Y6 SAT booster classes

[Kinsorino]

It's seems to be fairly common for schools round here to run extra maths and english classes before or after school in the run up to year 6 SATs.

I just wondered how people felt about these, I'm particular the extra pressure it puts on 10/11 year olds and extra work for the teachers who run them.

I don't agree that children need to get used to pressure at aged 10 or 11 in order to cope with GCSEs. If that's the case how did any of the adults born before SATs were introduced ever cope?!

Our school has them over the Easter holidays for year six. None for year two.

Oh my god. I would go nuts if our head suggested that to me.

I don't know if our school does this. DD2 is having complete car crash SATS practice tests. She had a mock test to do at home this week. She confidently answered questions, with good pace. Completely wrong. Subtraction questions, added the numbers together. Multiplication questions, she forgot how to do, so had to manually add the numbers. Division questions.... No clue, so had to leave them. Adding fractions... No. Adding two 5-digit numbers, she changed a digit half way through the calculation, so the answer was wrong. Dividing by 1000, she did correctly, but then copied the result out to neaten it, and moved the digits all one place to the right by accident, so the answer ended up being 10 times bigger.

She got 10 marks in the whole paper, and that was at home, with only the pressure of her 30 minutes timer.

She asked me yesterday if there was any way of avoiding the SATS, and looked so crestfallen when I explained that they deliberately do them in May so that children who are sick can definitely do them before the end of term.

I've told her I don't care if she scores just one point, because that will tell me that she was brave enough to walk in to the room, sit down at a desk, and write her name on the front of the book, then answer a question. If she does that, and only that, I will be utterly proud of her. She's such an anxious child, I couldn't care less if she only gets as far as that.

The education system has changed so much since pre sats days.
The exams are constantly changing. what was expected for a end of year 2 child, is now expected for a end of year 1 child. A GCSE exam level is now what was A level exam was 2 years ago. Children are expected to know and be able to do so much more these days.

Booster groups are usually run by teachers giving up their own time and free of charge. An hours private tutation can cost an absolute fortune.

Children Experiencing pressure is far from ideal at any age but unfortunately it's something we all have to learn to deal with. So if a little pressure at 10-11 helps you be more able to deal with it during GCSEs then that's not a bad thing.

The level of stress and pressure put on 15-16 year olds is shocking. A little experience of pressure could help rather than it being a total shock. I never had to deal with stress any where near the level that is put on them now, when I sat my gcses pre sats days and I never had the opportunity of extra sessions, to help prepare for exams. They are thought things like answer the higher score questions first. Its all about preparation.

Question re PP talking about 'greater depth'. I thought GD was only possible in writing (teacher assessed) and it was 'met standard' or 'not met' for reading and maths? That was what was in my DD's year 6 SATs results explanatory letter said and what I have read elsewhere. My DD is year 7 now so in the past but I am confused!

Tbh I think sats in year nine are bad enough. These were around in the 90s.

Aye Lulahsmumma but I'm assuming that if I send DD to SATs booster classes and she does better in her SATs than she would've done otherwise, the pressure for her to achieve at GCSE will be even greater (in order to show the right amount of or something)? I'm not sure that amount if pressure is always healthy, and I do wonder about the soaring rates of mental ill health in teenagers these days.

Tomorrowillbeachicken they do SATs in year 9 as well?! I left school in 1992 and have never done a SAT. I remember plenty of formal tests, even in Primary, but without the big song and dance they make about them these days.

I did them in 1996.

I'm a y5 teacher and I have to stay once a week for an hour to help with y6 booster groups.
We have 4 practice weeks for SATS during which all teachers have to leave their own class with TA/ cover and come and read for y6 for 4 mornings.
It's fucking insane.
And especially so when you're sitting in on the reading paper so can actually do nothing of use but encourage the child to keep going.

Poor kids. Tests are being used as a stick to punish schools and the children are the ones who suffer. Seeing children in tears over bloody tests is awful.

I've got one in Y6 and one in Y2. The one in Y2 thinks SATs are something you do in Y6 :) The one in Y6 is an anxious mess (ASD) about SATs but we're guiding her towards sitting them. She is allowed to skip the crammer sessions fortunately. She got 90% in the mocks for maths. They seem oddly uninterested in the English element

My DD's school seem to have a good SATs prep balance. Since Spring half term her Y6 homework has changed to a weekly schedule of smaller maths, spelling, grammar and reading tasks.

We've also been encouraged to buy 'SATs Buster' booklets from the school in each subject, containing about six 10-minute tests each, so your child can gauge where their strengths and weaknesses are, and prepare accordingly.

DD (a not overly academic child until now) seems to be really embracing it and doesn't (yet!) feel under pressure.

