Year 6 SATS - can someone explain something to me please!

[Notcontent]

As a parent of a child in year 5, I am trying to understand SATS properly.

So - my understanding is that in the past, all children did papers at level 4, and then the more "able" ones also did level 5 or even level 6. But now all children do the same paper, which is at quite a high level, be it English or Maths. Is that correct?

What I am confused about is this: given that most English schools put children into ability groups for maths, and those groups don't do the same level of maths, how are they supposed to do the same test paper? Particularly given that, based on anecdotal evidence, it is often quite difficult for children to move between such ability groups...

Then deregister him from Easter - probably, actually, from February or so, when things really get going. Just don't expect to pick and choose which bits of school your child does. (And I say that as an ex-home educator who took my child out of school temporarily.) You can't just have 'some bits' of school and expect everyone to do what you want them to do.

Good luck with expecting the class teacher to mark a random piece of homework set by you, that is different from what everyone else has done.

^ this. You want to increase a teachers already stretched workload.

Can't see that going down very well.

I would point blank refuse to do it, Piglet, and my HT would be right behind me, as well.

Teacherwith2Kids - True. But then I know a Lead Inspector for Ofsted who says they are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum and that's all I'm asking for. He thinks I have a good point on that score though he can't condone boycotting the SATs obviously. I shouldn't be having to take him out of school in order for him to be taught Science or other areas of the National Curriculum. They were sitting practice SATs papers in Year 4!

slummy - personally, I don't see the harm in towing the line and sitting the tests. How much they mean to you is up to you. If you have no options to access a different curriculum, then I would just suck it up.

My dd is autistic and she coped. (did quite well actually )

They were sitting practice SATs papers in Year 4!

Unlikely. Are you confusing the Non-statutory Papers for Yrs 3-5 (that use the exact same layout) for the Y6 ones?

Piglet and Clam - I didn't expect the teacher to mark it. I'd just let them know he was doing work and not lounging around getting away with nothing. No need for such hostility.

No Clam. I mean a practice SATs paper from a previous year. It took the kids 2 hours. They missed PE. The children were told they'd get faster with practice.

No need for such hostility.

That's rich, coming from you. Your posts have been full of rage!

WhataToDo - did she sit them this year? My friend's eldest on the spectrum too - flew through tests all the way to Cambridge.

slummy- the government will measure your child's progress after he has sat GCSE from his KS2 results. If he does not have them, he will not be in the measure (AFAIAA. Under previous system, if they got B or above, they were counted as making expected/exceeded progress even if they had no KS2. Don't think that's the case now).
However, his receiving school will be setting all his targets using expected progress (Progress 8) from KS2, and if they have no KS2 tests to go off, will use TAs, or test him when he arrives. And, as stupid as it seems, his targets for Art, PE, Business, etc etc will all be predicated by that 'secondary ready' score (or teacher assessment) and expected/exceeding progress built in throughout the five years until GCSE. A child working below the level of the KS2 tests is never going to do as well at GCSE as a child working at a level 6 (old levels), even if they draw like Albrecht Durer! because there is so much writing and analysis and portfolio work still expected. PE is the same, there's a lot of classroom learning/physiology alongside the physical practical assessments.
Children that are exceeding national expectations at end of Y5 are likely to have extremely challenging targets at end of KS4, because one would expect highly able children to progress at an accelerated rate. Of course, an IB school will use different paths of progress, but the effect is the same. Schools have no choice but to push able children really hard in order to ameliorate their progress8 scores brought down by children that don't have all 8 slots filled (because quite rightly they're following courses appropriate for them and their abilities).

It really sounds as though the constraints of mainstream school are not for you and your dc. I would do everyone a favour (i.e.the staff) and Home Ed asap.

slummy - yes this year.

Clam. No they've been full of distress. Been on Mumsnet for about two days and it's been a pretty miserable experience. Goodbye.

what on earth was the point of them doing papers in Y4 when the papers this year were entirely new style?

I agree the narrowing of the curriculum is appalling, and this year seems to have been far worse than previous years. However, if you have put him into this system then I think you do more harm than good by 'othering' him in this way. You are making him different to his peers, and children that age simply want to be with the crowd, to blend in IME.

No need for such hostility.

Not being hostile. You are being given opinions that don't agree with yours and teachers telling you why.

you just don'the want to hear it

For clarity, I am not a teacher, I am a parent.

I think the problem is your arguments make no sense in the real world. I'm not sure whether the solicitor is helping you or hindering you, really.

Rafa, hindering, clearly, if the solicitor has given them incorrect information re home ed. you would think the solicitor would look at the actual law

Although my post seems to have been ignored earlier. (The one to slummy)

It's all very well the solicitor knowing the law but unless they also know what happens in the school in question it's a bit meaningless.

The school are hardly likely not to give a child targets just because they don't have a test score. They'll just use the TA information or maybe a CATS test or something else if they are that obsessed with targets.

Maybe it's the school that's the problem. Ours hasn't stopped teaching them anything that they had before... so they did their weekly lessons in science, music, games, French, Friday is all topic days, it lessons, day trips. Sats practice tests meant they got extra dancing and play time before to wake them up. The week before was auditions for their end of year production. The actual week was extra playtime and relaxed afternoons. And their reward was five days in France straight after. The only extra prep was that the whole class had either small group enrichment or booster depending on level but still in their normal hours.
I know some schools demanded after school lessons, lunch lessons and cancelled all games and non tested subjects.

I just wondered, if the child doesn't do any sats related homework and school work, doesn't that affect actual teacher assessment as well?
How can teacher assess fairly compared to other children, when one child has not done most of the work set by the teacher?

The teacher assessment will come from normal school work it doesn't have to be SATs related. So any independent writing from across the curriculum could be used to form the writing judgement. Possibly. There seems to be a vast range of interpreteations of the guidelines, and it wasn't helped by how late the frameworks were released.

Very well put TweenAndTween.
My youngest son did SATS this year - his elder brothers did them five years ago and three years ago, so I have some experience in this field!
My view is that children of this age don't get that nervous about tests of their own accord. They pick up the vibes from the adults around them. Certainly the "hoo-haa" around SATS has increased since my eldest did them, and we as parents have to take some responsibility for that. A week before SATS my son said "I'm not nervous about SATS, but people keep asking me if I am, and that makes me think I ought to be".