Year 6 CAT tests

[BatCatPond]

My child got not great CAT test results but their school work is great with high marks. Don’t know what to make of this as it is demoralising for them. It also affects the band they are in for state secondary schools in our borough and potentially negatively impacts on chance of getting preferred schools. Any advice?

You should talk to your child's teacher about this. As for the impact on secondary: do you know for a fact that Y6 CATs (as opposed to SATs??) will have any effect on their streaming in Y7? Have you asked the schools themselves? Unless your DC is applying to selective secondaries (in which case surely they've already taken an exam separately?), primary school exams will have absolutely no impact at all on secondary admissions.

Thanks for response. Schools in our borough use CATs to band children so that they can take a representative proportion from each band. Data shows that kids in the highest band for the most popular schools can live further away and still get a place. Better result means less competition for the places. This all happens before SATs. You are quite right, they will use SATs for streaming but the CATs are important for the school places.

Ah I see - in my area banding tests are done separately and are distinct from school tests. However have you looked at the data over more than one year? For banding that is meant to ensure equal representation across the ability range (though I have huge issues with this method), the distance cut-off should vary for each band year by year.

These CATs are ridiculous and the way they're incorporated into GCSE target setting is farcical. My Yr 7 dd's art teacher was explaining that her target for her GCSE was a 7 based on her CATs!

My child is predicted to do well at maths for a couple of years then crash & burn and practically drop out of school in time for GCSE’s, while apparently showing aptitude for something called ‘Textiles’....makes me want to bang my head on a table