a y6 tables test would also have targets that don't take any account of the cohort.