Sats Meeting today what things should I be asking?

[ukgirlatheart]

School is holding a Sats meeting tonight to discuss the changes and I assume what our children will be doing.

I understand briefly that levels have changed and it is now a "score/%" - what questions should I be asking

How much practice will they be doing at school?
(so you can judge level of pressure and preparedness)

How are they 'selling' SATs to the kids?
(so you can decide whether to stay on message, or counterbalance)

Will they be continuing with whole curriculum or dumping everything for the next 4 months apart from English and Maths?
(so you can be prepared and also judge pressure they are putting on)

What can you do to support from home?
(assuming the school isn't going OTT at school)

My DD2 is in y6

thanks for this...the kids are very aware of it since Sept 2015 thats all my DS has gone on about and it's been test after test. There are also work books available for us to buy today and he even knows about these.

Our school is more relaxed luckily.

I know that some of the other local schools really pressurise. I think that should be left for y11, not age 11.

genuinely not being flippant but you should be asking the school:

why should I care about SATS?

That sounds an awful amount of pressure already

Agree with Drama tbh - but unfortunately it appears that SATS do influence what "set" DCs are put in when they go to secondary.

So
"Why should we care about SATS?" is a good one. It would be ideal if the only comeback on results was on the school/teacher. But delve deeper:

" What happens to the results - are they fed to secondary schools?" Bet you they are.

"What do the secondary schools do with the results?" should be the follow up.

And finally - "If a child does not perform to their full ability in these tests, how long before the secondary re-assesses/re-sets them if appropriate?"

And sorry to say "Will you continue to teach my DC after the SATS are completed or let them basically faff around for the rest of the term/school year as anything else learned will not be externally scrutinised?"

God I sound cynical don't I!

... the answer you should get back should ideally be more like:

• because it shows what your child has learned at primary compared with expectations
• because secondary schools are measured against progress against KS2 SATs so the higher your child gets now the more the secondary will expect of them (i.e. under-achieving in SATs may mean that they are not encouraged to full ability later and may even miss out on interventions)

and not simply:

• because we as a school get measured against the results

ChopOrNot of course secondary schools receive the results they are reported nationally and used by the government to set targets for GCSEs