If my DS (14) does badly at SATS, will affect his future exams in any way?

[tearinghairout]

What I mean is, will he be stopped from sitting any GCSEs, for example?

This is a rumour that I've heard, could be total bolleaux or I might've got the wrong end of the stick - any ideas, please?

He's always had trouble with reading & writing, and has extra tuition at school. Doing stuff with him at home, however, I've been surprised to notice that he is very quick to pick things up - I only have to correct a spelling once, for example, for him to get it next time. He is silly and immature, and confided in me recently that he enjoys messing about in lessons, and also enjoys the 1-to-1 of the extra tuition. I've tried bribery and threats in order to make him realise that messing about isn't on, and he's promised to knuckle down after Easter. But now that he's labled as SEN, is there any disadvantage?

No he won't be stopped from sitting GCSEs. Most schools use SATs results to set pupils in English, Maths and Science for GCSE and the set he's in may well affect whether he's entered for Higher or Standard tier GCSE - but the tiering is decided according to the ability of each child before GCSEs, not according to SATs results.

Our school uses the sats results to see if your child needs to go into a higher class or a lower one that they get extra help in.This means that from the start of year 10 and then 11 they are in a class more suited to them. Unless your child has had difficulty all their school life and their sats results were low in years 2 and 6 9 [ or they weren't put in for the earlier sats] they will be put in for their gcse's but do the easier test.The school will do their best to help them reach the best result they can.

That must've been it. Does the tiering affect the final result, in other words, does a pass at Standard tier equal a pass at Higher tier? What's to stop people pretending, in order to get an easier exam?

He wouldn't be stopped from doing GCSEs.

We do use the SATs results to help to guide students to the most appropriate courses for them, so it does have some effect

Science GCSEs come in Foundation and High levels.

Foundation grades go from G-C (with C being the best
Higher grades go from E-A*

If kids are going to be 'wobbly on the C/D boarderline we tend to put them in for Foundation since they are more likely to get a C grade at Foundation than at Higher. But they can't get higher than a C grade

The tiering will affect the final grade yes, as some of the foundation tiers will only go up to a Grade D or C. But if that's their level, there's really no point putting pupils in for the higher tier, as if they don't hit the lowest grade available on that tier then they end up with nothing. Different subjects have slightly different tiering systems and some subjects (eg Drama) have no tiering at all.

Brilliant - you lot are wonderful. Thank you all so much.

One final question - when do they make the decision about which level GCSE he will sit?

In our school we leave that decision as long as humanly possible but generally by about the January of Year 11.

Thanks.

In Science, the Higher paper has extra content. So if he has the ability to get a B or above, he should be trying to get into a set where the higher level content is taught. We have moved children up into one of these sets, but we don't like to leave it too long before we do, because of the extra ground they need to cover.

We make a 'solid' decision at the end of year 10, but there is still some flex later on, but at that stage it is harder for the child to bridge the gap, IYSWIM

Yes, I see. So he might get put into a higher set from the start of Year 10 if he does well in SATS?

I wish I hadn't left it so late to start taking this in hand. He couldn't do so many things, eg. fractions, but once I started to go over things with him a couple of weeks ago he picked them up straight away.

We set using the SATS results, but they are not set in stone (no pun intended)

Silly and enjoying messing about in lessons is, if anything a little more of a worry than low sats. Why put the 'good behaviour' off until after Easter, he needs to start concentrating in lessons now

the SEN thing shouldn't be an issue , If he has SEN he is better getting the help that he needs. I've sent children to university who had SEN. I've also seen children not reach their potential because they don't work

Re. the messing about, I'm telling him but it's not getting through. I can't do the work for him, and I'm not there in school with him to tell him to pull his socks up. I wish I knew how to din it into his head, apart from nagging. The truth is that he is immature. I'm hoping that he will grow up over the next couple of years & pull it out of the bag for GCSE.

ds didn't do any SATS cos he was home educated. No probs going into Y10 and starting 10 GCSE'.

Anyway English SATs results don't come out until mid August when the GCSEs come out; so they can't be used by schools for most purposes, as the plans/timetabling etc. are all completed before the end of this term.

True, which is why the TA level (teacher assessment) is used in English in our school as a way of organising GCSE classes.

It will affect the sets he is in as the mean KS3 score is often used to set them and to predict future success. You have to watch out for some of the weird things schools do though. Our lower ability (and reasonable ability but naughty so lower attaining) only do 1 GCSE in science instead of 2 and less options. INstead they do an ASDAN course which is some kind of life skills course that's worth a few GCSEs. Obviously this affects future prospects as they don't have as many options open to them. By messing about he could be shutting off future options as the school may shunt him into particular classes to reduce his impact on the learning of others. The best reaction to poor behaviour by a parent I have ever seen was a boy in my form in Y8. He had been messing about and wagged a lesson. His mother got the call from school and told him if he dared to mess about again she would sit next to him in every lesson, even if she had to lose her job. He didn't believe her and she got another call, next day she was sat next to her son in class. She did it for a week and he is now the most polite, well behaved and fabulous Y11 boy. The threat is still there for him too - she told me at Y11 parents day the other week!

We set based on SAT's and it makes a difference to what course he does. OUr lower band do the vocational double award science course while the upper band do the more traditional double award. They are set from the start of year 10. Obviously their options post 16 also depends on the course they did.