So 47% of current Y6 are failures.

[noblegiraffe]

Or at least they would be labelled as such if they were a year younger.

This time next year, those who don't meet the expected level in their KS2 SATs will be forced to resit them in December of Y7 (and, I believe, again in June if they still don't pass).

Today's figures are:

53% of pupils met the new expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics
66% of pupils met the new expected standard in reading
70% of pupils met the new expected standard in mathematics
72% of pupils met the new expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling
74% of pupils met the new expected standard in writing

That's an awful lot of kids whose transition to secondary school will be blighted by the expectation of lunch/tutor/after school intervention and possibly summer school.

[mineofuselessinformation]

At least they won't be forced to retake the maths test again.....

[TeenAndTween]

The statistic that is missing for me is the % who didn't meet the standard in any of the areas. This could be as high as 26%, but presumably isn't.

I'm glad my DD is y6 now. If she really had to, I wouldn't mind her retaking the maths, or even possibly the reading, but not the SPaG. But I am happier she can play the long game to GCSEs instead.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'm not sure 8 months is accurate. The new curriculum was applied from Sept 2014. They've had year 5 to plug those gaps too.

Definitely not long enough to plug all the gaps and teach new content, but it isn't 8 months.

You could have had the full 7 years and that reading test would still have been an abomination.

[TeenAndTween]

noble With the maths, is there anything in the y6 SATs that you wouldn't want them to get a grip on as part of year 7 anyway if at all possible? Is it mainly the pressure and timeline that is the issue and not the content per se?

(Genuine question, as I think some of the Grammar knowledge won't be required in secondary, but I can't think that any of the maths isn't needed).

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'd imagine it's a mixture of both. Having to try and plug all the gaps across the entire ks2 curriculum in one term is likely to affect long term planning. Especially since there will be at least a 6 week gap between any previous teaching.

It would almost be better at the end of year 7, but then I can see you losing year 7 in the same way that yr 6 is sometimes lost.

[noblegiraffe]

Teen I think we are better placed than our English colleagues in terms of content, although the insistence on a column method for multiplication will annoy me (I prefer Napiers for weaker students, which is allowed at GCSE), as will the lack of calculators (we just had a bunch of Y7s fail their end of year calculator paper because none of them used it, working stuff out by hand and getting it wrong instead). Teachers will also need to spend time and effort getting familiar with the format of the papers and questions, and a lot of time will be wasted on mocks, practice papers and so on.
It's depressing because we, as a maths department, try to catch the kids' interest when they start secondary, show them something new, push them on. Instead they're going to be rehashing the same bloody stuff that they had to endure for most of Y6, and under pressure to produce the goods at a time of huge upheaval for them. It's not fair on them. Expecting secondary schools that don't know these kids from Adam to get results out of them in 3 months that primaries couldn't manage in 7 years is also an issue, as will be the usual 'dip' over the summer holidays. Expect failed kids to be hoiked in over the summer on compulsory booster camps so that they don't forget what they already know.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

In the vain hope that someone from the DfE might be monitoring this site for public reaction ... shame on you for your gov.uk page putting a positive spin on "the majority rising to the challenge", while blatantly ignoring the 47% who start secondary school feeling "not good enough". Because that 47% matters and you didn't give them a chance.

[BertrandRussell]

And what happens in secondary- are they taught the new curriculum in year 7 or stick to practising for the year 6 resits? And if the second, how do they then catch up? And how are secondaries going to manage staffing and so on?

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

noble do you see there being a difference between those children who just missed it and those that are a long way off with some significant gaps in basic skills?

It seems to me like the second group would have more to lose from cramming for a test at the end of their first term.

[noblegiraffe]

I really don't know how this is going to be staffed. My school will be quite lucky, our intake is strong and so we won't be needing to get nearly a third of them through a maths resit, but we will be looking very closely at this year's results to try to figure out how many we will be expecting next year. At the moment we take our level 3 kids out of languages to do intervention work with them to help them catch up. It's only a small group and it's run by a TA. However, when the resits kick in, this group could be a couple of classes full, and the level of input to get kids through the test will require proper teachers, at a time when maths teachers are in severe shortage.

On top of that, from current Y7, all students will be expected to take the Ebacc, which means we can no longer take our weaker kids out of language lessons to do the work with them. Some other schools will be getting intakes where way more than a third will need to resit maths, and way more than half of them will need to resit something.

