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

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Which question was this?

Click on my photo, it’s there.

dd is kicking herself over 38 on the SPAG. She says she put ‘had’ in front as well as the correct answer. Not entirely sure why it’s ok to have ‘had’ for the later question 50 but not for the earlier one. I think the SPAG is ridiculous. A writing paper would probably be a more accurate representation of a child’s ability and more useful prep for GCSE.

Oops forgot to post pic

Maybe it’s because I can’t see the actual question haha but the second sounds weird

There was a writing paper, but marking was too subjective. I spent a huge chunk of my time appealing ludicrous marking and our children’s results would fluctuate between 10-15% every single year.

Writing is now teacher assessment and is checked by moderators who are teachers and have to pass a test every year (I am a moderator). The writing attainment is reported and used to measure progress in secondary schools just like the Maths and Reading tests. The SPAG test is not included in performance measures.

As a teacher @Feenie what do you think of the SPaG requirements for KS2?

It seemed to me that my DD2 spent ages (not) learning esoteric aspects of grammar when her spelling was still quirky and her punctuation generally non existent.

I feel she would have been better served in y6 focusing on Capital letters, full stops and commas rather than fronted adverbials and whatever. (Later assessed as having both dyslexia and dyspraxia.) It wasn't as if the fancy grammar knowledge got built on in secondary either.

There was supposed to be a secondary grammar curriculum, but the working party ran out of time and money.

The SPAG paper is pointless and a complete waste of time! It does not lead to better writing, just writers who know the names of things.

Exemplary grammar in the reading mark scheme here:

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My daughter is heading of to an independent school that specialises is dyslexia ( she doesn’t have it ) and dyspraxia etc
I am intrigued in their different learning approach as I know when daughter had her trial she was confused over the long multiplication methods as they were different to her current school.

@Theordinaryfam if I recall correctly, for KS2 SATs there are only certain allowable methods for long multiplication. Whereas in Secondary any methods that works, counts. DD uses Napiers method: How to do long multiplication using Napier's method – KS3 Maths – BBC Bitesize which is not one of those allowed at KS2.

Interesting ! I know they are not really bothered by curvise writing either.

Maths teachers in secondary can be quite pragmatic.

When DD1 was in y9 she didn't 'get' how she was being shown how to do some algebra, so I explained an (in my opinion) more straight forward way.

The teacher saw her using it, checked she understood it, and then asked her to show the rest of the class in case it helped some of them.

Ultimately if it gets the right answer in a sensible way it is OK, though some methods naturally lead to working better with more complicated numbers, or are helpful with progression to other harder maths topics.

In q38 they ask for the simple past and q50 past perfect, so obviously if you use the incorrect tense, you don't get the mark. The idea is to test whether children know the different tenses.
I'm actually quite surprised that parents would look at the tests with their children, or let the children know that they are in the public domain, rather than just let them forget about them.

Yes I agree. The tests are done, they can’t change the outcome now. So what’s the point in stressing them out by going over the answers and making them see where they’ve gone wrong?

I have had a look at them but have not shown DD I don’t even tell her the results she got 🤣

Only looked at the mark scheme. I thought they were both asking for the same.
She wanted to see the paper. I think it’s good to have an interest in how she did.

Oh mine definitely has an interest in how she did. She knows she’ll find out on the 8th July (that’s when our school give out the results).

I agree. I don’t see any issue with him knowing they exist and me going through some
of the questions because I’ve I’m interested. He was also curious to know the whole process of who/how they are marked. My son was delighted he got the final maths question correct…that was the only one he was interested in seeing. And so what if he got it wrong, he could see the correct method and understand for next time. But these tests were not big scary “exams” in his eyes. He wouldn’t have been stressed out if he got it wrong, I get that some kids might have been.

Hope everyone and their children got results they were happy with in the end. Good luck at secondary school