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.

There've been some horrible and difficult to access the content reading papers before - the one on caving from a good few years ago now comes to mind, and the interminably boring as fuck Earthship one (I fucking hated marking that year)... then there've been some really funny ones - I loved the year of Dear Norman I think it was who moved out into the treehouse in the family garden. Just the way it lands I think - DD1 seemed to quite enjoy the reading and SPAG (she's good at it - the year of lockdown and her being more interested nosing into my linguistics lectures than her own schoolwork might have helped in that) but she was full of hell and outrage after yesterday's Maths - she's good at Maths, but she's had no confidence in the subject since post-lockdown, returning to school and them being given an assessment on the previous year's content which they had understandably huge gaps in, and just being presented with the assessment scores without that explanation being given and no one had scored well... she's been convinced since then that she's shit at the subject.

She's very relaxed about it - but we're not a household that have put pressure on her - some other kids we know are a fucking mess this week, having had all their activities cancelled for weeks and weeks to make sure they can do more and more revision and have a precisely calculated amount of sleep prior to each test (sadly I'm not joking). We've done the prep work - but I've done it in a kind of way where we've picked up patterns in the types of questions - that there's usually something ordering decimals and whole numbers with the same digits in different place value... they like to have a question or two where you'll have to work out how many multi-packs of something you need to order and they'll be looking to see that you've picked up on the fact you need to "over order" as you can't split a pack, and we've gently taken the piss out of that point in time where past questions changed from the kids buying crisps and sweets at the shop to the ones where these kids suddenly go and buy oranges and bananas when healthy eating took over with a vengeance. The element of getting one over the sneaky question traps appealed to her much more than getting into a battle over it.

When do results come out? Are they marked in school?

I believe they're marked externally and won't be available until July. I think in our school we will get them along with school report at the end of the term x

Hi, apparently the spellings were hard. does anyone know what some of the words were?

I don’t think we are allowed to say the words due to the late sitters. I think the admins will delete as a result.

@CoffeeWithCheese why do you think those parents are going to such great lengths for SATs? It seems a little much when it does not really count for anything. I guess, unless schools are using it to set the dc? For us it does not matter as dd is going to private secondary and they have their own methods for setting. We are quite relaxed so our dd is relaxed about it all. But then again, she enjoyed doing the 11+ so she seems to like exams :) Although, for the SATs she did not do any of the prep they gave for homework, so will be interesting to see what her scores are.

My son found the spellings really hard… said he went into the toilet afterwards and had a little cry. 😥We’d practised some from the list in his planner but apparently none of these came up. Out of 4 he can recall, he got just 1. He’s been so close to getting GD on SPAG and we were hoping that the spelling aspect would boost his score. Oh well.

He said there was a lot to read on the reading paper and he only just finished in time, but couldn’t check his answers. On all the papers he did at school he would finish early and check through, and was scoring a solid GD.

Maths has been ‘ok’ but he loves maths and tends to do well.

It’s hard not to worry even though ultimately it makes very little difference to their lives long term. He’s worked hard over the years and you obviously want them to do their best and it’s a confidence boost for them to succeed. But, it’s definitely taken it’s toll and he’s been angry and shouty this week at home.
Hopefully partying now though as the school are doing a fun packed afternoon and disco.

We didn’t do any prep work for sats , my ds had homework from the school that was sats revision . we did have a quiet week as he has been going into school early . My ds thought the spelling and maths was ok , the reading one was on a different level !

Our school finished the last paper this morning.. DS said at 10:30am he would be done. I am just so relieved this week is over. I’ve really struggled with my emotions this week watching him go through such anxiety with these exams. He’s only 10 and a young 10 if you know what I mean.. we’ve done all we can to keep him relaxed but he’s struggled. Looking forward to giving hun a big hug at 3:20pm!

I agree , glad it’s over now. I will never forget DS face when I collected him on Wednesday, he was so tearful when he said the reading paper was very hard and how he had to rush to finish it , he didn’t sleep well that night . 10 and 11 year olds should not be having sleepless nights about a test at their age .

Completely agree.. it was crushing 😥

I do, as part of my role, but to share would put the integrity of tests in doubt.

I would lose my job, under maladministration, if investigated.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1141810/2023_key_stage_2_Test_Administration_Guidance.pdf

I'm glad it's all over! Looking forward to picking my DD up later and taking her bowling with her mates!

Dd's school is pretty relaxed about them - although we are in a 11+ area so I guess that's viewed as more important and definitely more stressful. Dd passed her 11+ and is GD for nearly everything but said the reading paper was tricky and she had only 5 minutes to spare instead of the usual 20 on practice papers.
It's important to remember, I think, that the Sats cover everything learnt in KS2 - and current year 6s missed a huge amount of year 3 so it's a little unfair to make them so much harder than last year's.
Just pleased they're all over now and the kids can focus on transition, leavers events and having fun!

Do you think the 11 plus prep would have helped with the reading paper ? We didn’t do 11 plus, my son is GD for all subjects , his friend that is more or less the same level, has had a tutor from year 3 and got into a very good grammar , he said he found it easy so wondering if the 11 plus work helped …

Obviously the fact he found it easy cheered my fried up 😃

DS sorry

Yes, I am sure the 11+ prep helped. My dd found it all easy and she did the 11+ I looked at one of the math mocks and it looked super easy compared to what they had to prep for the 11+ As for the reading.....I never saw any reading mocks for the SATs, so not able to compare.

My poor child has hated every day this week 😢

The reading mocks were much easier compared to the paper on Wednesday. My ds was only missing a few points on the mocks but he thinks he did very badly on Wednesday. I have showed him some of the stuff on the media to make him feel better

@BrutusMcDogface ah they can relax now ! Poor kids

We're not in an 11+ area. The only potential "edge" DD has is that I used to mark bloody English Reading for years and years so brought up some of the mishaps in past papers they'd done and was able to explain exactly what would and wouldn't have got the mark to her (when she wanted to listen) and the fact that she reads constantly.

Some of the parents around here do go ridiculously over the top though - on most things - we're talking removing from school recorder groups as not enough chances for public performance etc (I was just grateful when mine were struggling to work out which end to blow into as one makes much less noise than the other!).

And breathe.

hope your year 6s are in a similar state to my sugar filled, switch playing, smiling (finally) DS.

Well done to all your year 6s.

Now watch them magically grow up before your eyes as they start becoming secondary-school-in-waiting kids not primary ones.

The change between now and October half term will be remarkable.

My DD is so relieved it's over but she's adamant she "failed" today's exam. Of course I told her yet again it's not pass/fail test.