Can someone translate the SATS league table results for me please

[suwoo]

I'm a bit worried about DD's school as I don't think it has done very well in the recently published league table. DD is in year 2 and her teacher has been off for 6 weeks and was off in September/October for 4 weeks. DD is predicted 3's in her SATS and I'm not really worrying until she is in Juniors. I have 2 boys who will follow her into school and I am more worried about them.

What happens if the Value Added Measure is low? Do the LEA get involved?

The school has a lovely vibe, which is what I am focusing on.

It is the top one in this list

Thanks

Hmm. Well those are not good results, particularly the Maths, and the value added is pretty bad, which means the children are not reaching their potential.
The key question is WHY. Results like this at our school would mean head, staff and governors agreeing on an action plan and targets to improve. The LEA don't get involved directly but the school will have a school improvement partner appointed by the LEA who will be looking at helping the school with this process. Having said that, there are only 25 children in the year group and a few children who are underperforming for whatever reason can really skew those results. You need to look at results over three or four years to see if this is part of a trend or a one-off blip. Even if it is a trend, the key thing is to know the school is addressing it.
I would have a chat with the head about your concerns and see what s/he says.

I wouldn't worry about Year 2 SATs results to be honest.

The KS1 Sats are often teacher decided, so the LEA don't often get involved. They are more likely to pounce on a school at KS2 if they dont get value added then at Year 6.

If ths school is nice and has a lovely vibe, and you are generally happy and child is happy, then don't worry.

If they get rid of the Sats next year then there will be no worries.

I just wouldn't know where to start talking to the head. I feel I am not knowledgeable enough on this subject and wouldn't want to embarass myself.

I imagine that there will be more than just me who might want to speak to the head.

Would anything me sent home regarding action plans or would it just be kept within the teaching staff?

Pop, the table was for year 6 SATS.

The link is to the KS2 SATS Pop. They don't publish KS1 results, thank goodness.
And the point isn't really that getting rid of SATs will mean no worries. Getting rid of SATS will mean there is no really objective way of finding out how a school is doing at teaching its pupils how to read, write and add up. Which is what the OP is worried about.

AGree with LadyG - you do need to look at previous years and see if there's been a sudden worrying decline or whether they started badly and are improving.

The problem with such a small intake is that you just need one or two children to be having a bad day and the whole results are skewed. Or you happen to have an intake where a significant proportion have English as an Additional Language or some sort of learning needs, again it will skew the results.

Yes, the SIP will be working closely with the Head and the governors. The school will have something called a SIDP - School Improvement and Development Plan. Ask to see a copy and see what you think - does it sound like they are taking active steps to tackle the problems and improve performance?

You could ask for a copy of the school improvement plan which should address this issue. Do you know any of the governors? - a parent governor might be easier to talk to than the head and should have all the info you need.

Great minds

Yes indeedy!

There were a couple of pupils last year that had SEN and moved on to a specialist high school but I don't know of any pupils that have english as a second language.

Where can I find previous years results? Will they still be online somewhere?

Thanks for your help with this so far.

Suwoo, try the education bit of the BBC website. Also have a look at the Ofsted site. Do you know when the school last had an Ofsted report?

here is the Ofsted report from May 2007.

Will look for previous SATS now.

Reading that, it is very dis-appointing, particularly as DD is considered a high achiever

here is the 'at a glance' SATS since 2005.

Well it is clear from the report that the inspectors have identified the problem - which means the school should have worked out a plan to fix it.
It sounds like a great school from the pastoral side though which is very important. I wouldn't remove my child from a school with that sort of Ofsted, but I would be keen to know how they planned to improve standards of teaching and learning throughout the school.

That is what I meant about a 'nice vibe', you can tell it is a caring school with 'nice' teachers and pupils. The question is will DD be stretched to her potential, especially with her teacher on long term sick?

Maybe the juniors part of the school will be better.