Can someone tell me what to think about primary sats?

[PollyParanoia]

Am fairly new to education. Well I'm not but my ds is. His school has done better than the last few years in their sats released today. Not brilliant, but I think perfectly fine. Probably about a third of the way down the table for the borough, below all the faith schools, natch.
Does it matter either way?
Are people whose kids go to a 100% school right to be insufferably smug?
Does it say more about the school or about the home life of pupils?
I know that I looked at the results before choosing schools, but then actually discarded them because I liked our local despite its then crappy scores. I know that there are always mitigating factors (in this case, the fact that a lot of people move due to rubbishy secondaries). In which case, why am I even caring what they are this year? What is the point of them?

Another thing to bear in mind is the fuller picture behind the SATs results.

Our school 'teaches to the test' much less than many schools - no morning or lunchtime booster classes, no past papers sent home, very little stress or anxiety. However, the Y6 children have done a test paper in each of the subjects every half term in Y6 - so 4 papers altogether so far - and maths homework has consisted of something called something like 'Delbert's SATs facts'.

But - and a big but - it is at least three-quarters full of highly educated aspirational parents, and bright and well supported children. At least 50% of the leavers go on to selective private schools, so at least 50% of the year group is being tutored for 11+ exams from the January of Y5. In addition, some children do general tutoring from Y3 or 4 and our local Kumon and Kip McGrath centres overflow. This is true for the other highly regarded state schools around us too. So who knows how much value the school is adding, compared to the tutors and the parents?

In addition, for many schools (and parents), the breakdown of Level 4/Level 5 is more illuminating and relevant than the headline Level 4 figures that are quoted in the tables.

very interesting. i had this conversation with the head of a school i recently went to visit for dd- GREAT school imo, but very variable intake with high and volatile percentage of children from very deprived backgrounds. they had a couple of good years- down to a "bright cohort" and some emphasis on sats, in an effort to improve the school's reputation, lure back some of the local middle classes, and kickstart a self-reinforcing positive cycle...

basically i think that extreme SATS results are very telling- a 100% pass in every subject for every year clearly tells you it's a good school (although it also tells you that it takes in very privileged children, whatever that means), a 20% pass is probably not a great school. anything middle of the road just tells of a school with a varied range of abilities i suppose. also, interesting to note that a x% result does not translate into the probability that your child will achieve that result, it is simply a reflection of what a particular cohort achieves. so in many ways pretty meaningless.

interestingly in our borough the top 10 slots are all taken by church schools- so selection plays an immense part in this.

I don't think the tutoring thing applies so much in non grammar school areas. DS school gets very good results and I doubt many parents employ tutors. I can't say if the school teaches to the test or not as my children aren't old enough to do SATs yet.

I've never heard of anyone tutoring in our area - but our local secondary schools aren't selective and people just go to their catchment school as they are all much of a muchness.
The point I was trying to make further down the thread is that although I agree league tables are invidious and raw SATs scores should not be the measure by which schools are judged, it is unfair to assume that schools whose pupils do well in SATs do so because the school places an unhealthy emphasis on teaching to the test. I don't think that is true.
I agree with Beforesunrise that there is something odd about schools who consistently get 100% though - we have a large intake (over 60 pupils) and in any year group there are going to be several children with some degree of SN who can't access the tests, this doesn't mean however that they are not counted in the statistics.

So where can we find the breakdown of level 4/5 then singer? It would be very interesting to read ours as I am convinced that once ours reach level 4 they are basically forgotten about to concentrate on those not yet reaching it!
This would really help us to work out if even the bright children are being stretched

The school should give you that information, Karise. Our school sends parents a detailed breakdown of SATs results. If yours doesn't, then ask them for it.

I would be very surprised if that was the case, karise - schools are measured on their level 5s as well!

We get the information from the school as well, and our school is also under pressure to deliver a certain percentage of Level 5s, as Seeker says. It's just that the published tables don't usually include them and they're not taken into account in those 'headline' figures. The top 50 schools by Level 5 were listed in the latest charts (BBC, I think), but that's not all that useful unless you happen to live near one of them.

Though to be honest Level 5 is not especially stretching for bright children anywat and many able children are at that level in one or more subjects by the end of Y5 or even earlier.