Year 6 - waste of time now

[Bookridden]

After months of cramming for SATs, DD is now enjoying a more relaxed regime. Its really nice, but a bit annoying that for the next few months before starting secondary, she's basically going to be doing a play, sex Ed and loads of free time. All of which is great, but does seem a bit of a waste of a couple of months off school time. It's like the purpose of being at primary is now finished, and the school are just babysitting the kids until the end of year 6.

I agree but my dd has been looking forward to this time for so long! They do same the same things each year so they know what's coming!

There shouldn't be a load of free time. They should be doing all the stuff they shifted out of the way earlier in the year for SATs, e.g. science, humanities, PE, music etc.

I'd be very surprised if they weren't having a big focus on writing right now.

DD's class is definitely having a big focus on writing for the next few weeks ( as well as all the fun stuff). I think the teacher wants them to show they can get 'exceeding' or whatever it is but they have to produce the work!

Our yr6 are on a wonderful residential for the week at the moment. Lots of team building, outdoors skills, leadership, resilience etc. Really relevant 'soft' skills and I'm glad the school is somewhat filling in the gaps that focusing on exams has left. Hope they can do more of the same in the remaining class time too

I don't see what's wrong with that?

What I would be concerned about, is that for those that struggle with maths, it is important the school does keep that up. Otherwise 3 months off before Sept is a long gap for those that struggle.

TBH I am more of the opinion that the time spent doing SATS was the waste of time, at least from now on they might all get some education.

(disclaimer DDs teacher is fab, and she's kept doing great things with them all year)

My dd is bored to tears now and can't wait to move on. She has autism though and isn't particularly close to any of her classmates. I will let her have a few days off and she's not going on the school journey so I will keep her off that week and we are going to Center Parcs

Dd didn't do SATs but had entrance exams in the January of year 6.

In some ways they did indeed lighten the workload from then on. But I personally thought it was great. They did an end of year play and a 'rock band' with their new teacher, they did more enrichment activities, they did more PHSE and prep for secondary stuff, etc. Whilst not as academic they did a lot of learning - just a different type of learning. School isn't just about academia, and most of those other activities are great transferable skills.

Ours school y6 do loads of enrichment stuff as well as carry on with the basics. They have a residential. They prepare for high school. They help out in the lower years etc Academia as such is less intense but they do still learn other stuff

DD has a residential the week after half term and they did quite a decent job researching the area and the sights they are going to visit even while practising for SATS.

I assume they will do a lot of after-work when they come home, especially writing.

They still have their normal lessons, do far too much PE (in DD’s opinion) and will finish their term book in literacy.

They also generally work on "transitioning to secondary school" stuff- this is pretty important!

And DC's school certainly didn't stop maths and English altogether.

Well dad's s biol didn't particularly cram for sats, and kept everything else going all year. Now sats are done, they're doing lots of writing, school play auditions and rehearsals, residential trip, secondary transition stuff and lots of maths extension work.

Having been through this with DS1, I actually think this is a really important half term. DS1 finished primary on a real high, full of confidence, which is a great place to be in for start of year 7.

DS's school - don't know what my phone did there

Ds' is currently involved in developing a business in a small group. I think they're selling paper aeroplanes. Slightly troubled by the teacher telling them they (apparently) can't have the standard ones as the point on the end is a health and safety risk.
He's also convinced after they talked to the year 3s that they can sell them for 75p upwards. I think they'll do well if they sell them at 20p, but never mind.
Then they have the year 6 show. Don't know what he is, but I think he only auditioned for chorus, which probably means he won't get anything as they'll move downwards.
They've also got a maths week.

But he's missing a week for performing with a local theatre group which he's very smug about.

Schools I know practice for sports day, go on the residential trip, do an end of school play, do more music and prepare for secondary. They do have their normal lessons and no one stops learning. The focus is definitely on boosting confidence and doing a summer curriculum. It’s definitely not a waste of time.

Practise!

Sorry - it's a Y6 spelling objective, but no one on MN understands it, it's v annoying.

Not one single lesson was rearranged for SATs in my school - the children are statutorily entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum and that's absolutely what they get - the nearest I got was swapping a PE lesson with the Y5 teacher when we did the reading test so we could still play rounders later on.

We will still be doing Maths and Literacy up until the end of July (don't break up until 25th).

My Y7 ds is really struggling in Science at secondary, partly because he had about 3 lessons in the whole of Y6 - they didn't even bother to report an assessment to parents, even though it's statutory. The Y7 Science teacher is tearing his hair out trying to fill gaps in various children's experiences.

Yes I know it’s practise! Thanks so much for pointing it out in your withering manner. I fully understand the difference. I will practise, practise and practise some more to make sure I don’t make the mistake on MN ever again.
(Phones don’t always do what you want!)

TBH I am more of the opinion that the time spent doing SATS was the waste of time, at least from now on they might all get some education.

This ^
So much rounded education gets taken away from so many of our children in Yr6. These next 6 weeks are all they have to try to claw little bits of it back.

OP you are totally barking up the wrong tree. This is when they get to do all the rites of passage stuff - maybe a play/production, leavers’ assembly, project work, maybe a residential- the whole Year 6 experience that SATs threatens to rob them of. The things Year 6s used to do for more than merely half a term. Whatever else is wrong with primary education these days (and there’s a lot) please don’t forget that they are still young children this term and need to be treated and educated as such before they enter the big bad world of the secondary school.

But I wasn't withering - I even apologised. It's quite funny because it's a Y6 objective, a Y6 thread and happens quite a lot on MN. All of which I pointed out.

Someone on MN pointed out to me that 're' didn't need an abbreviation once - I didn't know and was glad it had been pointed out. Absolutely nobody is perfect. It's how you accept criticism, I guess. Certainly, as a teacher, that's something you have to understand implicitly. It would help if governors understood that too!