Failed SATs KS2... What to do?

[Headunderthecovers]

Ds2 got 106 maths, but only 99 in English grammar and 98 in reading . He also failed science. I am worried about implications going forward and what I should do for secondary.

He has concentration and organisation problems. He will literally forget a bag I have just put in his hand or an instruction given a couple of minutes ago.

I struggle to get him to do his homework as anything he can't do straightaway he just gets angry and refuses to do. In fact I struggle to get him to do any work full stop. He is addicted to Minecraft/Roadblox and although I limit his time he swears and shouts when I take him off. He really 'loses' himself. I feel the games are his way of relaxing and he finds it easier to make friends on this forum than at school where he is often made fun of. He struggles to manage his emotions and when I am even mildly reprimanding him he says I am 'shouting' at him despite not raising my voice.

My older children weren't like this at all and Ireally don't know how I should handle him. The older children feel I am too 'soft' with him but I can't take the daily battles. We will have the morning tantrum about clothes sensitivity and the afternoon ones about time limits playing games. He will just shout at me until he gets his own way.

His report says he responds well to one to one adult attention and praise which I would definitely agree with. His dad left last year and he was witness to the fallout from this and I know he struggles with this and his anger increased and he had separation anxiety issues with me.
I have other children, a full time job and my life is a full time balancing act and I feel none of it is done perfectly but I do the best I can.

He is really quite good at maths (and science despite failing his SATs!) and I can see compared to his siblings he is just as 'clever' but doesn't concentrate and work. His report says verbally he is good at coming up with English ideas but not so good at putting these ideas onto paper. We are a very bookish household but whilst he likes being read to he doesn't pick up a book himself.

I desperately want him not to miss out on opportunity at school because of things I could do to help him. He will be going to the local comp and lessons in especially the middling to lower sets can be disruptive and certainly not what he needs.

I'd like some advice on how to help him at home as I feel I am failing badly and not just schoolwork but in managing his emotions and concentration and organisation as this is likely to get him in trouble at secondary school where there more expectation on the child to become independent.

Any ideas and hope for going forward?

"But the SATS test results are used by schools in league tables and OFSTED use them" which is why league tables are an utter joke ...if you must use them look at the "value added" measure not the raw percentages which tell you nothing about the quality of teaching. Many schools will never reach the dizzy heights of the league tables due to their intake but have amazing teachers. Think about special schools. Pupils are unlikely to reach expected standards but I've every respect for the work of their staff.

Ofsted have finally worked it out and now look at actual progress. They've realised that some schools can sit back because of their catchment

Fourmantent the DfE don't use CATs results. They do use the results from all the SATs tests (there are actually 6 tests)

The data doesn't include the SPAG test but does include the TA writing

We use sats to set in year 7, but progress dictates whether or not they st a y in that set. The sats are bollocks and result in ridiculous targets 5 years down the line based on what could have been one good day. The poor sods who accidentallyget high sat marks are hounded for 5 years.

They are generated on the basis of probability based on the thousands of students that have previously sat KS2 tests and what they went on to get at GCSE. This is possible at the moment because of the many years that KS2 and GCSE testing.
so for a collective cohort of results, it's fairly reliable. But they are not about the individual.

The Government like them because it's an easy measure to use. But of course that doesn't make it the best measure. With the current new tests coming through, they have had to somehow extrapolate based on a comparison between old and new results. All sounds a bit pants really. Rather like waiting for the maths and English GCSE results this summer. No one knows what to expect.

I said they were a reflection on the teaching. Not on the teachers ability to take the exam

This might have been the emphasis a few years back but when the Government changed them, they changed the emphasis by creating a 'pass/fail' marker which puts a judgement on the individual. Originally, they were requiring that those who failed would be required to retake the tests on the January on year 7. All emphasing that this is about how the student has done. It is also still used by OFSTED to make a judgement on a school, and by parents when looking at Goevernment league tables to compare schools.

Hi. Your son sounds very like mine who has just been diagnosed with ADHD. He got similar scores in SATs but I know he is capable of better.
Won't /can't read, but loves listening to audio books, roblox, can't do homework, lack of organisation. He doesn't have a temper and his behaviour is good, but he really struggles at school.

Thanks mrz. I am seeing 2 tests for SPaG, 1 test for reading and 3 for maths... plus 4 TA results (reading, writing, maths, science) .... are you saying that they will not use the SPaG results?

Both DSs have dyslexia which throws a spanner in the works regarding all this nonsense and DS1 had very low targets for his GCSEs, hence my concerns. DS2 has just scored 1 in his spelling test... poor kid. He's done OK in everything else though.

They are not that much below. Weird scoring, thought pass mark was 50%, it was in exams I took at school many moons ago.

It is a farce but that's the system we have to work with.
Personally I've nothing against assessment using summative tests but I do have an issue with league tables and using them to set targets/measure progress. Use assessment to help the child. That should be their sole purpose!

Hiya, I wouldn't worry about the Sats at all if you can help it. I work in a secondary and I believe of the year 7 cohort that arrived at the beginning of this year, around 70% didn't get the 100 score pass rate in year 6 (for English) This is due to the government raising the bar in the new sats - not only are they now harder to pass, the material they are expected to know is mind numbingly boring. When I have a child I might remove them from sitting the sats at all, they are a terrible waste of time and stress for everyone involved.

At our secondary, the kids who didn't get the pass have been absolutely fine, but a small group who were significantly below the score have been part of a catch-up group, which is basically small group tuition to help improve their literacy over the year.

