SATS

[Munchathon]

Hi all, other than trying to cobble together a list of the spelling list by asking our children and other parents, does anyone know when the spelling test will be released?

Thanks

Dd said it was ‘ok’. She had 5 minutes to check at the end so don’t think she found it excessively long.

What?

Son did reading papers today there were three .He found it easier than past papers but he's quite bright passed 11 plus .I won't say what the stories were about as I made an error in an earlier thread .

Mine said it was easier than past papers too, bizarrely!

DS said that the reading today was easy, and that he had time to check his answers, but he also said that there was only one story, so I’m hoping that he hasn’t somehow skipped the last two texts!

Hopefully he just isn't remembering properly as there was 3 texts to answer about .In that situation I would hope a teacher could at least nudge him to say to look carefully.

Fingers crossed!

I don’t know whether teachers are allowed to nudge children like that in the actual test, but even so, it’d be dependent on his teacher noticing that he’d not moved off the first text for the whole test.

Honestly sats mean nothing. We don’t use the results at the secondary school I work at, we don’t even look at them. I wouldn’t even bring it up with my child if they didn’t because I don’t think 11 year olds need the stress, bringing it up inadvertently makes them think they are something to worry about.

Your probably right technically but how are they getting a true indication of your child's ability if he accidentally misses a few texts . Overall doesn't matter as good high schools usually test in year 7 to get a good idea were your child is at .

DC2 got 4 right on the spellings (dyslexic) but still managed to snag GD for the overall SPaG mark in their SATs in 2023. Having taught Y6, I was amazed.

I wish someone would tell some teachers that. Mine has been worked up into a state of full blown panic because her teacher has relentlessly gone on about them all year. She’s been a GD student throughout school and has an academic scholarship to an independent secondary but still thinks if she doesn’t do well on her SATS it’ll be the end of the world.

They use them to stream the kids at my eldest’s secondary school. There is then movement but it’s only the top/bottom 2 in the class they get moved around. They also use them to set target bands which everything is then compared against in their reports in years 7-9. So some schools might not use them but others definitely do.

That’s a shame! Considering she got a scholarship, she has already had physical confirmation of her attainment so she shouldn’t be worried at all. She will also be out of the state system so they will be meaningless for her. Hopefully your reassurance can neutralise that teacher.

2023 was definitely the bats. One of the other texts was from Albion's Dream by Roger Norman. I only know because DS was so interested in the excerpt, he remembered what it was from and got me to find a copy for him. Tbf, it's a good story.

My daughter with additional needs is actually quite confident today after the reading exam 🤣 there is a question floating around tik tok the kids are saying how would we know and she is chuffed because she is like I think I got that one haha !

will there be 2 or 3 SATs results?
ie. English and maths, or spag, reading and maths?

There are 3

Yes, 3. One for reading, one for spellings/grammar and the final one for the overall maths.

Ah ok, thank you

Sats are purely for league tables and the benefit of the school. Standardised testing for young children is unnecessary and causes anxiety they don't need. Tell your child to try their best bit nit to worry and you are proud of them whatever happens. Not all intelligence involves maths and English.

@Redkez as has been said upthread SATs are used to set children and predict target grades at GCSE so they are not just for the school’s league tables

They are not 'young' children.
Year 6s have been doing 11+, which has a lot more riding on it, for 80 years. It's just nowadays kids are brought up with no resilience.
SATS will feed into target grades for gcse, and is used for initial setting in many secondary schools

I agree - I don’t think it’s an overly helpful narrative to push that it is only testing the school. Secondary schools also have an eye on their progress 8 score. They need to maintain the progress based on the SATS.

This won’t apply to all secondary schools, but at some they will be tested all the time. At my son’s school there are several set changing tests throughout the year for various subjects… On top of the end of unit tests and end of year exams. Unfortunately, the sooner they get used to it the better otherwise they are in for a rude awakening when it comes to their actually GCSE’s.

Also, I think it goes without saying that the majority of people follow the ethos of try your best and we are proud of them regardless of whatever mark they get. And that this is 2 subjects etc etc

@1SillySossij agree. I don’t think it does kids any harm to study at this age.
They are 11 or nearly 11 at this point. Old enough to knuckle down a bit. Mine has done a bit of study most nights after school in the last year and revised a few hours over the weekend. She’s also been to dancing, swimming, football, basketball played at the park with her friends and relaxed watching shows on her iPad. She doesn’t seem to be stressed or anxious.