Ks2 Sats disappointed

[TooManyPlatesInMotion]

I'm not sure how best to support/comfort my DS. The school heaped the pressure on for sats, he worked hard and did well in all his practice papers, getting grater depth scores in reading and maths. The results are in and his marks, while fine, are not what he hoped for or got in all the previous mock assessments.

He is now really down on himself, quiet and subdued (not at all like him) and says he is now worrying about secondary school.

I have said all the usual things - you worked hard and did his best, that is all any of us can do etc, it won't affect the start of life at secondary school, we are proud of him, sometimes exams don't go to plan etc. I'm not getting through.

Any ideas? I feel bad for him.

If you haven’t already complained to the school about their approach to SATs, I would definitely complain now. Yes it won’t help your DC, but it might help other children. The schools priority should be the students, and by stressing them out about some tests which are meaningless for the child, they have fundamentally failed in their responsibilities. I’d play Merry hell about that, the governors would be hearing about it, as would Ofsted, even my MP, as it’s national policy after all. If your child’s final year at primary school has in any way been negatively affected by SATs, I’d absolutely be complaining to everyone I could about it. It’s a national scandal that this is still happening, it’s amoral and we’re badly letting our children down by putting them through this. If SATs have to happen, the children shouldn’t even be aware of them, as it’s 100% a test of the school, not the child. However schools try to justify their pressured approach to SATs is all lies as there is no justification for it, and schools should not be lying to their communities.

SATS do matter for the child, but just not as much as some schools try to make out.

Rip them up and put them in the bin, SATs are the biggest load of pointless shit ever.

In what way do SATs matter for the child @TeenDivided ?

You need to teach your child not to open letters that aren't addressed to him. It isn't the schools fault.
The scores are good. Just reassure him they don't mean much.

Is this actually about SATS or is it the realisation that primary is over and secondary is on the horizon - a scary time for all Yr 6s.

I'm a secondary school teacher and we completely ignore SATs btw. Since we're in Life After Levels, I'm now no longer even aware of what my students KS2 test results were. We use CATs and internal assessments for everything. Even when we had levels, we still ignored SATs results, as they were such a poor reflection of students' actual ability. Which tells you everything you need to know about how meaningless they are. They are not even a very good measure of what they're supposed to be measuring.

Is this actually about SATS or is it the realisation that primary is over and secondary is on the horizon - a scary time for all Yr 6s.

Good point!!

I remember when I got my SATs results I didn’t even care about the grade but it did hit me that I’m actually leaving the school that I go to everyday for years.

I’m a secondary school teacher and tell him to honestly not worry about them at all!!

Sone schools as evidenced on here measure progress from sats and on reports tell them they are above or below expected progress.

But only primary schools do that, the secondary schools that they're just about to start ignore the SATs results. So if they're ignored for the rest of their school career, how do they have any meaning for the child?

Secondary schools can ignore the SATs results all they like, but at the end of the day that’s the start of their progress measure, and that’s that.

107 and 109 are great scores. I had one parent tell me the same about how disappointed she was this week by much the same scores, but the pressure definitely hasn’t come from school.

Ummm OP I think you placed to much pressure on him

It’s Interesting -
At my sons school we aren’t even given the exam results. They told us they make a little deal of it as possible for the kids and the results are for the school to track progress, an internal measure - I can’t remember exactly how it was phrased. But point being that they said we wouldn’t even find out as they don’t think our kids need to even be thinking in those terms

What you are saying here is factually inaccurate. Secondaries do not and can not ignore the SAT results as these form the basis of the Progress 8 measure used to hold secondary schools accountable for the progress of their children. The school cannot change this, no matter how much they may wish to, and nor can the child. Each child's official target is generated externally using the SAT results. Again, the school cannot change this.

The fact that, as a secondary teacher, you are not aware of this just means that your SLT and/or progress managers or data leads have not effectively communicated how the accountability systems work or what is happening behind the scenes. They've also over-emphasised the importance of CATs which are an internal measure only and do not affect the official target grades or Progress 8 measures of each child in any way.

The only secondary settings that can ignore SAT results are private schools, simply because they don't have to adher to Progress 8 accountability measures.

At state schools, reporting the results is statutory. I’m guessing this is a private school.

And they are very much an external measure! Again, it’s how accountability is measured in primary schools.

Tell him SATS are pointless

Secondary schools absolutely do not ignore the SAT results - well not all anyway. My DC started secondary I asked the schools straight out how they had been streamed for maths, English and science and they had been put into classes based on the SAT results so they didn't need to immediately test them.

Saying that, they're not worth kids getting upset over, as there can be plenty of movement in those classes over the year so in the long term they don't mean a lot.

I would however be having words about opening envelopes that aren't addressed to them.

There aren't any "official target grades" that are required to be used by secondary schools. Progress 8, certainly, and it's good to have an eye on what that's going to look like for students, but target grades are completely up to the school, in terms of what they are, and whether they have them at all.

Every progress report I got from my Children’s secondary school right up to the end of year 11 had the SATs numbers (and the CAT numbers) on the top. Those were the basis for the GCSE grade targets and the reports states if the child was on track to get those grades.

Initial setting isn't the important impact. Parents often misunderstand this.

The most important impact of SATs is their use in the generation of the target GCSE grades that the school must get that child to if they do not want to have a negative progress score. This can affect many things including setting and streaming, teacher allocation, intervention and support, even how much money or time is invested in a particular "type" of child within the cohort. Because of the secondary Progress 8 accountability measures, the impact of SATs can be felt all the way until the end of Y11 and, as such, can legitimately affect GCSE outcomes. This is not talked about widely enough.

My son got slightly lower several years ago, went on to get all 9-6 at GCSE (=A star to B) and is predicted at least 3 X A for A levels next year. One thing I would say is that this will be reflected in your son's target GCSE grades when he gets to secondary. I dont agree with the poster above. Don't let this worry you or him, it's a formula and the school can't change it. It never affected my son's development, how the school streamed them (except maybe first term of Y7 until they did assessments) or, importantly, what my son or we considered he was capable of achieving.

This is untrue. Target grades generated through things like FFTAspire are how Progress 8 is measured. Now a school might choose to do its own thing and not communicate those targets to parents but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Individual teachers may not fully understand them but there's no way that any effective SLT isn't using them.

The official target grades are not the same as predicted grades, which the school does set themselves

The progress 8 measure certainly uses SATs scores to generate an estimate, yes. But that is generated relative to the performance of that cohort in both SATs and GCSEs. Certainly schools can use previous estimates to generate targets, but there's nothing official about them. FFT targets are similarly entirely optional.

An effective SLT would be using targets at the year group level, not individual. IMO.