When does hot housing for Sats usually start in state primary (year 6)

[hothousingforsats]

Anyone know when hot housing for Sats starts in state primary schools?

I don't agree with them and think it is such a shame part of year 6 is wasted cramming for these. His school got their best ever Sats scores last year and it seems to have set them on a path of wanting to maintain their top position amongst local schools at any cost.

I've decided to remove my DS from school for these (this would be next year) and I will home educate once the hot housing starts until he starts secondary school. He's likely to get his first choice secondary school, but even his second and third choices do their own banding tests so Sats are irrelevant.

I would hope he would be learning new stuff for the Autumn term and they don't start this early. Do they? Would they start in the Spring term or is it not until after Easter?

I thought I'd use the time between now and then to plan some really cool educational trips away (ones we can't afford during the school holidays). Booking in advance will be far cheaper, so I'd be grateful to anyone who can tell me roughly when they stop learning and start cramming!

Remember when covid shut the schools? Y6 were prioritized for returning to school because of the massive amount of soft skills work that prepares them for secondary. All that fun, socializing, and "relaxing" after SATs is massively important in preparing them for secondary.

To answer your question - you need to talk to parents from your school. All schools treat SATs preparation work differently, so the range on here will show you what might happen, but you need the local knowledge.

This seems to be all about you and not what is best for your DS.
I’m a governor at a primary and a secondary school and have a year 6 child. The content they learn for their SATs is preparing them for secondary school. Are you confident that you can teach him to a high enough standard?

Yr 6 is a big year for children. Being the oldest in the school means they really start to grow up and become independent. The group experiences at this age are important to them socially and developmentally.
Why would you actively remove your child from those experiences?

DD is year 6, and she is having a blast this year. They are working towards SATS and have done 2 lots of practice exams, but she doesn’t find them tricky, so it’s been really good for her confidence. They are also spending time planning their fund raising for the time after sats, which is day trips, parties, a 4 night residential, theatre, cinema, creative projects etc.
Honestly, I was a bit worried that she would be bored, but she skips into school every day.

I know it’s not what you want to hear but my son loved end of year 6. He loved feeling grown up, preparing for the next stage and saying good bye to primary. It was a great time for families as well in a strange way.

I’m assuming you don’t work OP.

will he not miss his friends?

i feel like this is not really about sats and more about you not wanting to let go. Please be careful of this on him. Secondary is a massive step and that last bit of year 6 really does prepare him. Seeing mine with their arms round each other doing their last show and seeing the progress friendship and pride in them all really helped them with their confidence.

all kids are different and I get that but you maybe causing him more struggle as he wouldn’t have had that practice.

And also - to answer the question mine had some optional clubs to practice for SATs. Mine chose to do some but not all. I wanted him to do well and also to feel part of the group and that peer to peer support as well.

I think you should do whatever works for your family, but I’d be worried he would miss all the fun stuff they plan for afterwards.

Information - my DD’s school started working towards SATs in Year 5. I told her she could have the week of SATs off, but she was looking forward to them.

No one cares about fronted adverbials in secondary school.

The whole of year 6 is revision and filling any gaps from previous years. It's really useful preparation for secondary. Taking him out straight after sats so you can get a cheaper, quieter holiday would probably be better.

So you’d want your DS to miss out on all the fun stuff in year 6 post-SATS such as pgl, leavers disco, sports day, year 6 production, farewell picnics etc
MyDC are adults now, yes there was some SATS prep but I remember them both wanting to do well of their own volition too, plus they did other activities too like art and PE, history and geography.

I wouldn’t pull mine out of year 6.
it helps with the goodbye to peers and teachers. Somewhere they’ve spent more time than at home for the past x years.
it helps the transition to secondary, they find which friends are going to their new school. It helps prepare them for that massive jump and change.

often if your child misses SATs they end up having to resit them (or a version of) in secondary anyway so there’s little point.

im very anti SATs, took part in the protest years ago about them. Year 6 is about so much socially I wouldn’t do it. My eldest missed their SATs because of Covid, the majority of the year group were really sad about missing them - genuinely!!! It was the right of passage they were prepared for.

This completely, plus Yr6 is transitional and this is an important aspect of it. The leavers play etc. likewise. They feel grown up, they are top of the school and they celebrate their time at primary

I forgot that’s the only thing on the tests 🙄

@WarCupboard obviously none of the maths and problem solving techniques they learn in Y6 will be useful in Secondary!

And some of grammar they learn, which we question, can help when learning other languages

Fronted adverbials always get quoted as the reason for not doing SATs but they are not the only thing they learn.

And I have never understood parents who take their child out of SATs week when the child has done all the work for them

Don’t do this op. Don’t remove your child from their friends because you don’t like SATs. It’s smacks of utter selfishness and you will be the first one to moan when your dc struggles with the transition to secondary.

In our school they do optional Saturday School 9am-12pm as SATs extra practice beginning after Christmas and going on till May half term (but not in holidays). It's for all kids, not just those targeted as needing intervention (I'm not aware whether they put more pressure on those they think need intervention)

DD1 wasn't arsed, didn't go, did fine in her SATs. DD2 is doing it by choice and loving it (they get to wear non-uniform and get given snacks and sweets!) it's very low pressure insofar as if we have plans on a Saturday she just doesn't go and it's no big deal. In fact the only person that gives us a hard time is DD2 cause she doesn't like missing it.

I'm amazed that any schools do this. I work in Y6 and there's no way I, or anyone else in the Y6 team, would do this, because we have lives to enjoy outside of school and so do the children. We also don't do lunchtime or after school sessions either; the only interventions we do are for children working below expected standard and they happen in every year group.

I was astonished too. At parents evening the other week I said to their teacher "this must be really hard for you, you must be knackered working 6 days per week" and he said yeah, it's tiring, but the money's too good to turn down 🤷‍♀️ (state school, nowhere fancy)

I hadn’t even considered that they would be paid overtime, as usually teachers don’t get extra for after school clubs etc. I wonder where the money is coming from to cover that.

How could you even write the Eden project and Pompei in the same sentence...

Both my children would have been devastated if I had took them out of school for year 6. Is this what he wants?

We were all really upset that our kids missed the year 6 fun due to Covid. Seems really weird to opt to miss out on all that - we were all forced to miss it and felt sad about that for our kids 😢.

Think it’s a crucial stage. We were told secondary had never had so many pastoral issues as they did with that cohort teachers view was they missed a crucial stage in social development by missing most of year 6 due to lock down

My eldest missed all the transition too, it really did a number on them.

Ironically the kids were gutted they missed the SATs as they’d done the prep and were excited to do them as a right of passage. they then had to sit a version of SATs for streaming in an unfamiliar place, after all the time off etc.

op the school sounds the issue here, not the SATs. I’m in a grammar area and the state schools are not allowed to prepare them at all for 11+, so there shouldn’t be any pressure for that from the school sounds

Op, you are right that in a way SATS don't serve the child, as they measure schools. My DS has passed entrance exams to an independent school (their prep pupils don't take SATS) and they will measure him by these not SATS results when he joins in September. He worked really hard for those exams and consequentially is finding the SATS work fairly easy going.I could easily pull him out of SATs but I am not going to deny him the last few months of primary when they will have so much fun.

Interestingly, there was a question about holiday boosters on Teacher Tapp yesterday - results are in the image. It really shocked me that only 40% of 10,000 teachers don’t have them at their school. Bonkers. I am a Year 6 teacher, and our head knows better than to even ask.