And all the varying approaches detailed here just show why secondary schools don't trust SATS results - because every primary school puts more or less emphasis on them . (Yes, I know we're saddled with the SATS mark and what it means for 'flightpaths').

My DD has had no SATs style homework, no extra homework really but since Christmas has only had an hour a day of anything other than English,Maths and Reading. From now on she will only have half an hour a day of anything else until the tests. She can cope with work but is beginning to put pressure on herself. I worry about the children who find it hard for one reason or another.
I know they get around having to offer a broad and balanced curriculum by moving all the foundation subjects into the term after the tests but it still makes me annoyed.

I just don't see the point. My DD2 can actually be quite whizzy with maths when she's taught in a way that she can understand (she's on the ASD assessment pathway). But teachers think they can draw blocks of chocolate and that she'll see fractions. She thinks "why is someone drawing chocolate on my paper when we're doing maths??" They don't have time to do what she needs, which is to explain the relevance of the chocolate block. I do that at home, but of course, I'm trying to work out what they've done at school from DD2's description, then she gets upset and confused because it doesn't look exactly as it looked at school, and school doesn't really want to talk to me about what they're doing, because it takes time, so I can't look and copy it for her so I can teach her at home in exactly the same way!

So, it's frustrating. She can convert mixed fractions to improper fractions once she's been taught properly, but she still adds numbers together when she sees a subtract sign, and when it's laid out with one number on top and one number on the bottom, she can't remember whether to take the top from the bottom or the bottom from the top, so what's the point of making her do all this other stuff when she isn't even doing the basics securely?

It's crazy, and not about the children at all I'm basically sending her in to have her last bit of self-esteem torn up before her eyes. "Here's a test to show you just how difficult you find maths. Watch all the other children answer all the questions while you just turn the pages."

I don't really know what's sats preps are like, since my ds is not in yr6 yet. But I just can't see no negatives about extra tuition done by teacher to maximise the understanding of curriculum for children. If you don't agree, don't consent. For homeworks, if you can't be bothered to do it, and the dc could get into trouble for not doing, just squiggle.

I think learning how the test works and in what style the questions are done is a good way to lessen anxiety and also avoid stupid mistakes. We got holiday homework, the questions are in a SATs-style and they will sit the 2017 SATs next week to get an idea about time management.

But, the school also does the normal lessons as well, they still have 2x PE per week, science and arts, finish their history projects, they had bikeability session with the council which meant 1 1/2 days out of the classroom for 20 children at a time stretched over 4 days.

As long as the balance between practice and fun is still there a small amount of pressure will do them good.

I think when 10/11 year olds are told "when that letter comes through your letter box and you've failed, you will care!", by their teacher, and they know that no matter how much they try they will not pass, they hear "you will fail". I don't want my child, who has been in 3 schools due to school anxiety, to get the message that she will fail at the age of 10. She won't fail. She has been failed. Failed by every education professional that wouldn't listen when I told them that despite the fact that she seemed to be learning maths when they taught her, it wasn't 'sticking' and she couldn't generalise that knowledge beyond that lesson, on that table, in that classroom. But, what would I know? I'm only her mother. Yet, here we are, year 6, and she doesn't see that a '-' means subtract, because she's in a blind panic.

I think when 10/11 year olds are told "when that letter comes through your letter box and you've failed, you will care!", by their teacher

That's awful lougle and would be so angry if DD was being told stuff like that at school Poor kids.

If you don't agree, don't consent @irvineoneohone you don't consent to your dc doing SATs theyre not optional in many schools.

My friend is very lucky her primary school boycotts the SATs, my dc school will not boycott them despite 7 out of the 11 parents of year 6 students have asked to withdraw their child. We were all told it wasn't optional and they will be done on your childs return to school if we keep them off.

The extra revision is unnecessary imho. If the school cannot cover these areas of the curriculum in the normal school hours then they need to look at their teaching timetable to see why they aren't covering long division etc

They might say the extra 5 hours a week is optional but the pressure they put on the students to attend is immense. Telling them they will fail, all the other students are going, their teacher expects more from them etc I'm hoping by next Friday the pressure will be less on my ds and he will feel happier not going to the 'booster sessions' if he doesnt want to. But for now he doesn't want to be the only child not going, no matter how many times I say he wont be the only child not there he won't believe me.

My friend is very lucky her primary school boycotts the SATs

That's not possible, unless it's a private school. They're a statutory requirement - no 'optional' about it.

Reinette, I am not talkng about SATS, I am talkng about booster.

Some awful stories of SATS stress put on DC here. I have a question... My DC are at a prep school that does not do SATS but will go to state senior schools for Y7. Is this going to be an issue? How will senior schools deal with not having their SATS results for predicting GCSEs? Any other issues?

It won't be an issue. He just won't have an external target that his school are obliged to make him reach. They'll still teach him!