SATS key1- how worried should I be?

[PrpleRain]

My daughter is in year 2 and will be taking sats in may. She finished year 1 with a great feedback and was above expectations in maths.
We had parents evening yesterday and were told that she is now behind in every subject including maths. I am petrified. The school didn’t alarm us at all there there is any issue.
We plan on doing extra work with her every day but what happens if his results are bad?

I can't be the only mum out there who's happy that their children's school is getting tested for the first time in a long time. I know they test the kids all the time but at least with sats someone outside the school gets to know the results.

My hope is it forces them to get their in order and start being a lot more pre-covid because for the past 2 years I've not got the impression anyone's doing much work. The local private schools have (for the first time ever) now got waiting lists!

I know there are pressures and they've had a lot of my sympathy for 2 years...but that sympathy has run very, very thin.

I know they test the kids all the time but at least with sats someone outside the school gets to know the results.

No, no one outside the school will know the results of the tests. Your school will be moderated on a four year cycle - so someone representing the LEA (recruited teachers who have to pass a test to do this every year) will visit and check the evidence your teachers have used to make their judgments for selected children. They won’t ask to see the children’s tests, they need much more evidence than that.

@paularan

I can't be the only mum out there who's happy that their children's school is getting tested for the first time in a long time. I know they test the kids all the time but at least with sats someone outside the school gets to know the results.

My hope is it forces them to get their in order and start being a lot more pre-covid because for the past 2 years I've not got the impression anyone's doing much work. The local private schools have (for the first time ever) now got waiting lists!

I know there are pressures and they've had a lot of my sympathy for 2 years...but that sympathy has run very, very thin.

What a vile thing to say.

With 10% of staff off with covid, no supply teachers and zero funding state schools have been hammered by the pandemic. For a long time now we've been in crisis mode and comments like this make it very clear that parents have no idea what we're up against.

Agreed. Add that to an assessment system being used to measure children who should have had three years in school but instead have had the most disrupted three years ever - with this year being the worst, if anything - and it’s no wonder schools are in crisis.

I think you underestimate how angry a lot of parents are with the quality and quantity of what their schools have offered.

Polite Facebook and WhatsApp posts aside, there's a reason why so many parents have quietly opted to shuffle their kids into private school. Frankly, my experience was the state shut up shop and left us to fend for ourselves.

And since? Just this year we’ve had two serious outbreaks and last week one in ten teachers had Covid. There isn’t a supply teacher to be had in the whole city. Schools are at breaking point.

Still, you carry on bearing your daft grudges. Bound to help.

and last week one in ten teachers had Covid.

That would be across the country, not just my school.

Frankly, my experience was the state shut up shop and left us to fend for ourselves.

Schools never closed to keyworker children. All schools were checking vulnerable children and their families and making sure they were fed, in the absence of anyone else who gave a monkey’s.

Meanwhile, the private schools were busy providing an education to their pupils rather than just the doctor's kids.

Much easier to do that when they weren't running around making sure vulnerable families could actually eat, had a clientele who had tech to support online learning and they didn't have their curriculum suspended entirely during the first lockdown.

Your ire is misdirected. Take it up with the government who made all of that happen. And who don't give a shit about what's happening now, either. Much like yourself.

Misdirected ire?! The way that schools actively took care of the keyworker's kids and let the rest at sea was a national scandal that can never be allowed to happen ever again.

Of course I wouldn't expect any understanding from the teachers, nurses, doctors etc - your kids were all fine. Meanwhile, mine didn't have anything from mid-March until September.

Which part of ‘the government suspended the curriculum’ are you having trouble understanding?

It was a government directive. As was babysitting key worker children. They were not taught, they were occupied, because those were our instructions. From the dfe.

All during that first lockdown. Take it up with them!

When I taught year 2, slt hated us saying anyone was exceeding because that put the pressure on further up the school to make sure they were still exceeding. Equally, if y1 teacher had sent someone up as exceeding, we were showing our children were making good progress if they weren't exceeding when they left us. It was confusing and complicated, trying to show that we were making progress with the pupils but not so much that it wouldn't be sustainable further up the school. Sort of a numbers thing. Very complicated in year 2. But nothing will happen to her if she's below expected. She should get extra support though. Find out how the school are planning to help her catch up.

I’m a year 2 teacher - and parent of y13, y11, and y5 children.

OP, Pleeeeeeeeease listen to the majority of posters on your thread about putting y2 SATs out of your mind. Don’t do any prep or practice. If you want to do anything, get some lovely picture books, plump some cushions and read them to your child.

