How did your year 6 find the reading SAT today?

[Thingsthatgo]

My DS did well in all his SAT practice papers, but said the reading paper today was tough.

My daughter cried over the reading paper. She said she didn't manage to finish and she is worried she won't get greater depth. She was confident with both of today's papers. My son said it was fine but he hated the arithmetic test this morning but the reasoning was fine.

My DS said the maths was good today .He is still traumatised about yesterdays reading paper though . That will take some getting over ….

@Sweetie1980 pretty much the same as here then with my daughter.

My DD said the two papers were ok but she found the arithmetic easier than the reasoning paper. She came out of school buzzing as she had a riding lesson booked so she's had that to look forward to today.

DS said it was really hard, but was unpeturbed.

I just can't believe the papers don't go through a more rigorous scrutineering and standardisation process that the standard can oscillate so much. Apparently one of the extracts was from the New York Times (source Twitter, so possibly not reliable), and one was from a book pitched at 13+.

It's not political though - tests take ages to write, print and distribute. The papers would have been written way before the teachers started balloting for strikes etc.

One of the texts in the reading paper was about sheep rustling. Do they not make any attempt to make it relatable?

DD said she found it ‘fine’. Normally greater depth but I do think she may have been fooled by the trick questions (so bloody unnecessary). She also found todays maths ‘fine’…I think we can see a trend developing here!

I work in a school and the year 6 teachers have all said it was tough, some usual finishers didn’t finish and there were some tears.

My son says they’ve all been good so far. Maybe he’s over optimistic. We will see.

My DD found today's difficult but she's managed to finish in time. She said definitely harder than mocks. I know it's not the end of the world but she'll be disappointed if she scores lower that level she worked at throughout the year.

My DS2 did SATs last year and I’m a TA usually in KS1 but got drafted in to help with SATs. They actually enjoyed last years tests and were running around the playground shouting “Up the Parsnips!” (I’m sure any Y6 teachers will understand) but it was a very quiet and subdued group of children yesterday and again today for the Reasoning paper. The texts were ridiculously hard and I felt the reasoning paper got very hard very quickly whereas they usually get progressively harder.
We’ve got our KS1 SATs next week and I’m dreading it after seeing the KS2 ones, those poor kids.

Year 6 Sats: Children 'distraught' after reading paper www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65563170

It's so fucking unnecessary isn't it? My DS seems ok but for him I think it's more blissful ignorance. I assume as the scores are standardised then the "pass" mark (I know that's not what it is but not sure how else to say it) will be much lower. But I'm so angry that they someone thought it was acceptable to make kids take a test that was going to be inaccessible to many kids and cause this level of anxiety and for what? Inexcusable.

DD was buzzing about arithmetic but down about reasoning which she thinks she 'failed'.

I've just quizzed my daughter, she enjoyed it strangely. The bats that previous posters have mentioned were in an information text. They live under a bridge in Austin Texas and people celebrate batfest every year...

My son said he thinks he ‘definitely got 40’ on the arithmetic test 😂

i don’t get much out of him, but I reassured him that it really doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have any idea about what ‘Greater Depth’ or anything and I don’t think he has sat any Mocks? It amazes me that Primary School kids know about that stuff? We don’t speak in those terms at Parents’ Evening and the school focuses most on reading and Author visits as far as I can tell!

Yes, exactly, my dd said the passages were interesting. I asked her to tell me about all of them. She said everyone in her class was fine. No one was upset. I feel for the parents/dc that were upset though. I think it is really unfair they made it so difficult for so many. It seems strange whoever makes the decisions for this allowed such a jump in difficultness for the readings/comprehension. It will be interesting to see how my dd did. She is not stressed at all about it, as she knows it does not really matter for her. It just reflects on the schools. But she wants to do her best because she likes her school.

DC1 did the 2016 SATS, I have zero recollection of how well she did (neither does she, I’ve just asked and got the reply ‘no bloody clue’), and it had very little bearing on her secondary school experience or GCSE results, if that gives any perspective from a few years down the line.

The difficulty of the test isn't the content. Content would be, for instance, sharing the words that are in the spelling test so that a child who takes the test (later) has an advantage.

The SATS guidance documents are massive. Training mandatory. This is just one of the documents. Breaching guidance can mean a maladministration investigation, in the most serious of cases head teachers and teachers can be struck off.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1141810/2023_key_stage_2_Test_Administration_Guidance.pdf

Off topic slightly....but this does not bode well for the GCSEs and A levels starting next week....Government are clearly on a mission here across the board! I feel for the students of all ages :(

Not unless they look over children’s shoulders - I hate doing that. And no, they absolutely cannot help with ‘bits’! That would be maladministration.

My child is GD across the board. They found day 1 ok but defo 2 words wrong. Spag paper was fine.. Reading they always are comfortably GD but found it harder than usually but still ok. Maths today was easy but it’s little mistakes which can trip them up. They checked each answer twice and for the same result both times but doesn’t mean they answered it correctly. It will be interesting to see what they get as they have always scored in the high teens for all of the previous mocks they have done, of which there were loads.

DD2 is GD in reading and on a good day in maths. She found yesterday ok but said lots of her friends didn't finish. I do wonder whether she made more mistakes than she realised.

She struggled a bit today and said the set 1 teachers were saying there were parts of the maths paper they had never seen on a SATs paper before. She only had a minute left at the end of the reasoning and normally has plenty of time to check.

There was also a word in spelling she'd never heard of which is strange as she has a pretty good vocabulary, reading in highest band.

Do we actually get to know their scores in the end? Or do they just say GD etc?

What is the score needed for expected and GD?