KS2 SATS preparation - or lack of!

[Notcontent]

My dd is in year 6 and I am just surprised at how little they are doing to prepare for SATS. Since Christmas I think they have been doing a bit more during school time, but nothing extra. In general there is very little homework and they have been told to "revise" over the Easter break without actually being given any work sheets to complete, etc.

I am really puzzled by their approach. I do a bit of extra stuff with my dd anyway, so I am not worried about her progress, but it just seems strange...

I am unsure if I am a bit jealous of this. My DD is in year 6 and has had mocks SATs and now has tests every single day - like 2 or 3 every day and will do until their actual SATs.

It's becoming quite demoralising because she feels like she's not learning anything now, just going over and over the same stuff.

I wouldn't sweat it, as far as I'm concerned the SATs are to measure the schools performance not the dcs.

If she is learning, there is nothing to worry about. The result itself is irrelevant, really, other than insofar as it helps set GCSE targets. How she actually performs at GCSE will not be influenced by this.

I wish more schools had the same attitude Notcontent. They are still young, they shouldn't be under too much pressure.

Hopefully this means you have a great school that has taught them well in general lessons so no need to cram at the end.
Also they are putting the children's well being and mental health first.
I would have loved this approach.
We got workbooks and extra lessons that just stressed my DD so much she was in tears some days.

I really wouldn't worry. My DS is Y6 and they are also doing very little towards SATs in comparison with many. They are doing booster classes in school time but homework is still minimal and I haven't seen a practice paper. Our SATs results are just fine.

DS has ASD and simply turning up to school is a challenge, so I have particular reason not to worry. However, intensive preparation is more about boosting the schools Y6 data than about helping the kids learn.

If you're generally happy with the way your DD has progressed and been taught for the last six years then I'd honestly count your blessings that she is in a sane school that is taking a rounded approach to education!

Same here, no extra homework, in fact no communication about SATS other than telling us the dates. I'm very pleased, DD is happy, they have a great teacher, scores were above average last year.

I think it's important that children are prepared for the tests but that doesn't mean endless "mocks" and sending home previous tests. Good teaching and familiarisation with the format seems much more sensible.

Actually Sats results do inform likely GCSE results. The lower the results, the more progress is needed at secondary school to get reasonable GCSEs. Some secondary schools don't manage this. However, a less frantic approach to Sats is a healthy approach!

True up to a point but 'progress' as measured by SATs isn't necessarily a full or true measure of the real progress made. So endless revising to pass a particular format of test may not mean as much real educational progress as teaching other material on top of test preparation, even if the genuine progress isn't measured. For example, the Grammar and Spelling test requires children to learn some things that don't seem particularly useful and are unlikely to inform their GCSE exams.

The SATS results only influence the target, i.e. the progress in terms of grades, not the actual amount of progress in terms of learning that needs to be made. A child who is absent on SATS day still learned how to read, write, calculate.

Sounds like great school. After last year's new sats results, school which aren't confident about their level of teaching maybe frantic.
Relaxed approach means they are in fact very happy about results = good teaching over all, imo.

Our school is very much focused on SATs - practice tests galore - 2 mock exam weeks. All very stressful to start with. However there has been a silver lining...

DD was very exam phobic before - often getting much lower marks than teacher expected due to anxiety, especially in Maths. However since she's been bombarded with tests this year she's now much more used to them and doesn't stress as much.

So whilst this year seems to have been solely "teaching towards the test" it has by strange side effect really helped my DD. However not all kids will react that way so I do think schools should focus on lowering the pressure as it's really ridiculous sometimes.

SATs only exist as a stick with which to beat teachers.