It's going to be a mess.

[noblegiraffe]

Rafa I imagine that there will be different approaches for the kids who just missed it and the really weak ones eventually but they will probably be all lumped together, at least at the start, with a teacher trying to figure out who knows what.

Primaries are only getting their results today, it's two and a half weeks till the end of term. Secondaries won't be getting their hands on the data straight away (we have kids from loads of primaries, some SATs data never gets to us!), then it's the holidays, then we'd have to hit the ground running in September. Secondaries which have a main feeder primary, or all-through academies will have a much easier job because they can jump on the kids straight away.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Actually identifying the kids that genuinely need intervention and those that just 'haven't met the standard' is going to be a whole other issue, isn't it?

[SaltyMyDear]

Sounds like you could put off teaching MFL for a term for these important literacy and numeracy interventions. Then in Jan they can all start French together.

I know we've disagreed about this before but I'd have been so pleased if secondary had continued with the basics that weren't mastered in primary rather than teaching the broad and balanced curriculum.

But they didn't. And therefore progress across all subjects has been very slow in KS3.

[BertrandRussell]

And I know it's a niche problem, but it will hit schools like ours really hard- as a secondary modern we have a very high %age low attainers anyway, and trying to resist year 6 SATs and Trying to hit the ground running with the new curriculum will be incredibly difficult.

[noblegiraffe]

Salty Except you can't put off teaching MFL for a term - what would those MFL teachers do? Where would the maths teachers come from? The timetable doesn't work like that in secondary.

I think you should take a look at the KS2 maths papers - failing to meet the expected standard in those is not the same as not mastering the basics, and they would be revisiting it anyway as part of the spiral curriculum.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Exactly noble. My eldest niece is a very able mathematician who loves maths. Could easily do all the things listed under level 6 by the end of primary and would have managed the content of the new NC. But she has a receptive language issue. The reasoning paper might have caused her a problems through not really understanding what was being asked.

She's very different from a child who has gaps in their understanding of basic number skills and would need a totally different intervention.

[crazycrofter]

Does anyone know what happens if a child didn't take the SATs, eg because they were home educated or moved from the private sector or overseas? Will those children have to take them in year 7?

[SaltyMyDear]

Noble - I haven't seen the new maths paper. And I believe you that failing to pass it doesn't mean you need an intervention. I also know my DD got a level 5 in Y6 and doesn't know her times tables. She hasn't mastered the basics.

But an old 4c in reading or writing did mean you still needed to be on an intervention.

Timetabing it sounds hard. But the alternative is these pupils haven't mastered the basics that they need. Which will hurt the school far more than the cost of solving the timetable problem.

Level 3 pupils used to bring catch up funding with them. This was presumably to be used for funding these much needed interventions.

[Feenie]

Does anyone know what happens if a child didn't take the SATs, eg because they were home educated or moved from the private sector or overseas? Will those children have to take them in year 7?

So far, that's not clear. But children who weren't in school in the country in Y1 have to do the phonics check for the first time in Y2, so it's probable.

[Feenie]

Petition link again:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131568

[Feenie]

In school OR in country

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'd imagine that many schools might chose to have children without a score sit the test anyway whether they have to or not.

With this government it seems likely that would be the direction they go in.

[squeezedatbothends]

Our local schools desperately sending letters out to parents to try to reassure them but this is really grim news. Especially since it comes with that awful language "failed to reach expected standard" - how many parents really know that the new expected standard for an 11 year old is what was expected of a 13 year old? I've started another thread on here as I'm very much thinking of boycotting the SATs for my child - he's only just going into Yr 5, so I need to think it through. But at the moment, I really feel I want to make a stand against this inhumane and flawed system. I know it's controversial.

[EricXXGmex]

"Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said the results showed there was no limit to our children’s potential"

I believe in year 7 science they are doing String Theory, and then from year 8 onwards there is no set curriculum as students will then be expected to be working on an original thesis.

[EverythingWillBeFine]

Yep they will have taken the average mark and decide that anything under it is 'failing'. Because that's so logical to do that....

On the other side, there is no more 'above expectation' so I have a dc who had 103 over 110 (whihc I would consider REALLy excellent) told that it's 'expected level' .