Year 6 SATs this week

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So this is a very late starting thread about this week's SATs.

How have your DCs got on with them? And are there any teachers who fancy coming on and letting us know what they think of them compared to previous years...?

My DD has found them okay but she is really bright (not a stealth boast, honest). She's finished a couple of the papers with a lot of time to spare and has gone back over the questions. I said in another thread that we have the 11+ up here though and I think the practice for that can only have helped with the SATs prep, both the content and time management/exam pressure etc.

Ah, I've found my people!
My son has been gorging himself in the PE hall every morning this week at SATS breakfast, so he's been sitting like Bruce bogtrotter during all these papers.
He said maths was ok today, not as hard as last year's one that he did as a practise paper.
But he didn't have time to go back and check his work at the end.

the rest seems to have been ok. Tbh he is more communicative by the upcoming pizza party tomorrow afternoon. He's never eaten as well in his life and is very keen to keep us updated!

My ds found the SPaG went better than he thought and that's his weakest area. The reading he said was fine no different to mock ones they have done was scoring GD in those. Arithmetic was fine. Reasoning was harder but he answered everything and there was nothing out of the ordinary he did say though that his teacher said the reasoning paper was a bit different/trickier than in the past. So he either done just fine or terrible and he just hasn't realised 😁 will be interesting to hear what teachers think when testing period is done and they can be discussed.

You'll always have different opinions of whether they were difficult or not though; perhaps that will depend on your cohort and how you feel they will have done. Some people on here have said the maths were hard, but I didn't think they were particularly and would imagine that our children will have scored in line with what we expect.

My DD (for context has performed v well in all practice tests) found the SpAG good, reading long, arithmetic good, reasoning very hard. Reasoning is her weakest area in general. Looking forward to it all being over and done with today.

Maths reasoning 1: What was the question about voting in a class... were the 2 children included in the tally who voted or not?

As for easy or hard - DD1 did hers last year and absolutely bloody loved the Reading paper there was utter outrage about!

DD2 has a number of SEN diagnoses and is waiting for an ADHD assessment to add to the pile (unless it contains Pokemon and then the attention is boundless) so she's been sitting hers in a separate room with a 1:1 to just support her in refocusing if her attention wanders (to Pokemon)!

They're off to catch the bus into the city centre on Friday morning for a McDonalds for school lunch and bowling (funded by the school) - brutally slaughtering the Head at bowling is like the high point of the school year for them all - it's such a tiny year group that it's easy for them to do this via public transport.

My dd struggled in Reasoning yesterday, glad to hear some others said it was hard/tricky wording. Maths and Reasoning especially is her weakest point, everything else she’s felt positive about.

My child is pretty academic and scored highly in mocks and all practice papers.
Said it's all been much harder than the mocks/ practice papers so far.
With yesterday's reasoning for maths particularly hard and one of the English ones too.

I will be overjoyed for it to be finished.

Also not a brag just to set context per a PP

Yeah DS is very bright, has been getting 100% on his practice papers and he struggled with this for that reason. It seems pretty ambiguous.

My dd found them ok. She was struggling with one of the questions today but apart from that she was fine. The school did a breakfast club every morning too so each child was well fed and ready to test

The school is also having an adventure day for the year 6’s too. Archery and other stuff as well as a pool party.

DD didn't finish yesterday's reasoning test, she missed the last two.

Ds said 2 of the questions on today’s reasoning paper were “complete gibberish” but he’s found everything else ok. He’s fairly academic, passed 11+ etc but is ASD and isn’t great with ambiguity

Are we really being precious about the discussion of year 6 SATS?

Not general discussion but content, most definitely. As a PP said, content discussion would lead to the thread being shut down.

The training and guidance to administer SATs is huge. Breaching this can lead to serious maladministration claims with, after investigation and dependent on the findings, headteacher/staff struck off. I have seen it happen.

Schools have also have unannounced monitoring visits to ensure the fidelity of the tests.

Just look at the 16 associated documents that headteacher and teachers receive training on and are expected to follow!

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-key-stage-2-tests

DD is oddly better at reasoning than arithmetic (usually). She found the reasoning paper yesterday much nastier than previous ones she's done. I haven't dared ask about today's.
According to her, the reading test was fine, and SPaG about the same as normal.
I think she was just disappointed she didn't get asked about bats like last year!!
Anyway, apparently they have a "sweet treat" tomorrow, so she's got a day of sugar, as her afterschool treat is to go to the local dessert cafe 😆

This is the sort of discussion that isn't allowed until the testing window has closed!

I thought the GPS had a few tricky ones but was fine overall, the reading was fine - accessible to all, child-friendly subject matter and nowhere near as dense on the reading as last year, arithmetic OK, reasoning 1 vile, reasoning 2 today much better. Lots of areas of maths nowhere to be seen and a high proportion of questions focusing on the same, fairly narrow selection of objectives.

General teachers in the school no but there's surely nothing that says the teachers in the room can't read them, given many are there as scribes or readers? It's discussion that is strictly not allowed.

I don’t see how the conversation on here is any different from what goes on at school gates or between y6 kids messaging each other, tbh.

Guidance is to protect teachers too, they shouldn't read through a paper, unless they have had specific training and are following the guidance as a ‘reader’.

The class teacher reading without reason, is another extra person in the system and an additional risk.
The guidance is to protect the teacher too.
Maladministration can be real or even malicious, but it is much easier to investigate if teachers have been protected.
Maladministration investigator - “did any staff read the paper who didn't need to?” Headteacher -”yes, the class teacher”…

I've worked in a school that was accused of maladministration and all staff present for SATs (many) were interviewed. They asked many, many questions but not this. I'd say if you're walking round a classroom filled with the papers it's pretty impossible to avoid reading it.

I've just carried out unannounced monitoring, this week, on behalf of STA (Standards & Testing Agency) and previously have investigated maladministration in schools too.
I stick by the guidance of maintaining the integrity of the test and of protecting staff from claims of maladministration.

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Okay. I was just curious if it was actually in the guidance that teachers in the room weren't to read it. I helped with SATS for several years but am in KS1 now.

I'd say if you're walking round a classroom filled with the papers it's pretty impossible to avoid reading it.

Not really. I’ve never seen questions unless asked by a child to read them, under the rigid conditions laid out clearly in the guidance.
Read some this week (not the Reading Paper, obvs), couldn’t tell you what they were now. We’re not supposed to discuss them, so what’s the point of remembering them? What’s easy/hard/wordy/convoluted/obvious will vary with the individual child.
I’m not a fan of ramping up the stress around SATs but nevertheless, there are guidelines, which we stick to. They are also over with for this year so no point mithering about the content. One of the best reasons for not doing that over Maths Paper 2 Reasoning is that you’d be adding stress for the children by trying to second guess what topics might appear on Paper 3, the day before the test. For what, a couple of extra marks? They’re a test of over a year’s worth of curriculum, not a cramming competition.