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

1 2 3 4

Original poster

If I hear 'SATS' one more time I think i'll...............

80 replies

runningouttaideas · 09/02/2016 10:07

SCREAM!! I have 2 Dc going through them at the moment one in Y6 and the other Y2. If I see one more practice paper from years gone by or one more print out in 6 year old Dd's school bag putting pressure on to learn ASAP as if her life depends on it. If one more of my Dc come in extremely stressed because they can't get their writing perfect when their bodies can not physically do it I am going to declare a SATS strike at home!...and a strict diet of fun stuff only!

I had Ds's Y6 CT tell me how worried she is about his SATS last week, it was so hard for me to bite my tongue because I know he will do just fine (I'm 100% confident) and they have been telling me for years that he is perfectly capable, their league table will not be affected what so ever, and all her hard work WILL pay off. Its the drilling that is causing the issues....sigh....and now for a nice and some ...

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 09/02/2016 19:16

Not at all.

Some schools have always put more emphasis on testing as a way of improving SATs results. I suspect that number has increased this year due to nobody knowing what to expect, the current yr6 being tested after only 2 years on the new curriculum and some fairly ridiculous statements that have come from Gove and Morgan. It probably isn't necessary.

Washediris · 09/02/2016 19:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 09/02/2016 20:06

Who knows? I'm not sure if it has been clarified beyond the quote I posted earlier.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for many children getting above expected regardless of the handwriting. The double whammy of increased expectations & a move from a best fit judgement to having to hit every criteria for the level you are at and all the previous ones seems to have sent the standard or writing expected soaring.

Dickens himself is probably at the expected standard.

Catphrase · 09/02/2016 20:11

It's bull shit. I was googling yesterday if I can pull mine out (yr2). I don't see the point, if it's to see if the child can reach that standard well any half engaged teacher should know if that child is there.

Washediris · 09/02/2016 20:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Feenie · 09/02/2016 20:18

Not unless you plan to keep.your dc off for a)the whole of May for the 6 reading, SPAG and maths tests and b)the entire year for the writing assessment.

mrz · 09/02/2016 20:43

As someone pointed out Ernest Hemmingway would be working towards because of his poor punctuation 😱

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 09/02/2016 20:53

I saw that. I'll admit I hadn't done a full assessment on Dickens when I made his judgement.

I'm not sure how often he uses hyphens.

Feenie · 09/02/2016 21:17

Just seen also from STA briefing that spelling common exception words has been removed from KS2 working towards and working at.

I wish they would just give a definitive list and let us get on with it

littlequestion · 10/02/2016 10:47

I can't read DS's writing but the teacher claims she can, so as she will be the one assessing it, maybe I shouldn't worry. I was really concerned he'd fail his SATS and end up in the bottom stream at secondary just because of his rubbish writing.

The handwriting thing is faintly ridiculous anyway. Apart from shopping lists and Christmas cards, no-one writes anything by hand after they leave school.

TeenAndTween · 10/02/2016 12:36

DD's school has been reasonably relaxed so far, but they did do a set of practice papers the other week.

DD's teacher showed them to me with the comment "I think these show that DD doesn't test very well ..."

Enb76 · 10/02/2016 12:50

Our lot of Y2's did some practice maths papers a couple of weeks ago and now there's about 10 (across 3 classes of 30) that are taken out of class and tutored - presumably for some sort of higher paper considering the children involved. Otherwise, I've heard nothing about SATs at all. It's all very low key.

Zazedonia · 10/02/2016 12:54

SATS, what SATS? There was scarcely a mention of them in Year 2, and now DC is in year 6, not a word has been said about them so far (haven't they been abolished, by the way?). It's fun fun fun all the way at our primary.

TeaT1me · 10/02/2016 13:09

Oh zaze that sounds bliss. Every parents information evening I've had (yr2) has been talk of new curriculum and working towards yr 6 sats. I'm seriously wondering nt what the point of school is of most of it is geared towards jumping through some meaningless hoops in yr 6.