This year’s y2s have not had a single year of school untouched by COVID. It is ridiculous that they are having to sit a formal assessment at age 6/7. (We make it fun, it’s a quiz, it’s so Mrs X knows what she taught you well and what she needs to work on, yay extra playtime afterwards. But still.)

Children ebb, flow and develop at different times, at different paces. Last year I had a little boy who reeeeeally struggled with being at school, and formal learning (it’s a big jump from y1 to y2). He was not at working at expected level for y2 for any of his subjects. This year his teacher sent him to me to show me his maths - amazing! He’s suddenly very secure: he’s just matured, and is ready for learning. It’s lovely to see - his y2 SATS mean nothing.

Just withdraw her from the exams, SATs in year 2 absolutely shouldn't be allowed, your post demonstrates the damage they can do.

You can’t- it’s teacher assessment based on their class work through the year. The tests are a a tiny part, and an accurate assessment would be given regardless.

🙄🙄

Next year is the last year of these anyway, because the official starting point for progress measures will be Reception baseline assessments. Which have already gone ahead this year for this cohort. And no, you can’t withdraw your children from that either.

Teacher assessment is continuous, all the way through school. Y2 is no different. And if you think it’s any different at private schools, think again. Most private schools are even more test oriented.

Frankly, I'm all up for testing. Judgement is a part of life, withdrawing is pointless paranoia and they're always being tested in other ways throughout school anyway.

I thought this academic year was the last year of KS1 sats?

It’s was supposed to be, but Covid interfered. So there were some schools involved in a baseline pilot, but it wasn’t official, and therefore can’t be a starting point as a measure for all schools.

I expect that was teachers’ fault too.

Blimey, don't tell More Than A Score 😂

It’s well documented as the new starting measure and already in progress now. I doubt if many Reception parents even know their child was assessed.

The point remains that the standard of age related expectations exists on the premise that children actually attended school. My ds is sitting GCSEs (unless Covid interferes 🤞🤞) where the tested curriculum has been slimmed down to reflect the disrupted schooling. No such allowances have been made for the age related standard being used to judge Reception (who have missed nursery), Year 2 or Year 6. It isn’t right.

I’m still tickled by the idea that the people you think are coming to sort your school out @paularan are a) teachers themselves (I’m a KS2 moderator), b)only coming on a four year cycle anyway and c)not likely to look at tests because that’s not how KS1 judgements are made (take note, OP).

No need to role your eyes at me @Feenie

You can withdraw your child from the actual tests to make a point, many parents do, including several teachers. Its an opportunity to teach your child about critical thinking and not mindless conformity.

Infant's shouldn't be burdened with this bullshit, nor should teachers or parents.

Perhaps if you'd leaned to debate/think properly you wouldn't resort to rudeness.

No, you can’t. They aren’t on set days like Y6 SATs so it isn’t possible. You might as well try to withdraw them from a spelling test. And there wouldn’t be any point anyway because, as I have said about a hundred times, the assessment is teacher assessment only. No one reports the tests, moderates the test, not even SMT look at the test. Children do examples of the kinds of questions every single day. The only way to withdraw them is to home educate.

Its an opportunity to teach your child about critical thinking and not mindless conformity.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 They don’t even know they are doing them - ours call them puzzle booklets. All you would be ‘teaching’ your child is how to be a giant nuisance and a total bellend.

@Feenie

No, you can’t. They aren’t on set days like Y6 SATs so it isn’t possible. You might as well try to withdraw them from a spelling test. And there wouldn’t be any point anyway because, as I have said about a hundred times, the assessment is teacher assessment only. No one reports the tests, moderates the test, not even SMT look at the test. Children do examples of the kinds of questions every single day. The only way to withdraw them is to home educate.

Its an opportunity to teach your child about critical thinking and not mindless conformity.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 They don’t even know they are doing them - ours call them puzzle booklets. All you would be ‘teaching’ your child is how to be a giant nuisance and a total bellend.

I'd have to agree with you here, it's teaching kids to be a contrarian ass, inconveniencing everyone along the way.

Do you know what, @Waterbottle123, I have every sympathy with your anti-test stance, having searched your posts, but every time you suggest it, the aim is misplaced and would only hurt the school or, in this case, the child. There are better ways to make your case - for example, the Y6 SATs boycott in 2010 which at least got rid of the abominable writing test, if nothing else. That was supported by the unions, including the NAHT and the NUT and involved roughly a third of schools (50% in urban areas). But it needs to be a collective action aimed at the right target. If you involve your 7 year old, that’s the wrong fight.