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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

So, who can come and explain Yr2 SATS to me?

70 replies

HuwEdwards · 13/05/2008 09:19

DD has done them, this much I know. But I have lots of questions...

Will we get results?
If so when?
Will I understand the results when I get them?
Does this affect which class/streaming in KS2 (am pretty sure it must otherwise what's the point)

Thankyou.

OP posts:

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Buda · 13/05/2008 11:29

DS is doing them some time this month. No idea when. May have been done already. Thankfully very relaxed attitude to them here and the head was very clear that they are about the teaching not the children.

TheFallenMadonna · 13/05/2008 11:30

Well, DS can stil barely write, so that might be a problem. How do they test reading? Do they have to write down the answers? Because he is really good at reading, and rubbish at writing...

Enid · 13/05/2008 11:32

please dont stress

dont get caught up in it

poor little kids

TheFallenMadonna · 13/05/2008 11:33

No, I know.

But if they are testing his reading by making him write...

Twiglett · 13/05/2008 11:34

seeker · 13/05/2008 11:35

I don't think they do science at KS1.

Umlellala · 13/05/2008 11:35

With you Enid - love your attitude. Have signed the petition too, thanks. My current plan is to keep my kids off on the test days if they are STILL persisting with them(dd is only 2, ds not born yet!) - and hopefully to persuade other parents to as well.

Am a teacher and wish the unions would get it together to strike over over-testing our children... Far more a pressing issue than pay IMO.

Enid · 13/05/2008 11:37

a friend of mine showed me her dd1s (excellent ) sats results

she had worked out which one in the class hadnt done well and brought the average down

vile

Enid · 13/05/2008 11:38

I will ask my school very nicely if dd1 can not do them in year 6

they will say no then I will ask dd1 if she wished to do them

if she doesnt (i actually expect she will) I will take her out for the week

claricebean · 13/05/2008 11:40

Blu - love your DS's comments. I think they should give him extra marks for his logic

Umlellala · 13/05/2008 11:43

Enid, I suspect if dd grows up anything like me, she would actually enjoy them too (am sad born-to-be-teacher type who LIKES exams and tests).

And it annoys me that, if dd were to be expected to get 'good' results (don't know yet, she's only 2) then I would feel bad at not letting her school (likely to be below/average results) benefit from the results for the stupid league table. Which is why I think it needs to be addressed nationally - really don't get why the unions agreed to carry them out in the first place.

Original poster

HuwEdwards · 13/05/2008 11:56

ah right, more answers, thankyou.

I also wish I could throw them away, but I won't be able to resist looking.

Maybe DDs were test papers, but they're in full throws of a performance at the moment which I thought had started a couple of weeks ago after the sats.

Who knows and I guess, who cares.

OP posts:

Mercy · 13/05/2008 12:05

I have no idea if dd has already done the test or not now - but as you say, I shouldn't really care one way or the other - but I do a bit.

But reading how some schools pile pressure on such young children then I can see why they are should be scrapped.

What's wrong with just straightforward teacher assessment? What are the SATS results used for - Ofsted? League tables?

ingles2 · 13/05/2008 12:07

ds2 is doing them this week...
I'm not worried about the results, we know the school is poor and moving at the end of this academic year.
ds2 (not the most academic of dc's) came out yesterday all excited because he thought he'd done well in the spelling. ( but bless! ). He then told me of course everyone knows fetch is FECH!

Blu · 13/05/2008 12:10

Clarice - yes, , but that's the problem with SATS, isn't it, it doesn't test the child at all, in any real way - just their ability to absorb and follow instructions, which is supposed to show us how good the teaching is. They won't know how DS interpreted the q, just that he was (apparantly) unable to recognise that 'dog' and 'fog' rhyme.

And as for that bloody woman, Enid - grrrrrrrr. people are pathetic.

I guess we will be told what DS's SATS results are...but I will be cynical whatever they are.

MorocconOil · 13/05/2008 12:22

Ds did a speaking and listening test as well, for which he was graded. They also had a science result. His school gave us the results with the end of term report.