So if anything, if you're really worried, maybe just take a look at the secondary he's going to and reassure yourself that it has a supportive enough environment. But really, as others have mentioned, his scores are so close to the pass you have nothing to worry about. He definitely would have reached an average of a level 4 in the old system with that.

Aeroflotgirl the pass mark is roughly 50% reading 26/50 maths 57/110 SPAG 36/70 but converted to a scale score of 100

Thank very much MrsZ 😃

"and I believe of the year 7 cohort that arrived at the beginning of this year, around 70% didn't get the 100 score pass rate in year 6 (for English) This is due to the government raising the bar in the new sats " that's extremely low significantly below the national figure. We sent 80% of our pupils to secondary having achieved the expected standard in English.

I may have remembered the figure incorrectly but it was definitely over 50% and higher. We get good gcse results and no child is restricted as to what gcse courses they want to do. The point remains the same anyway - getting a score below 100 makes people think their child is failing and they're not. The new sats are ridiculous, harder than they used to be and no child at my secondary has had a difficult time or been unable to get on well this year because of their sats scores. They are mainly used to predict gcse grades at our school, and then just identifying children who were way below the pass rate and helping them.

There are so many variables, I can see it giving an overall picture but I don't think it is very helpful individually. The intake of the primary makes a big difference e.g. my GC goes to a little village school, lovely little school and I imagine if you did a financial test the vast majority of the children come from homes with above average earnings. Lots of SAHM who are very aware of what the children are doing, by year 4 most seem to have tutors and by the end of year 5 it is almost 100%. The school gets great results compared to a school 2 miles away which has a much poorer catchment area, parents who probably aren't able to fund the tutors. So how is it fair to compare their results?

Reminds me of when my children were leaving junior school, two of our local schools got fantastic 11 plus results compared to the school mine went to. However, if you looked at those kids at 16 the results had changed and an awful lot of children from the successful primaries hadn't done well at GCSE.

It is a marathon not a sprint.

My DD got similar scores and she's been placed in the mid-high end of the set system and is mostly predicted 6's at GCSE. She's achieving higher than this already in some areas and she's only in year 7. The new Pass grade is 5.

From what I've seen The SATS aren't relevant anymore just a year later. DD has had a few shuffles in her classes with people being moved as internal testing is done. Schools will vary but most will use them as a rough guide to set kids by ability and will move kids around as they go if needed based on internal work and exams.

At DDs school everyone does the same subjects to begin with. When it comes to GCSEs certain core subjects are compulsory. With the others kids are encouraged to chat to teachers about them. If a teacher sees a child struggling with a certain subject over the first year or two before options then they would encourage them to look elsewhere. If they are doing well in the subjects they wish to take there is no issue. It's about your child playing to their strengths.

Her predicted GCSE scores are just a target on her report to measure against. We were told they are a baseline so they can see if the child is dropping too far below. The first lot of exams loads of kids dropped under but now at the end of the year the vast majority are on track and many are above. That's all they mean. They arent targets she cannot exceed.

Hi OP. Your ds sounds very much like mine was at that age. Seriously, I used to pull my hair out at lack of concentration and disorganisation. But oddly, ds1 could concentrate for hours on his xbox! (DS was refered aged 9 to be evaluated for hearing tests and then ADHD and all was fine)

Starting secondary school meant he had to pull his sh!t together though and I was surprised he actually managed to get to grips with it fairly quickly. Don't get me wrong there is still the odd day that I might have to drop his PE kit off for him, but it seems like the change and responsibility somehow made him focus more.

Also, he is quite bright but lets himself down for tests due to not being prepared. That said he has made improvements over the last year with school work and is on schedule for his Nat 5s (we're in Scotland so equivalent to GCSEs). DS is almost 14 but has improved a lot over last couple of years with support from me/dh and I think just maturity.

I guess what I'm saying is that maybe your ds might have underlying issues, but equally he might just need a bit of time and support to 'get it together'.

If you do think he has underlying problems or educational needs it’s absolutely worth pursuing in my opinion. Academically bright doesn’t always mean no help is needed.

My daughter is autistic. She was given extra time for her Sats. She did fail all but one subject despite this but this wasn’t unexpected (it had already been decided that she will be moving to special needs education in September) but for some children that extra time could have made a huge overall difference. I’m not sure what criteria you have to meet to be allotted this extra time allowance but it’s worth thinking about for the future. If a need isn’t identified he could be missing out on support that would make a big difference to his performance.

I think you shouldn't see the results as pass or fail or over interpret there importance. It is clear however that you don't feel your son has met his potential and that is what is significant. It does sound like your son is struggling.I would speak with the speech therapist and see what support and referrals she can make. Set up an appointment with the school SENCO and class teacher and ask for an assessment. The attachment issues are hard maybe see if you can get chams help speak to the GP.

In terms of behaviour I think consistency is key no matter how trying it is. I personally would take away all games and explain to him that your fed up of arguing about them and until he radically improves he won't have them at all.

I really hope you get all the help and support you need.

I understood that progress 8 is measured on an average of reading and maths exams only (50% weighting each). Spag/writing and all teacher assessed work is not included. Please can someone clarify. Thanks.

Progress 8
http://www.naht.org.uk/_resources/assets/attachment/full/0/43401.pptx

Lego - yes, from 2017 onwards that's the case.

Ds1 scored 99 in English in his SATs last year. He has just won the school English award for achievement and is in the top set .

Things change, he has gained confidence and realised more efforts equals better results.

SATS don't define everything