Year 6 Sats

[diaryofaftm]

Hi everyone, I know it's a bit early but I want to get ahead in terms of preparation for the SATs exams. I know they use several resources at school. So far I've been working through workbooks, CGP etc but I was thinking of trying something a little more interactive with my daughter, does anyone have any reccommendations? Thank you

I am a year 6 parent, but I am not sure why you need to prepare for SATs at home/this early? As far as I am aware, secondary schools re-test anyway so the results are not massively important and surely the schools will prepare them as much as possible nearer the time. From what I know of last year the schools provided practice questions/papers and gave revision guides.

i am not sure what the need is to prepare for SATS. I thought they were only for the schools benefit and secondary schools do CAT testing a few weeks in to the new term.

I'd be wary of doing too much this early. After Christmas your school will go into overdrive anyway in preparation. You can get last years papers on the government website, but your school will almost certainly use them as practice papers. If I were to recommend anything I would get her to do some arithmetic practice, and also get hold of some comprehensions for her to do now and then. Last years reading paper was very challenging, in terms of the amount of text they had to read and the type of vocabulary used (quite old fashioned). So I would get her to read some classics and get her to
look up the meanings of words she doesn't know the meaning of. But really, school will do all of this anyway and as everyone says secondary schools will do their own testing.

Leave your DD alone! Seriously, let the school do it. They'll tell you if she needs extra help at school.

Something useful to do would be to set time limits for normal homework and ensue that they are followed. Many children find it very hard to complete a task within a set time and have no idea about time management. Otherwise, wait for direction from school.

I wouldn't do actual SATS prep. But in years 5 and 6 we worked on times tables-the advice from the school was that they need to know the answer to a times table question as quickly as they can answer what's their name.

That and spellings.

But I agree with PP the pressure will be on at school so I'd keep it quite low key.

Is there a reason your keen to prep?

Don't push SATS - they're completely meaningless and have no impact whatsoever on your child's future examinations.

I think it can be a chance to go through what DC has learned, fill the possible gaps, learn a few exam technique(time keeping, checking etc) and also form a good habit of doing homework , so she can get ready for secondary school.

However, do keep it low key. If your DD is not behind, there is no need to do too much. Just choose workbook from 1 publisher, I think the workbook from different publisher cover the same thing. And also, keep the session short.

Hi OP my son's class were one of the Sats Guinea pigs last year - the school will do all they can to prepare. If you want to do extra work out home, in general, would concentrate on times tables, long multiplication/division, precentages and word questions and make sure your DC is reading every night. It's not like 11 plus pass or fail, it's more a judgment on the school. However grades may be used to band/stream if say your child misses a secondary banding test..