Year 7 assessment

[newusername12345]

My dc has just finished year 6 and since Monday and until next Tuesday dc will be in year 7 to prepare for September. I know that most schools will do assessments in reading and maths etc (even though in our school they are already grouped by ability based on their sats results), will the schools do these assessments now or in September? I heard a few mums from other schools saying their dc done maths tests on Monday, the first day in year 7? Does this sound right? I always thought assessments were done in September?

My son did CATS tests on his first day in year 7. Different set up though as his first day was in September

My dd did her CATS test first week in July and in September will do a baseline test. If I understand correctly what was said on parents evening it is the baseline test, CATS, SATs and her yr 6 teachers notes that her school will use to put them in sets.

You need to ask the school. If they’ve got the kids starting early (how can they enforce that?) then they may well want to get them out of the way so they have the results for September.

Crap for the kids though.

Will depend on the school. Yr6 have been in with us for transition but they won't be doing tests for setting until a couple of weeks into September.

At our school CATS were done 3 weeks into the September term (when children were a bit more settled) then setting in maths was done based on these and their SATS scores. French sets were allocated in October, following CATS and 6 weeks of foriegn language teaching. English and science now being set in Y8 on basis of end of Y7 exams.

The more I hear about other schools the more I love ours.

Our local secondaries do the CATs in weeks 2/3 after the initial setting in is done. They don't all set immediately, some wait until after October half term and others until spring term.

At our school, SATS were used for targets, and CATS for sets. CATS were performed in July, year 6. They also check any missed special needs then (not sure how though). Sets are reasserted throughout the year, it is a very fluid affair, with children moving up and down up to twice a year, whereas targets are set in stones for the whole year and reevaluated according to end of year exam results for the following year.