SATS- is there any benefit for the child?

[MinnieMountain]

DS is in year 5. His teachers have already talked about SATS preparation. We told him that we won’t be making him do any extra work as there’s no benefit to him and he will be assessed by his secondary when he starts.

He told the TA this yesterday and she said that he must do the extra work as it will help him at secondary. Will it?

But the tests aren’t a Y6 test - they’re KS2. Only something like 35% tests Y6 content, the rest goes as far back as Y3 (Y2 in the case of some grammar). So stuff has to be revised - what 11 year old remembers what they did when they were 7?

I agree that there is a difference between teaching a balanced curriculum and obsessively drilling/having before and after school boosters/Easter clubs (as I have patiently tried to explain to our new academy exec head/school head.

It does have an impact

Without the data dc went into set 4/5
With the data it was set 2.

A friend went into set 1/7 but finds it tricky and wants to move down but school wont let her.
without tests schools are inaccurately assessing.
Like a pp dd was predicted 104 -- but got 114.
I also think it gives a heads up that dc struggles with slow processing as they arent finishing the tests

Secondary is worse dc school have tests at end of every topic so almost all homwwork is revision. (Maths,science, hist, geo and spanish!
They arent always communication them either.
A week at end of year would be better. As if kids have activities they cant revise.

@Helenahatstand, thousands of Y6 students up and down the country miss Art and History and Geography between Jan and May of Y6 to squeeze in extra SATS prep lessons. Y6 SATS aren’t like GCSE where there’s an exact specification that is taught and then tested. There is a SPAG skill set tested in that way but then the rest is a test of their general retrieval, inference and vocabulary skills alongside their ability to write well. So a child who reads voraciously will do so much better than one who doesn’t even if they’ve missed a lot of school.

I have to say that isn't my experience of more recent schooling at all. Whilst I'm sure there are some poor schools that choose to do that, it would be impossible to cover the curriculum in history, art, geography, etc. if you stopped teaching them for 5 months. The Y6 curriculum is huge across both core and foundation subjects: it can't just be paused for 5 months. More schools did used to engage in this practice around 10 years ago but the shifted focus of Ofsted and the raised profile of foundation subjects have, rightly, made it impossible to do (or, rather, get away with for schools who elect still to try).

Regarding exams, it's a test of the curriculum with specific content and expectations in each area.
The SPaG exam tests the taught grammar and knowledge of punctuation and spelling. The questions are based on the national curriculum.
The Maths exams test the taught arithmetic skills and knowledge of wider maths. Again, the content of the questions is drawn directly from the national curriculum.
The Reading exam tests how well children have been taught to retrieve, infer, analyse, draw conclusions, etc. Each of these are specifically taught skills as part of the national curriculum (and now the reading framework).

There isn't a writing exam as writing is assessed based upon a spread of work across multiple genres and styles but, again, assessing against specific skills that do need to be explicitly taught.

@Iamnotthe1, my lot are now 20, 18 and 16 so yes, this was a while ago. I’m sure writing was included then. I’m a teacher myself but secondary. Glad to hear things have improved. Ours was a very high achieving, hugely over subscribed primary. Glowing Ofsted inspections yet this was their approach to SATS.

Sats results were not just what ofsted looked at or no school in a more challenging area would ever be outstanding!

I'm a teacher myself in KS2; I'm perfectly aware of the content of the tests. I administered SATS last year. As per the pp below your post, things have changed drastically in terms of pulling children from foundation subjects. No school awaiting Ofsted will be doing this now. It's gone so far the other way that by the end of a half term my KS2 class end up missing maths and English lessons to try to fit in all the foundation lessons...

Any work or consolidation work he does at primary school is beneficial for his education whether he sits SATS test or not. Telling him it's not worth doing the work is very negative and undermines his teacher who is doing their best for your DC. What do you propose he does when the other DC are doing this work?

Attainment and progress are both looked at and used to inform the judgements made into quality of education and, to an extent, leadership and management.

Schools in disadvantaged areas find it more difficult to reach higher attainment but easier to show higher progress rates. Schools in areas of advantage find it easier to reach higher attainment but harder to show higher progress rates. That's one of the reasons Ofsted look at both and both are made available to parents.

Saying that a school is in a more challenging area is a misnomer. The challenges faced by individual schools in different areas with different socio-economic backgrounds vary widely but are not necessarily more or less than others. That goes back to the inner city vs leafy lane thinking which is not productive. All schools have their own challenges.

Have daughters who teach at both primary and secondary, both agree sats are utterly pointless but there is no option to doing them

@Helenahatstand, yes, as I admitted just above your post, my info is more than likely out of date as mine are now 20, 18 and 16. I apologise for the misinformation. It was that way when mine were at their nice, leafy, Outstanding grades primary. That’s why I took mine out in protest. Glad to hear things have changed.

I was quite clear with DD that her SATs were pointless and she went on to get 10 A stars at GCSE.

Yes thank goodness they have changed. There are many issues with primary schools and the curriculum but at least Y6 have a broader education now.