Admissions query, feeder school and home ed

[user1471446712]

I am seriously considering removing my year six daughter from school for the remainder of the school year. Because , SATs. But I want to check this won't affect her secondary school place, does anyone know? She is at a feeder school for the secondary school and has applied under this category. If she left primary now, will she still fall into this admissions band? What about if we wait until March and the allocations? The council website states that all changes of circumstances must be notified but the details are all about change of address. Any ideas? Thank you!

Why not just keep her home on exam days if you don't want her to do them.

I suspect it depends on your LEA and potentially even individual schools. If it doesn't state in the admissions information, then I'd suggest ringing your LEA.

Some individual schools near us definitely have "attending primary school A with a reasonable intention that they will still be attending at the end of Year 6" as admissions criteria. That's because of the parents that game play and move DC in and out of schools in Y5/6

hersetta

Because
a) you'd have to be off for 2 weeks to miss them, as if you are 'ill' you do them the next week (and of course this then potentially leads to school fines)
b) a lot of the issues some people have with y6 SATs is the build up, not the actual tests

User I know this isn't what you asked and I don't know your circumstances, but I saw from my DD2 that the process of preparing for and doing SATs was actually quite beneficial to her, building up her confidence and resilience and helping her feel she 'achieved'. This stood her in good stead for secondary.
You may be better pushing back from any over the top pressure from school, e.g. don't attend booster sessions, don't do stupid amounts of homework etc. I worry that withdrawing could be seen as a lack of confidence in her.
Doing SATs is almost like a rite of passage for y6s and coming through the other side grows them up.

But You know the school's approach and your DD best of all. And you didn't ask about missing SATs anyway.

Thank you so much. As TTT says, it's the preparation rather than the exams themselves. I can see that all the class are going to do for the next few months is be coached to pass a rather arbitrary test. I think she will learn more at home for a few months. I have no doubt she would pass them, she is just very very bored. But I don't want to jeopardise the secondary school place. I think you are right Redsky the only answer is going to be found by ringing the L.A.. I was just a bit worried to show my hand I suppose, but I guess there is no way round it.

At the moment my yr 6 dd is enjoying the process but she is very competitive and likes the almost daily testing.

I am sure that if you withdrew her now you would need to inform the LA as it is a change similar to moving address which may affect which admission criteria you fall into. If you were going to do it I would leave it until after offers day.

I’m not saying you’re wrong as only you know your DD... however just some thoughts to consider:

• leaving Y6 is an experience in itself. She would miss many ‘last’ events and any bonding with peers also leaving. If she then rejoined many of the same friends in year 7 she may feel excluded from friendship groups that have evolved and moved on.

• sometimes a lesson in life is to understand that there may be times in School (or later work) where for a while it is boring. It’s not a bad skill to be able to plod on through, look for the positives, and see that not all work/School will be exciting but that it’s still worth doing to come out the other side. Revision is often boring but it’s necessary as one example.

Of course I’m not saying your choice is wrong. Just two devils advocate thoughts for you to consider as well.

Year 6 is very boring and narrow though Rewn. We took ds (second child) out at the end of year 4 for different reasons. It was originally temporary but he ended up home educated until this Sept when he went back to secondary.

Both our children have ended up at selective secondary schools. Ds was far better prepared for it by being home educated - he did lots more science, languages, History, Geography and art and he has much better general knowledge. He also did lots of things he would never have done in school - freestyle trampolining lessons, rock climbing, archaeology, tree identification, etc etc.

He did the 11 plus so he had some experience of being tested. He’s done well with the grammar school pressure so far despite not going through SATs.

But I can see that the feeder school issue is the crucial thing here..

Yes Y6 can be very narrow. It was at DD’s School. However she came through it all the better with an ability to graft through the boring times and also with a sense of camaraderie with her peers moving up into Y7 together.

Like I said, only the OP knows her child best but it’s worth pointing out that, despite Y6 being boring, it can also bring its own life skills and also important memories and friendships.

It’s a very personal decision but if my DD hadn’t gone through it I don’t think she’d have been as prepared for high school as she was. It actually, and unexpectedly, did her the world of good, both socially and academically/ethically.

But that’s not to say it’s right for the OP and of course the point here is will the high school place be safe which only the LA will know for sure. Good luck OP.

Exactly, we all have different experiences. Neither of my children went to secondary with anyone from primary so I guess the camaraderie wasn’t relevant. I do think it’s a shame for the last year of primary to be so dull though!

GCSE forecasts are based on Y6 SATS.

Guess what happens if the child doesn't take those tests?

They don't get nonsense GCSE forecasts?

Don't know about the impact on your particular school admissions situation, but I can say with confidence that there will be no long term problems arising from skipping SATs. Many home educated children go to school at some point in secondary education, with no SATs, and I'm not aware of it ever causing a problem. 4 of mine have, and through years of attending home education groups I've known plenty of others in this situation. Not having SATs has simply not been a problem for the children.

The primary purpose of SATs is a school performance measure. They are used for the baseline measure of Progress 8 etc, but again, that's a school performance measure rather than a pupil performance measure. It's of no consequence to the child - it doesn't go on their CV.

GCSE predictions are made on the basis of mocks taken during the GCSE course. There are provisions in the school accountability guidelines for the situation where SATs are not available ; that child is excluded from the school's Progress 8 figures, but is included in the Attainment 8.

The only case I can think of where the absence of SATs might have had an impact was a formerly home educated child who started secondary at a school where there was strong streaming from the very start, based on SATs. The mum was proactive about it and spoke to the school, said she didn't want her child just placed in a middle set because they didn't have any SAT scores to use. Clearly they found another way to test the child as he was put in the top set and has since done well.

The end of primary can be a nice time to try home education - knowing it's only likely to be for a few months, you can really go for it and do lots of fun trips. It would be a shame to miss out on the end of primary "graduation" stuff though. You could be cheeky and deregister her for a few months, have (hopefully!) a lovely experience, then re-enrol her at the start of July I suppose. The school census has just passed so the school has already presumably got a full year's funding for your daughter anyway.

Can you email the secondary you've applied to and ask what they would do of an applicant was not taking SATs? They must have some provision to deal with the situation.

Good luck!