After school SATS booster groups

[FrayedHem]

Is this a standard thing? DS1, Yr6, has an invite for 2 groups, both an hour a week after school (no charge). It doesn't say exactly how many weeks it's for, but it is more than 1. DS1 really doesn't want to go and I'm not inclined to make him.

It's 1hr on 2 different evenings, but yes the day is long enough and they've recently extended school by 40 minutes (starts 10 mins earlier finishes 30 minster later). Also as there is no afternoon break I wonder if they will be in the right frame of mind for extra work.

Are you sure it didn't say 0% were exceeding - working at greater depth? That would make more sense. It would be more difficult to not to have anyone at expected, iyswim.

The exact words are "Pupils' attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 was entirely inadequate in 2016. Not a single pupil attained the expected level in each of reading, writing and mathematics."

Bloody hell

Obviously it is bad, is there any data I could look at which would tell me how often that happens? The proportion of disadvantaged children & children with SEN is similar to national average and the children start reception with skills and abilities broadly typical of their age. Nearly all speak English as first language. If that has any influence on the results?

Gosh, the school sounds a Mess!

Re the booster classes, I recently said no to my five year old attending an extra hour of booster classes for the phonics test in year one. So I would say no.

Oh my god that is unheard of RE KS1 results. As a teacher there is no way in hell I'd be keeping my children there, and I'm no drama queen. That is woefully inadequate.

uhm, re booster class for psc, Qwerty, I think it's totally different. Normal children don't require booster for phonics. If the school says you need booster, it maybe better to take that class... that suggest your dc is really behind.

Irvine, no it was for the whole class. They do it every year.

Oh and they have the best results in the county allegedly.

DS1's primary did this. Breakfast SATs booster sessions for all children the week before with yoga (to "calm them down" apparently) and bacon butties.

Booster sessions shouldn't be a replacement for crappy teaching the rest of the time and they wouldn't need yoga to calm them down if they were told the SATs were nothing to worry about in the first place.

I didn't let DS1 attend. He's still in top groups at secondary school and achieved full marks in his reading test, so it can't have done that much harm.

SATs should assess teaching and I feel it's wrong to put undue pressure on the kids.

Ok.
PSC is the test to filter children having difficulty with phonics, if I understand correctly. So it makes sense, if they do booster session, they would get best results in the county. Totally pointless.

Exactly. And if they need a test in MAY of year one to tell them there is an issue then they are failing anyway it should have picked up much earlier than that.

As an aside, three of the class failed so not sure how they had the best results they claim!

If they are doing whole class booster, they seem like they aren't confident about their phonics teaching.
If they teach them just to pass the check, they may be doing more harm to those who need some help.

I know the school has traditionally done the morning booster breakfast sessions the week before, (obviously it worked well!!), but this is 6 months in advance. And even my Yr5 child is full of SATs talk, so the pressure is just building up and up. It's going to be intolerable by the time they actually get to them.

There really isn't a workable other school option for the DC. DS2, is a bit of a Hermoine Granger character and is doing well. DS3 is due to to start school next September and I can't bring myself to complete his school application. I think as things stands he would learn more if I plonked him in front of Cbeebies, as they at least seem to understand phonics.

I mentioned that if they taught it properly they may not need the booster classes. I was then told to remove my children from the school if that was my Opinion!

Frayed- I understand the pain of completing the school application. We too had no other choice that was workable and when we got the acceptance I cried that another one of my children had to attend that school!

It's hard isn't it. DS1 & DS2 didn't start off at this school (it is our nearest) as it has always had a poor reputation. So they went to a school 5 miles away. It was a complete disaster for DS1 who is statemented with ASD. I battled with them for 3 years but I had to move him as he was being tormented in play and in lessons and the school did nothing. Initially it was all good, but last 18 months have seen a steady decline to not fit for purpose tbh. It almost feels a bit negligent to have them there.

our school does them. Dd was invited (I think all year 6 were).
I apologised to teacher and said I wasn't sending her. She had sat 11+ (and passed with flying colours) and had worked hard in year 5 and I had promised her no extra work in year 6.
Teacher was fine, as ddwas estimated to do fine in SATS.

Sats really are a school measure though, and I encourage all parents to tell that to their kids, do your best for your school, but don't worry it isn't a test that anyone will ever look at for you.

Just seen the KS1 results. That is extraordinary!

I am wondering though, the tests were new this year, and the level has gone u. If the school has missed judged their new teaching to the new test, I am wondering if that could explain some of it.

But 0%? Really? I don't even know how you do that, some kids will have got their by themselves with things like reading.

What are the chances of this school staying open in the long run? Don't Ofsted swoop in if a school manages to fail ALL pupils?

Only a quarter passed the phonics, so the SATs were always going to be bad I suppose.

They're under Ofsted's watchful eye, but yes I do worry for the long-term future. No parents' evening planned yet - I'm sure we've always had one by now. It feels like they are piling on pressure to the children but hiding from parents. Unless there is a money or transport request which we are then expected to pull out of the air with virtually no notice.

As feenie rightly said upthread, children's targets for GCSE are set by their KS2 SATs results but, once again, this is a problem for the secondary school rather than the child as the sec. then has to get children to achieve their targets (which are not set by the school) or be at risk of being judged as failing. There is also now the Progress8 measure for secondaries to worry about.

So artificially boosting KS2 SATs results by intensive 'booster' classes causes problems all down the line! On the other hand, you expect a school to educate your child properly; what other measures could be used to ensure that schools are actually doing that which wouldn't lead to gaming the system?

Utter garbage. Have you seen how much there is in the curriculum? There's no way to get it covered without thinking of adding time somewhere.

Since not all schools do this it's clearly not true. SATS are meant to be a reflection of the level of progress a child is making, if it is impossible for some children to reach a certain level then the syllabus is too full and the results should reflect that. It's not the child's responsibility to give up their free time to get the results the schools wants.

Our school offers these booster sessions but theyre at 8am - 8.45am 3 days a week. None of my children ever attended them and my youngest wont either.
I'd rather their SAT results to be based on their actual ability across the board not based on cramming for 4 months.

Theres genuinely more to life than exam results and a million opportunities are out there other than GCSE's - A Level - University. High schools are finally starting to realise this by offering more vocational subjects again alongside traditional exam qualifications.

I'm not a fan of SATs at all. Primary age schooling should be fun and exciting and not getting stressed and worried about getting the right grades to show how well the teacher does their job.