Y4 - English State School curicullum | preparing for SATs

[bbnt]

Hi all, I am new here, so please be gentle with me.
I have two questions.

a]
Y6 and SATs test are just around the corner and I wonder
what "extra" work are you doing with your kids at home
to prepare them for the SATs tests?

We practice the Time Table Rock Stars/Numbots at home,
read daily and write journal but I "feel" that is not enough.

What do you do to prepare your child for the SATs tests
being taken at the end of Y6?

b]
Also I try to speak to the school about "more detailed"
curriculum and help me to see what is our son doing
at school so we can then explore particular subjects
at home/visiting library and watch on demand programs
on particular subjects to enforce and deepen the knowledge
(we do not watch live TV) but it's proving difficult
and the school is not receptive to my requests.

Our son is not really that keen to do the extra work/homework
and I believe that if I could get to know what is happening
in the school and have "themed" weekends doing stuff that
has been covered at school already and finding interesting
facts, books, articles, documentaries will enforce positive
attitude towards education ....(Education gives him choices)

Oh god. No. No. NO. They're in Year 4. Absolutely do not need to be preparing at this stage. Don't do please. Just stick to the homework, nail your times tables, read regularly and keep in touch with the teacher.

A big no - school work is done during the school day. Homework is optional in primary - we did none.

Why do you think extra work is necessary? Schools already spend way too much time on SATS prep.

If your child is in Year 4, SATS are really not "just around the corner". And they will spend a huge proportion of Year 6 preparing for them. Please don't add any more to this burden.

At this age I'd suggest broadening your child's education rather than making them do more of the same. If your son is not keen on extra work, then you risk alienating them if you push it. Instead if, for example, they are studying the Romans at school you could consider a visit to Roman ruins. Get them to cook (lots of weighing and measuring and numbers and an important life skill), play board games, construct things out of Lego (engineering), go to the woods and build a den. All ways of learning without being prescriptive.

You don't need to do anything around SATs, especially this early. Your child is likely to be sick of hearing about SATs by the time it comes to it.

I would suggest instead of trying to do more of what school do, do fun (educational) things. Take them to local museums, play board games, let them chose books in the library (even if they are cartoons etc). What kids need at this age is a love of learning, not to be pushed to do lots of homework and end up hating it.

As someone who works in a primary school by best advice is let him enjoy his childhood. Don’t give SATs a single thought at this point.

You do not need to be preparing for SATs in year 4. It will not benefit your child. Keep up lots of reading from a wide variety of sources and make sure he is fluent with times tables. If you want to do extra, look at the topics the class is doing from their standard newsletter and go to museums or do trip and look at books that link in.

The school is not there to provide you with a home education plan along with what they already provide at school. If you want to do extra, it’s on you to plan it.

Actually I disagree!

SATS are not a Year 6 test as such. They're taken in Year 6. That's all. The vast majority of the test is Year 2.3.4.5 maths/English not Year 6 maths/English.

I agree it's best to start in Year 4 to check they're where they should be. You don't want to leave it to Year 6 and find out their Year 4 work (which is the foundation ) is shocking and you've left a mountain to climb

Having said all that, i wouldn't be stressing him. If you're keen for him to do well, get a tutor. They will love you for bringing a child in plenty of time. Otherwise, leave him alone and let him enjoy school.

Year 4 is not the foundation. Every single year group is its own foundation. Get a tutor if necessary but if you're in touch with the teacher and reactive then you'll know where your child is. There should be no nasty surprises.

How do you define "enjoy his childhood"?

My aim is only to "broaden" his knowledge of the subjects
currently being thought at school ....

If your child is lucky the might be abolished by the time he's in Year 6.
The school will tell you if any preparation needs to be done. They will probably give you a workbook/worksheets.
Don't talk about SATs in Year 4. Please don't.

During his Y2,
we found out that they will be completing at the end of the year KS1 SATS, so decided after having "Parents Evening" and been told all is good to purchase CGP, KS1 SATS Practice papers and ware shocked to find out the gaps he had :(

Also after the other parents received results of the KS1 SATS test,
many ware shocked to see that their kids did not do that well ..... :(

You can do that in a "fun" way though.
Interesting facts, books, articles, documentaries may be quite dry (fine if your DC actively enjoys this, but it doesn't sound like yours does).

If your child is studying the solar system at school go out and look at constellations. Make it a fun evening with hot chocolate and torches. If they don't want to do this then would they like to paint starry night pictures with glitter?
Don't make them read a book if they don't want to.

Sure or visit,
https://gostargazing.co.uk/observatories-in-the-uk/
or go wild camping and sleep under stars
(we did that and he was so excited and amazed) ....
but I need to know when this is being thought
in the class so I have a time to prepare all the
activities etc....

You want him to enjoy learning, to grow up curious about things and to want to find out more.

Sitting at home with textbooks is unlikely to do that. Visit places, talk to him and debate things. Linked to the curriculum and even more so in general to create that passion for knowledge.

He doesn’t need to be learning about something in school for it to be a good time for him to learn about it. If he is interested in it then go for it!

Follow his interests now, not when they are being studied in school. It really doesn’t matter what and when the school are doing topics, just focus on what your son is interested in. Much more likely to get him engaged that way.

It's not a general knowledge test. The topic doesn't matter. It's about skills such as reading, understanding what they have read and using that information to help complete another task for example.

Thinking about Yr 6 SATs in Yr 4 is madness. He won't have covered the work required for the SATs so nothing you do that's related to it is going to be useful. When he is in Yr 6 then you can get the CPG book and work through it 20 minutes a day or something.

By all means expand on what he's learning at school, by taking him to museums, galleries or whatever else - but focus equally on what he's into and encourage him in that. Listen to him read and read to him.

@bbnt the Year 6 sats are in Maths, SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) and Reading.
That's it.
Anything else he learns at school will most likely come under the half termly "topic". Surely you know what the topic theme is every half term (so whether it's Romans or WW2 or Castles etc) and if you want him to learn stuff at home connected with it then just do it.

With all due respect, calm down. Your school should have a newsletter or updates on social media to show what children will be learning in each term.

The information on the curriculum should be in your school’s website. Other than that you can Google Ks2 National Curriculum years 3&4 to get more detail. To really set him up for upper KS2 he needs to know all his times tables and division facts and be able to retrieve information, define vocabulary, summarise what he has read and infer from texts. If he can do all that by the end of Y4 he’ll do well. I’m a Y4 teacher.