A neighbouring school did not give parents the results, so you can't necessarily expect to be given them.

They are a load of crap. At DSs last parents evening his teacher showed me the level he is at now in writing, and it was lower than his SATs results from last summer. She asked me to do extra work at home with him so his result goes up. They had tests last week even though he's in Year 3. It made him anxious and his behaviour at home was erratic.

SATs are not only a waste of time when schools could be focusing energy on music, art etc but they are upsetting our children.

singersgirl · 13/05/2008 13:47

But, everyone, the (admittedly limited) good news is that the Y2 SATs are now mainly teacher assessment. The tests and tasks are to be used for guidance only, so the teacher can still tell the parents their assessment of the level the child's really working at, if the test results are anomalous. Which makes you wonder why they bother with them at all.

In DS2's class they are spreading the tests over the whole of this half term and into the early part of June. There is no 'fixed week', unlike for KS2 SATs.

They are a ridiculously limited snapshot of achievement.

leosdad · 13/05/2008 14:41

I think the 3c bit might be just the teachers assessment (unless I am getting muddled with the optional year 3 sats which our school does)

The other thing is that schools are given targets for number level 3's so some kids are having booster classes in writing and maths so they get level three (they are 6 and 7 ffs) and while for those children they are benefitting from the extra sessions I would rather they were done for general educational purposes rather than boosting the scores. Especially as they will stop as soon as the tests were over and that group of children need that different work all the time.

Fennel · 13/05/2008 14:49

Our school insists on not making a big deal of them. To the extent that dd1 last year didn't seem to realise she was doing them but this week (yr 3) she insists she is now doing SATS.

Which leaves me wondering if they sneakily draft in yr 3 children to take the yr 2 tests. Though it's more likely that it just takes dreamy dd1 a year to catch up on what's going on.

DD2 is doing them this week but is very casual about it - no booster sessions or extra tuition or homework involved.

tortoiseSHELL · 13/05/2008 14:54

Ds1 isn't even aware they are being assessed as far as I can see - he said that he and a few others had to 'go off to do some reading with teh teacher because they are so good at reading'. But his teacher is fab and hates SATS, and the school takes the line that they would rather come further down the league tables and have happy children than stress the children and do better! So they teach them really well, but not to an examination date iyswim.

The KS1 assessment is SO unfair - in ds1's class, there are children (including ds1) who are still 6, some aren't 7 until August, and there are at least 3 children who will be 8 in September. How do you compare children this young with that much age difference? Answer - you can't, you just end up labelling the summer children as 'less able' and that label goes with them for the rest of their school career. It makes me .

Gobbledigook · 13/05/2008 14:56

Ds1 doesn't do them till after half term break.

However, I've been told that the teachers already pretty much know each child's score. The SATs are now 'a formality' and the scores given are not just based on test results but work done over the year and the real level the teacher thinks the child is at.

So, I'm not bothered about them really.

I think at ds1's school they do old papers all the time just as part of their normal work.

Gobbledigook · 13/05/2008 14:57

y'ear 2 SATS is mainly teacher assessment but the tests are to back up in writing what the teacher assessment is'

yeah, so what Twig said

tortoiseSHELL · 13/05/2008 14:57

I think that's the same at ds1's school GdG - the teacher said that if they didn't get the right result on the test, then they go on work done over the year - the idea being it's not a 'how you do on the day' type test, it's a 'what level you've reached'.

Gobbledigook · 13/05/2008 15:00

I know parents who are actively telling their children that they must work hard, practice, blah de blah because they are doing very important exams.

One is offering her child a gameboy/nintendo ds if he does well.

COMPLETE madness.

vbacqueen1 · 13/05/2008 15:02

My oldest DD has no idea what SATS are - the only reason I know she's doing them right now is because she was baffled that they "did numeracy ALL morning" yesterday!

She's usually pretty switched on too, so I'm really pleased to see that her school isn't making a big deal of it with them.

I hate SATS.

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