Home ed joining Y6 mid-year... missing SATs work

[buddhamama]

My son has been home ed for a year and is going back to school after half term. The head has put the heavies on about SATs - said he really needs to catch-up, will have to do loads of extra work etc. I'm particularly worried about what she said about the writing portfolio. She said they will expect him to submit a full portfolio, even though he hasn't been in the school for that time. So he will miss other lessons to catch up with extra writing. This seems really unfair - can they do that?!

He is a bright kid, and probably will be fine in his SATs - he's been doing KS3 Science ever since we started home ed, and really stretching himself - but I worry about the pressure they're going to put on. I wonder what legally they can require from him... and what I can say no to.

The Sats result will not determine his long term future, many secondaries retest in y7.

It's difficult to declare this with confidence, because however much retesting the school does in Y7, the school is judged by the progress made from Y6 SATs to GCSEs. That's why schools use SATs results as a basis for target-setting.

If a child joins the school without SATs, two things may happen:

1. Their GCSE targets - generated by FFT or similar - will be 'average'. So probably 5s / 6s, even for a very bright child. School policy MAY - or may not - be to adjust these based on class work (usually, they can only be adjusted upwards). However, a bright child without SATs results who is underperforming - ie on target for 6s in a middle set - may well slip under the radar.

1. When push comes to shove, as their results will not contribute to progress data, the school may choose to devote scarce Y11 coaching / revision / booster class spaces / a move to a higher set with 1 space on those where it will have the most impact. This won't matter if your child is doing fine. However, if they could do better with a little extra push, they would be at the back of the queue for this. It is a sad fact that no schools have enough resource, so what they have has to be allocated where it will make the maximum impact.

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So, you've taken your child out of school to home educate him.
This is no longer convenient so you now require the services of the school (to educate him or to child-mind him).
Whilst he has been at home, he has not made academic progress in line with his peers in school.
The school are planning to give him additional support sessions to hopefully bring him up to expected levels so he doesn't start secondary school at a disadvantage.

And you are complaining?

If this is the same school he was at before, maybe the headteacher is fully aware of your attitude and is trying to put you off re-enrolling him.

I would also say that if you selected this school in any way - ie you went on results, Ofsted report, positive local reputation when choosing it, either for this entry or a previous one - then you are being particularly hypocritical. That reputation, report or results were based on previous SATs results, which you have used when it suited you. However, because it might cause additional work for your child in 1 subject, you now want to jeopardise those results.

If, on the other hand, you simply selected it because it was the very closest school to your house with a place, my point is not relevant.

OP I think you are getting a hard time on here. Nobody knows the reasons why her ds was home educated and why he now needs to be back in school.

I think there is some confusion about what is assessed in Y6 ( end of KS2)
Children have two English grammar, punctuation and spelling tests, a reading test, an arithmetic and a Maths reasoning test. They are no longer tested in writing but are assessed based on writing they have produced independently over the year, which is why the school are talking about a writing portfolio for the OPs child who obviously hasn't produced any written work previously as he has missed half a school year. If there isn't enough work to make an accurate judgement he will be assessed as working below the expected standard.
In the past we had a child arrive from Scotland the week before the tests and his assessment counted towards our results and yes depending on class size it can make a significant difference to league tables which are used by parents when deciding on schools for their child.

If your child is more motivated when allowed to discover for himself and learn at his own pace, I don’t think that a formal education setting is the place for him at this stage. He may be very skilled in some areas, but there will be gaps in his knowledge and understanding, because he hasn’t followed the curriculum that his potential classmates have.

It may have suited him and you, but it does sound as though you are at risk of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It seems as though you benefited from an education system that you believe is narrow in thinking and has too great a focus on a smaller range of subjects.

The suggestion of finding out more information from the proposed secondary school is a good one. I think you will have to accept the constraints put upon you by the school if you need him to be in a school setting until the end of year 6. It’s unlikely that the school will change its thinking and expectation for your child.

Adding to what a previous poster has said, there is no actual SATS paper for writing. Instead, the class teacher makes an assessment based on the teacher assessment framework (TAF) using at least 6 high quality pieces of independent writing (in case they get selected for moderation). This is what the school is referring to as a 'writing portfolio'.

The TAF is basically a tick list of criteria that the children have to meet in order to achieve either working towards the expected standard, working at the expected standard and working at greater depth.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/740345/2018-19_teacher_assessment_frameworks_at_the_end_of_key_stage_2_WEBHO.pdf

Speaking as a primary school teacher, I know that my year 6 colleagues have already started gathering evidence from pieces of writing completed since January. If a child joins Y6 late in the year, the opportunity for gathering evidence from a range of genres of writing is limited.

And the school will get not funding for your child, even though they will be doing extra work to help your DC through SATs. I bet you are popular

Do private schools have to do SATS?

If not, can you afford to go private for a couple of terms?

@dangerrabbit At my daughter's private prep they sit SATs (I actually think they don't have to, but they do anyway) and no one prepares for them. The school is completely relaxed about it (unlike the 11+ prep) so I don't think independent schools are judged in any way by SATs

No private schools don’t have to do SATS. Some may choose to as a measure of progress. At mine we use alternative end of year assessments. The big focus for us is 11+/independent senior school exams. I agree that if you can afford private it might be a nicer experience than joining a state school just before SATS.

The ‘writing portfolio’s a fancy name for their English exercise book. The teacher has to assess each child on their work, and find evidence they are meeting each standard across multiple pieces of work. Work has to be independent so I’d be reluctant to use work from home (and if moderated I suspect it would be rejected anyway). If your son was clearly way below the standard, I’d be inclined to just let him do the work in class and mark him as working towards. However if as you imply, he is working at/above the expected standard I’d want work to prove that, and this probably would mean some extra writing pieces needed done in school time.

Children who don’t take the test count as not met standard, regardless of the reason (high level of SEN, went on holiday, parents withdrew them). I think the one exception might be if they moved to the country the week before the test and don’t speak a word of English, then they just don’t count. But it’s been a while since I was in a state school so it may have changed.

Writing SATs are teacher-assessed. If the teacher does not have enough writing evidence (which must be produced in school, so as to be verifiably that of the child in question), how can they give a fair assessment? That's why they need a range of work demonstrating the child's ability in different styles of writing.

Remember it's only till May! Then he can have fun with the rest of the class.

Just read page 1 and OP, your attitude towards the school and the headteacher is appalling.

It's not hypocritical to care about results but now want a hot house environment for your child. I chose a primary which had good results, a good reputation but one which achieves this without cramming for the tests.