SATS

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Hello,

How can I make the week more pleasant for my dd? Should I encourage any revision or just focusing on relaxing?
I know they don't matter but the school puts on a fair bit of pressure.

In my experience, do not put any more pressure on your child. School will have been doing enough cramming for everyone. Concentrate on relaxing and enjoying very non school related things.

Relaxing is the best thing for her :) secondary school will most likely look at the scores but only to see where they’re at currently. My DD scored lower than expected for a couple of the papers as she was unwell during SATs. Her secondary school uses those to see if she is on track compared to her SATs and other baseline assessments and they say she’s better than expected now. It really doesn’t matter. Hope she doesn’t get too stressed.

My son is on the cusp of expected for maths as it’s a subject he struggles with so we’ve done some extra work at home in the run up, but won’t be doing any more now. Next week will just be about keeping him confident and comfortable for tests, not making a huge deal out of it but talking to him, encouraging him, telling him to do his best but not to worry etc. I am picking him up from the gates every day (usually goes to after school club), he has ADHD and is medicated so expecting him to be tired end of the day, so hopefully lots of downtime. But will be keeping to regular bedtime, no gaming etc.

We have a treat day planned for next Saturday.

We had a bit of a meltdown this week because she didn't get exceeding on an english paper & she wants & expects exceeding in everything. I was a bit taken aback by her response tbh as she is normally fairly chilled.

I will go with relaxing & reenforce bedtimes. Thanks all.

Yeah I would I talk to her about that, that’s not a healthy attitude to have and as this is essentially the real start of her academic journey in terms of exams etc that’s an attitude I’d be nipping in the bud now. Aspirations are fine, meltdowns at this stage are not!

Meltdown may have been the wrong choice of words. She was upset & cried which is unusual for her as she is very even-keeled normally. I just don't want her to be unnecessarily stressed.

She might be comparing her results to her peers which they all do at that age. Unavoidable, but reinforce that they’re not competing against others.

nothing will change whatever the results she gets in sats, unlike 11+ exams which will determine their future schools.

@scisso yes she is doing that & the school expects a lot of the dc.

She already has her school & thankfully I didn't have to get involved in the 11plus madness - it's insanely competitive in London.

Last year only 8% of children achieved Greater Depth in Reading, Writing AND Maths. So it's definitely a small group.

Yes, but her school always gets at least 30% achieving that so it's more of a thing if that makes sense. And the school certainly likes to maintain those stats!

My DD did hers last year. Her school set homework for the weekend before….to have fun, get out in the sunshine, watch a film, read a book, have a water fight etc. They said the children had worked very hard and what will be will be. So we followed the instructions! She did very well in the tests and then we completely forgot about them. She was put into group 2 for everything in secondary and is excelling. We put our efforts into making sure she settled well into her next school and was secondary-ready. We always said that exceeding would be nice but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if not.

@Happymomoftwo good to hear

That's above the National Average and way above the average in Cornwall. At my son's school in 2023 ( his Sats year) only 10% achieved that. It was, supposedly, a hard year, especially for English, but I'm sure that's the take on some aspect most years.

@Thatcannotberight yes it is. Their results are certainly bumped up by parents tutoring externally for 11+ & privates, plus some just tutor regardless.

Not much of a reflection on the quality of teaching at the school then. Very few tutored for 11+ ( possibly 6 from a 4 form entry, and I know some of those failed it 😬 )at our school and nobody could afford private.

I would say the teaching is actually very good (I'm very happy with the school) but the very motivated parents just give it an extra boost!

11+ in London is incredibly competitive & a lot of dc would have some form of tutoring to secure a place. It wouldn't be the right environment for dd so we didn't go down that route.

The Sats are, supposedly, to see how well a school is performing though. The results obviously are boosted by so much tuition. I'm glad that it's a good school, regardless. I had one tutored for 11+, he passed easily, so we just treated the Sats as unimportant. Other DS got GD in all Sats with no tuition, one of only 8, most of whom definitely had tuition.

DS likes gaming, so DH has bought him a simple platform game for our PS5 for when he wants to switch off.

We’re doing simple suppers where he’s guaranteed to like everything (he can be fussy still).

He gets to chose whatever supper he wants on Friday.

And yes, sticking with the usual bedtime routine.

When do we get the results? And do the results just come home with the children or how are they given?

DD hasn't had any tuition but has always been exceeding, I'm not particularly fussed about the actual results just want to make it as low stress as possible for her.

@MinnieMountain good idea about dinners.

@purpleme12 no idea, hadn't even thought about that!

My DD has been working very hard for SATS attending an extra session each week for each of maths, SPAG and Reading since January. She has found the process very stressful and has had a few sleepless nights and meltdowns.
Although to be fair she is 22 and the class teacher.

😆😆😆

Yes, a stressful time for teachers too!

My DD is likely to not do particularly well. We’ve always done homework, extra sessions at school when offered and gone through past papers with her. It just doesn’t seem to click for some reason. No medical issues, perhaps she’s just not academic? She loves to read, knows her timetables but just can’t seem to apply it to reasoning or comprehension questions.

We’re not putting any pressure on her, all we ask is that she tries her best. I worry that she’ll end up in the bottom sets when she moves to secondary school but maybe she’ll then go at a pace she’s comfortable with.

I really wish that I held her back a year as she is a summer baby and honestly don’t think she ever caught up after Covid despite the reassurances from her teachers.

Can’t wait for the week to be over to be honest and the school can stop going on about them.