Yr6 SATs and secondary

[Sunshine818]

I've just been told that year 6 SATs scores are taken into consideration when moving to secondary and then factored in even right through to predicting GCSE grades.

I've advised I am almost certain this information is incorrect. Please please somebody tell me I'm right on this!

I’ve been talking to secondary schools more because my son has some extra learning needs. I have been told SATS are a very small part of the picture and they will be further assessed in year 7 so while they do play a part it’s far from the whole picture.

In fact the secondary senco has suggested I chill out a little bit 😃😃

Lots of secondary schools do use SATS results to initially stream/set children as they go into secondary but generally do their own tests in the first term too and move them around as appropriate.

SATS scores are used as a measure to estimate what grades the child might achieve at gcse and are used to measure the progress a child makes.

However, some kids are late bloomers and do better, some have peaked early and then plateau. I wouldn't worry too much about SATS scores. They are a measurement for schools. About a month after you'll have forgotten all about them I promise.

What Shalom said above. Saved me typing it out!

Primary are not listening to the info I’m giving them, so I have an able child but I think he may not perform to ability in SATS and in a way I hope he doesn’t.

Also a couple of secondary schools I went to use mixed ability in line with current best practice research

Ours use them along with their own tests to make sets in year 7. They are used to set gcse targets that remain with them until gcses

My daughter spent her first two weeks at Secondary (the September) doing tests in the various subject lessons. My teaching friend tell me they don't regard the SATs as a true representation of ability as primary schools drill kids for them.

My child knows about the SATS but so far the school have been low key about them.

I will tell my child to do his best but that SATS are for the school to see how they have taught the kids.

The secondary school attainment measure Progress 8 is partially calculated using KS2 scores. If Progress 8 is used as a measure of a child's academic progress and the secondary want to show good progress then the KS2 data is going to be used as one factor to set targets. These targets are most likely to be GCSE attainment. So yes KS2 results can roll on to impact GCSE targets. That's a broad statement though as there will possibly be many other factors that impact what GCSE targets a child has.

As I understand, official GCSE target is predicted by ks2 SATs results. So, it is rather important.
Also heard manipulated results, like inflated sats score because of intensive tuition and booster, cause massive issues, like unrealistic target.

Schools don't have to set by them but my undertanding was they are used to predict GCSE results. There are obvious flaws with this - DS2 tests really well but he loathes English and struggles with essays etc, so now he will have a highish GCSE predicted grade based on being able to rattle through the SATs tests.

All schools are judged by their progress scores; progress scores are derived from the progress made between Y6 SATS and GCSEs.

SOME schools therefore set individual children's GCSE targets from their Y6 SATS results. This can translate into

• child in too high/too low sets, if sets are formed by target grades rather than by ability
• child being told throughout secondary that they are 'below target' which can hugely affect confidence
• child being told throughout secondary that they are 'ahead of target' which can encourage coasting and underachieving
• if the school is not so clever with statistics, it can result in massive pressure on below-target children and ignoring of on-target or above-target children.

But many schools, I gather, decide a child's target grades not from what the SATS 'predict', but from their own assessment of the child's ability. Equally, many schools will form sets based on their own assessments, and will judge progress based on their own assessments too.

This is something worth asking when choosing a secondary school though.
How are sets formed?
How are predicted/target grades decided?
How is progress reported - will it be relative to the SATS derived target grades?

Sorry, OP. You are not completely right. They do get taken into consideration when producing GCSE targets.

But you are right in that, as others have said, it is not the full picture (for example, for those who don't take KS2 SATs, alternatives are used.)

Slightly cross about this topic as school made a huge deal to parents as to how sats are not important, they are to check on the school etc. This is actually bollocks. My dds secondary went entirely from the sats for everything including setting. If I had known how important they were I would have done things differently. More clued up with dd2. Didn't appreciate being given duff information from the school though.

Wow thanks everyone for the responses! I've definately learned something new today! I have taken note. I'm amazed at how previously ill informed I was! Clarification at last!

The info I have is from an ofsted outstanding secondary school is that SATS are a small part of a big picture. Their advice to me as a parent was to tell my child to do their best and no more than that. One secondary head said they take it with a pinch of salt as the SATS papers have a reading age of 16years so completely unrealistic.

To clarify check with the secondary schools you are applying to.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at secondary schools at the moment

I really wouldn't worry about it too much, unless the school put too much pressure on children. Luckily, our school doesn't seem to. So, I will let the school deal with it, and I'll just make sure my ds stays well fed and slept.

My daughter's school sets everything apart from the humanities and does this from Day 1 based on sats results. DD did very well in her sats and is therefore in the top sets for everything, however they have been doing cat and baseline tests for a week with a view to jiggling things round a bit after half term so we shall see then.

Our local secondaries do Cognitive Ability Testing in the first couple of weeks of Y7 and use that data rather than SATs.

Contact your target secondaries and find out what they do, OP.

DS is currently in Year 9. At the end of last year, he received his GCSE target grades and they were based on SATS and CATS.

He was set, based on his SATS and CATS. This year they have streamed instead of set, and again, this is based on his SATS and CATS.

Home And Private educated kids don't do SATS so many schools have to test so that they can get to know the child's ability on that day.

Our school uses CATS to set and the sets are fluid so you can start y7 in set 3 and end up in set 1 if you perform well.

bagsofbats you’re right, Primaries do drill kids for sats ... it’s a progress measure and they’d be mad to do otherwise. Do secondaries not drill kids fir GCSE’s then? You bet your ass they do. They also have a vested interest in kids not coming in ‘too high’ because it messes with their progress measures. It’s all about the data.

At DD's secondary school all subjects are in accordance of ability, including PE. She did well in her SATS and is in set one for every subject. After half term they do a series of tests so there might be a shuffle. They definitely used their SATS results to do this when they first started.

As a secondary head of department and parent of a Y6 child I am actively not pushing DD at all for SATS as I've seen the effects when children who did exceptionally well at KS2 get targets of 8s and 9s at GCSE and feel like failures if they 'only' get 6s and 7s. I'd rather she had less pressure aged 16.

Slightly cross about this topic as school made a huge deal to parents as to how sats are not important, they are to check on the school etc. This is actually bollocks. My dds secondary went entirely from the sats for everything including setting. If I had known how important they were I would have done things differently. More clued up with dd2. Didn't appreciate being given duff information from the school though.

What difference does it make though? Presumably your first child worked throughout primary school and then did her best in her SATs? If she was subsequently setted based on her SATs results she would have been put in the set that correctly matched her ability.