When did your school assess the y7 for Maths as they start at secondary?

[loveyouradvice]

Do they typically do it immediately? Or give them a couple of weeks to settle in and wake up their Maths brains? And what's the asssessment like?? Similar to SATs or very different? and do White Rose schools do they do it differently?

Ex teacher

we didn’t really.

our students were in mixed ability groups (forms) all the way through year 7 and the year 8 groups were decided on the basis of the year 7 exam

Started in mixed ability groups for term 1. Baseline assessment in first couple of weeks. Two or three further assessments in term 1. Sets based on performance across the assessments + maths SAT score. It was possible to be placed in a higher or lower set than your SATs would predict based on performance, but they said they took both into account. Sets started from term 2 (if my memory serves me correctly it might have been term 3).

I teach Y7 maths - we test them within the first week. The lower they are at baseline the better for me tbh.

Their target grades, which set their flightpath, are determined from SATs though. Baseline is only used for internal measure through the year.

What are you hoping will/ won't happen??

DS2 was in mixed groups all the way through Y7 and Y8. In Y9 they took off a top set, and I think a couple of sets of kids who were struggling. But the bulk (11 form intake) were in mixed groups until GCSE.

First half a term it was mixed ability and then set based on the assessment at half term and classwork. Quite a bit of movement between the sets and they’re set across the half year until the end of year 9. Year 10/11 set across the whole year. Top set are offered further maths as well.

At DD's school, they set after the first half term (into 4 classes; it's part of the year). Another local school sets from the start, using SATS results. A third school doesn't set for the first year. So you'd need to ask the school.

Clearly similar to Ionacat, though DD is hoping that Y9 is set across the whole year!

Oh for us its not about setting ... they dont set until y 10 or 11.

It's more wondering when the asssessment is, because I thought it was used for internal measures and even for predicting GCSE results and school added value etc....And yes, @MoreIcedLattePlease I imagined assessing earlier when their brains are still sleepy from the summer gives a bigger increase over the year!! I hadn't realised their target grades were set from SATs though... is that all the way through the school (ie each year) or just GCSEs?

@DandelionClockSeeds .... I guess Im hoping the assessment is later rather than earlier... for a child who's not used to doing asssessments, coming from another system. But also expecting the school likes to do sooner rather than later!!

Ok, so kids who have SATs results will have GCSEs results predicted by their SATs results. These don't change. Teachers can predict higher or lower tho.

Some schools may do CATs - and in covid years, these were used to generate predicted grades.

If the school sets, and a child appears to be in the wrong set, they can be shuffled.

For us, DS1s predicted grades were nonsense - he achieved the English grades, and blew the rest out of the water (like achieving 2 grades higher than predicted by the statistical model). He was in top sets for maths & science by GCSE.

We'll see how DS2 compares in a year!

Depends on the school
One school locally to us don't set until Year 9
One school locally to us take the top 10% of kids based on SATS Results and stream before they start. The other kids are then streamed from Year 8 to give them a year to settle in.

Set here from day 1 using SATS, or after Oct half term some years. They also do CATS tests in October. They then move up and down if needed throughout their time. A few already changed sets after xmas.

My older child's school (grammar) only set from y9, but they've obviously pre-selected via their own entrance exam.

Dc2's school sets after the first term for each hair of the year but there's quite a bit of movement between sets. Then in Y9 the two halves of the year are mixed in the sets. Again, there's a fair bit of movement, DC2 has been yo-yoyoing between set 1 and 2 throughout.

One school around us do it on transition day this term. Ie the y6 kids spend the whole day in the secondary doing tests

That doesnt sound much fun as an introduction to high school.

DC1 did the test on about day 2, DC2 (same school) did it while still in year 6.

A couple of weeks in. Then resetting was done just around half term, and re-done every term after that! Quite thorough and moving sets is so “not a thing” if it happens al the time.

We do our own test (based on one produced by AQA) and CATs in the second week and set from week 4 from a combination of those and SATs. Predicted grades are generated by FFT, I think from SATs and CATs.

In our school the children come in to do a maths test in the Summer before they start Y7, so that they can be set already on day 1. But they monitor setting quite actively and they make changes every term if it looks like someone should be in a different set.