Any advice for children sitting Sats KS2

[paul2louise]

My son will be sitting Sats this year. He is fairly bright, a bit lazy and makes mistakes. Bit laid back tbh. Are any of you parents doing any extra work to get them ready for the tests. I don't want to make it boring but can you help them practice the technique. I know they do some stuff at school.

Accountability (look it up, Tizerorfizz 😉) was suspended for those years in primary schools, so not sure if they would therefore be suspended for two years when those children reach Y11.

Something similar happened in 2010 when a third of schools boycotted SATs with union support - but teacher assessment was also in place back then for reading, writing and Maths so they were used instead.

Now the only data collected for reading and Maths is test data - and those were suspended for those two years, so who knows 🤷‍♀️

Report on how Progress 8 scores translated to Ofsted inspection ratings (obviously pre-pandemic):

ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2017/10/how-do-ofsted-ratings-relate-to-progress-8-scores/

Ofsted inspector blog re Progress 8

educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2018/09/04/vocational-qualifications-progress-8-and-gaming/

None of that makes translating Sats into progress obligatory. I think you have used the wrong word. There is no obligation. There is an expectation. I do know how all of this works, thanks. If it was an obligation all schools would have positive progress. Average or above. They don’t. Therefore there is no obligation. No fines and no sanctions. Ofsted will say a school should improve. Plenty of schools don’t. Or very little. Therefore there is no obligation. It’s an expectation. However parents are worrying far too much if they think their own child’s sats results affect a school very deeply. Indeed affect their grade predictions.

Schools seek to improve children. It would be great, therefore, if the secondary schools picked up on under achieving children and improved them! They are probably the easiest group to improve. So under achieving at sats can make secondary schools look good if they do a good job. In fact my local grammars improve children. You would think that’s difficult for higher achieving children but good schools can do it. Schools that get more middle achieving children can certainly improve them. It’s teaching that matters. Not sats results.

You have just shown that you have absolutely no understanding of what accountability means, or what is used to measure that. Accountability measures are - unfortunately - what schools live or die by. We don’t necessarily agree with them, but are held to account by literally every regulatory body there is. Every action plan, every governors’ meeting, every SMT meeting, every report - EVERYTHING - is measured by them. You are absolutely nuts if you think if you still think this is not the case and I can’t help you. Completely barking.

To the point who said ‘kids move sets’.
Depends on the school.
In our school, barely. And if your kid actually wants to learn, they had better be in set 1. Set 2, things are already more challenging and the teachers can’t get through the content, so there is little chance to move up to set 1 even from there.

And it’s not just about wanting to learn. It’s about being in an environment which feels safe.

In my experience SATs matter. The following 5 years experience hinges entirely on your results.

Point= pp

Read the links - there is not even the most infinitesimally tiny bit of doubt that this is the case.

Government to schools - these are your accountability measures. You are accountable for them!

Tizerorfizz - None of that makes translating Sats into progress obligatory.

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Dc2 is in year 5, what can we do so they get a great SATS result?

@Cryingbutstilltrying great point. My daughter is currently y7.....gasp....shock horror......the school can deal with no SATs. They did their own tests as they do every year to assess where they are and progress.

My son y9.....has 3 columns of data.....Sat's, school baseline and progress. On speaking with his subject teachers I can assure you they do not limit children's progress based on sats. My son, for many reasons didn't get great Sat's.....so based on that is predicted 5's, school are predicting him 7's......I think if he works hard we will see a couple of 8's..... Actually this will be great for the schools progress 8 scores.....

Don't tutor to pass SATS. Tutor if you think your child needs help in particular area so their confidence and understanding improves overall standing them in good stead for ongoing learning. I agree parents are supporters of learning - it's not all school responsibility. I do think SATS are a massive waste of time. Anything can happen at secondary school and there are so many variables. Also parents are advocates- if you think your child is not doing as well as they should then you find out why and fight to get it sorted. I would sat, based on my experience of ds and 11plus, teaching children to actually sit an exam is useful. For example, answer everything you can and return to tricky questions at the end, mock tests with a timer so they become aware of time. Made a massive difference to my ds.

@Mumdiva99
This is what I’m trying to say. There are some very rude posters who don’t seem to accept that progress can be improved. Hope your DS does well!

Personally I think that secondary schools that set children by sats outcomes and do not regularly evaluate their children and move them up or down accordingly are probably a bit... Uh... Not very good.

And to answer the OPs' question, if your child is super keen to do practice then of course do it, but I'd ask what you're doing it for. Sats are a test of the school and not the child.

DD’s school cancelled their PE lessons to do extra SATS prep. Year 6 has been miserable for them as since Christmas it has only been about SATS at the expense of everything remotely interesting or fun. So no, no extra prep here.

@ChuckBerrysBoots
I think that amount of attention to sats spoils yr 6 too. I would point out that PE is a required lesson. Some schools really turn DC off learning.

Oh we did! We were told it would be made up elsewhere (daily mile) but having asked the children, that’s not happening. We’re lucky we can give our DD opportunities outside of school but it’s crap for those who can’t.

We are not doing anything extra, the tests should be of the childs ability based on what they have been taught in school. My child hates homework and its a battle every week to do the 15 minutes that is set! I don't believe that his SATs will determine his future, it's a measure of where he is now. He has extra help for maths already but that's because we could see he needed it.

SATs are important due to the way they are used as targets for GCSE grades, therefore I think supporting, additional work and practice at home is appropriate

@twelly I don't understand that argument really. Why should we collude in such a system?? My child's SATs results haven't determined her GCSE targets. They might have for a year or so, but then it became apparent that she was capable of more and she was moved up (this is maths, state funded big standard comp). I would seriously question whether a school letting sats determine GCSE targets was doing its job properly. What is the benefit to the school, even, of holding back a child in a lower set? You'd really want to progress that child as much as possible as it will bump up your p8 score. And performance on other threshold measures as well.

I think that secondary schools that set children by sats outcomes and do not regularly evaluate their children and move them up or down accordingly are probably a bit... Uh... Not very good.

Massively oversubscribed outstanding school in our case.

Very good at getting the progress 8 figures just so. Not very good at nurturing. Does foster notice? Do most parents look beyond the results?

Foster= =ofsted

Ofsted are stats driven. Therefore improving children is what they want to see. They really want all children to flourish and parents have opportunities to speak out if other aspects of school life are poor. They only visit for 2 days though so you cannot expect a very detailed investigation.

@BlackishTulips parents, possibly not, hence the oversubscription. Ofsted... I'd hope so.

You could be describing a school local to me. I chose not to send one child there because the gloss and shine didn't persuade. It hadn't been inspected for 10+ years, still hasn't. In the intervening period it had attempted to offroll a friend's child with ASD and had to reach a settlement when threatened with tribunal for disability discrimination.

Amazing p8 scores. Tiny proportion of FSM eligible. Crap pastoral care.