Grammar school class grouped by ability?

[Battenburg11]

Would anyone know whether results from SATS taken from primary school are used to determine which ability set they should be for when they are in comprehensive or grammar schools please?

My DD will be going to our local grammar in September and a parent mentioned that they may be grouped in classes according to ability from their SATS test. I hadn’t given it much thought or place much importance on SATS.

Most schools will start them off in English and Maths sets based on their SATs and teacher assessments. But there is often a lot of movement in the first term or two.

Depends entirely on the school. But a good school should allow plenty of movement between sets, so even if they start in the "wrong" set, there should be opportunity to move.

Not normally. A number come from private schools so have no tests. More likely to do CATS testing.

It depends on the school, but it is quite common to use SATS results for the initial streaming.

I think it varies depending on the school. Some schools do additional CATs tests or similar when they start. DD is at a grammar school and they don't have any sets in yr 7 as they assume they're all roughly the same ability having passed 11+. Best to ask the school.

Comprehensive schools do this

Interestingly our local grammars don’t group at all until year 9, which can make for quite a large range of abilities in any one class.
Our prep doesn’t do SATS, but does attainment equivalents, as well as CATS, and I would say a large proportion of the tutored kids going to grammar, have quite average scores..110 to 120, and are middle set students as opposed to top set students. The very brightest however (130+), are not taking up grammar places, but are going to selective independent schools instead.

@LaPoesieEstDansLaRue - you would expect abilities to be broadly similar yes, but not in today’s heavily prepped climate. There is no way you can say a child who has a high 140s score without prep..can be considered to have the same ability as 2nd or 3rd set heavily tutored children who manage to scrape through. Great for the child who needs a boost...but not so great for the other...

The schools in my area do this, yes.

Thanks for your replies.
So if a school do stream based on SATS then a class of 30 will be of children of similar abilities or is that a certain number of children within the class of 30 will be grouped together?

What difference does it make by grouping? Will the higher ability children get different/more challenging work?

No setting or streaming in my DS grammar school until year 10. He has been in the same group of about 30 for every lesson for nearly 3 years (other than sports). There is a range of ability as local kids need to pass 11+ but OOA places go to the top scorers only, however the range is quite narrow.

The class of 30 will be of similar abilities (typically for maths and English not all lessons) and may get differentiated work.

Ds's grammar school only set for maths and science and that isn't until year 9. There is a massive range of abilities at his school and there quite a few children that got level 3's or lower in their year 11 mocks.

Don't be fooled onto thinking that it will be a group of similar abilities because it certainly isn't in Ds's year. They do not give differentiated work either. Poor behaviour is also a big problem at his school.

No setting or streaming in my DS grammar school until year 10. He has been in the same group of about 30 for every lesson for nearly 3 years (other than sports).

Yep same with my DS at a state grammar. Even in year 10, they only split out the top and bottom groups - the middle groups aren't split out according to ability - class allocation happens according to their GCSE choices simply for timetabling purposes.

We don't set in English at all. We only set in Maths. Entirely based on internal tests with relatively regular potential for movement. Two sets in KS3 usually and then 4 in KS4.
Many haven't done SATs so don't use them. In fact, I have no idea what my year 7 class achieved in the SATs or who did or did not do them.

Oh and his sats results were used to predict his gcses results. He has spent the last 5 years being told he is failing even when he is achieving results that would be equivalent to a level 7. A truly crap way of working out his predictions.

Our local grammar only sets for French in the earlier years to take into account the large number of kids coming from private schools who have been learning it for years vs those from state who have done hardly any.

Punx schools have to do that. It's how their progress 8 is calculated. But agree, it's rubbish.

Each school has it's own policy. Old area the comprehensives made children sit their internal exams in July of year 6 and used those to set. Current area often initially not set then moved into sets based on how they are doing at current school but takes into account CATS but also teacher judgement.

Grammar school in old area did not set on entry but a third of results were 9s, a third 8s and the other third predominately 7s so even if higher up the school you were put in a lower set the ability level was still very high. Almost all the children there had 3 x 120 on SATS.

My children are at state grammar schools. There was no streaming at all in year 7. Some streaming in maths only from years 8 or 9.

Depends on the grammar. DDs school has mixed ability the first couple of years for English and maths.