TeaT1me · 10/02/2016 13:10

Oh I love it. When I post on these threads I get a "return to teaching" ad!

Zazedonia · 10/02/2016 13:15

It's not necessary. Our school gets fairly good results, and there is nothing unusual about the children and the teaching isn't that great, in my view, and they spend loads of time doing non-academic stuff. So presumably your schools are aiming to be super-achievers, top of the league table, or whatever? It's not fair on the children.

InternationalHouseofToast · 10/02/2016 13:23

My DH attended the parent meetings for KS1 sats at DS's school last night. The changes this year means the SATs reflect work that would previously have been expected from Yr 4 children. Even if they're in Yr 2 and have possible SENs which can't be diagnosed until at least Year 3. Having seen this year's sample papers DS would struggle to read the questions, never mind answer them.

Oh, and their secondary schools will also receive copies of their KS1 SAT results, not just the Yr 6 ones, and may impact on the set your child gets put in and the GCSE options they get to do. Nothing like writing the poor fuckers off at a young age then.

Aparently no-one thought to ask at last night's meeting what happens to kids who are away from school for their KS1 SATS - does anyone know what would happen if you miss them through illness?

Upthenoonoo · 10/02/2016 13:29

I went through this last year with Dd and now have it this year with ds. Last year the school tweeted over the Easter holiday that they hoped all yr 6 pupils were doing their revision. I made sure Dd did none. I cannot see that it has been any benefit to dd going forward except to pile pressure on and used to set them in yr 7. I have told ds not to even worry about them!

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 10/02/2016 15:14

Oh, and their secondary schools will also receive copies of their KS1 SAT results, not just the Yr 6 ones, and may impact on the set your child gets put in and the GCSE options they get to do.

You're school are likely to be spinning you a line. No secondary school is going to be setting or streaming children based on KS1 results. That idea is totally ludicrous, not least because secondaries are measured on progress from KS2. Putting children who've not achieved the expected level at KS1 but have made better than expected progress at ks2 into low sets and restricting their GCSE choices is going to have a bad effect on their progress 8 score.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 10/02/2016 15:15

your not you're.

Obviously I won't be meeting the expected standard either.

Galena · 10/02/2016 16:12

I have a Y2. She has been doing progress tests this week. Her teacher has been in tears (In the confines of the HT office, not in 'public') because of the exemplars which have just been published.

DD is barely aware of what is going on, but the staff are all too aware and are feeling the pressure BIG time! I will do everything I can to support the teachers - I am a governor, but also in education myself and know the pressure is not coming from the teachers, but from the outside - but I will not put pressure on DD.

Feenie · 10/02/2016 16:14

There are no 'higher' papers - all children sit an arithmetic and a reasoning paper.

You can't be 'away' for KS1 SATs - the result reported is still a teacher assessment, which is the whole year's work.

multivac · 10/02/2016 16:16

Oh, and their secondary schools will also receive copies of their KS1 SAT results, not just the Yr 6 ones, and may impact on the set your child gets put in and the GCSE options they get to do.

As rafa says, this is nonsense. A decent secondary school will do its own assessment in Y7 anyway - because they know the ridiculous hothousing that goes on in many primary schools around SATs, and the stupidly inflated results it gives.

multivac · 10/02/2016 16:22

I am also profoundly grateful that my sons will be attending a secondary school that refuses to limit children's GCSE choices in case they impact negatively on its league table score.

I wish more head teachers had the guts. Such a fucked up system.

Feenie · 10/02/2016 16:33

A decent secondary school will do its own assessment in Y7 anyway - because they know the ridiculous hothousing that goes on in many primary schools around SATs, and the stupidly inflated results it gives.

KS2 SATs are externally marked. The secondary school can do all the Y7 assessment it likes - it will still be set targets based on Y6 resuluts, I'm afraid.

Flip

1 2 3 4