Year 6 SATS - how important are they?

[TheGriffle]

My dd is in Year 6 and is sitting her first SATS exams this year, we were in lockdown during the Year 2 exams so we have no experience and have no idea what to expect. I have told dd that these are tests to see how well the teachers/school are performing, not a test on her ability as she is quite anxious. Is this right?

She’s been in intervention groups for her maths since covid so already feels that she’s not going to do well.

One other issue is that my parents have booked for us to go away for a family weekend which happens to be the weekend before the SATS start. We will be going as my parents have spent a lot of money but should we be making dd ‘revise’ while we’re there or is it ok to let her forget about it all and have a relaxing weekend?

Thanks for the help and advice everyone. It’s set my mind at rest a little. Obviously I know it’s my daughter being tested but to me the results don’t really impact her. If they are used for Year 7 set placing, surely if a child is put in a lower set but they are flying through the work, that set would be reevaluated (I’d hope!) same the other way, if they’re placed in a higher set and are not attaining surely they’d be moved to a better level class?

I can’t wait until we find out what secondary school she has gotten in to.

Our school have been fairly good at downplaying it, no extra homework, test papers etc. Someone I know, her sons school is making them come in early from now until SATS 2 days a week and stay late one day a week for revision classes which seemed too much to me.

I just didn’t want to feel guilty that I’m scuppering her upper school years by going on a weekend away and not making her sit down and revise.

We are helping her extra with her maths as much as we can with work books, mathletics and TT Rockstars along with her intervention classes, I was never any good at maths and to be honest couldnt answer some of the questions she has to so I know how she feels!

The targets are meaningless to the dcs. It's just data for the secondary school to worry about.

Not important.

As for setting in year 7 most secondary schools tend to do this after the first term after their own tests.

This is because they know different schools place different emphasis on them and that some will drill the kids to get better results than their ability and others who don't teach to the tests may get kids with lower results than their ability.

As for "targets" for gcses this is just simply a ridiculous marker and means nothing. Kids plateau and others are late developer's. As they get into secondary they can get a better judgement of what results they will get and how they apply themselves us what eventually sorts out the better achievers.

DD is now in year 7 so did her sats last summer. They didn’t have any bearing on where she was placed in year 7. They moved around ability sets after Christmas based on how they did in the first term of high school.

I have two sons in Y11 and Y8 who didn't sit SATs because I objected to the absolute crackpot of nonsense they are. The content is abysmal and the labelling with a target is nothing short of psychological abuse.

My daughter is currently in Y6 and she won't be sitting them either. The secondary school is smart enough not to place kids in ability groups until Y9 (maths only), so not having a SAT result has had absolutely no consequence for us whatsoever. All we've had is benefits - i.e. no progress 8 target.

Don't stress at all and absolutely don't make her revise. She's far too little.

Picking up on the topic 'how important are SATS', what are the main takeaways for parents if they child received 110 plus, 100-110 or lower? What do any of these scenarios mean and how do you support your, dc depending on where they fall on the standardised scale? In other words, what insight does it give us and what is the importance? Secondary do CAT to set.

@Jeremima the SATs are meaningless. Secondary schools really don't use them at all. Yes they are use at the end, to supposedly show progress but in my experience most secondary schools do their own testing usually CATs. The difference between a child who gets 115 and 105 is hardly anything - so the support would be the same. Only situation I can see where the support would be different is if a child got well below 100.

Most secondary schools only use them to divide up the children into classes with other children with similar results for the first week of 2 just to get the children used to the school and following a timetable but that is as far as it goes.

They then have their own exams and the results are then looked at as a list of every one in the year and then divided up into streams accordingly

Some people get really quite emotional about SATS and tell their children to ignore all preparation, tell the school they're going to "remove them" from the tests etc etc. IMO these people are being completely over the top.

All they are is a handful of tests that have little to no bearing on your child's future endeavours. Some secondaries use them for "setting" kids in Year 7 but most don't (they'll use a CAT 7 test or similar).

SATS are fine - my kids enjoyed them, especially the breakfasts the school put on!