SATS KS3 Science paper

[Mell2]

I understand from dd that there are two different papers that you can be offered. Just wondered what the implications would be if you were taking the higher(?) paper and didn't do very well. Would you have been better off taking the other paper?

Thanks (hope this makes sense )

I think there are two tiers, one which is levels 3 to 6 and one which is 5 to 7. If you do really badly on the higher tier could you end up with no national curriculum level. This would seriously annoy the school but is not important in the big scheme of things. The school might look bad in league tables.

Its not as if SAT results affect job prospects. The worst that could happen is that a child gets put in a lower set for GCSE. However if a child did really badly because of illness/ compassionate reasons then one hopes the school would put them in a set according to their usual ablity.

thanks for the reply frances.

Would be a bit upset if she ended up with no national curriculum level - could this really happen then?

I think there are 3 tiers.The teachers will have fairly clear idea about which level your daughter will be on, and there is room on each paper to go up and down.

DD will not end up without a grade! Have to say as a teacher, these grades are generally for the number crunchers in government. We do pay attention to them a bit, but if dd didn't do that well, her teacher would have realised she was having an off day and place her in the right set.

Often kids outperform there ks3 sats level-they are only used as a loose guide for teaching staff really

Hope this helps

Thanks fizzbuzz