AIBU

[GrammarTeacher]

The KS2 SATs are rigorous. And expect terminology the students will rarely if ever use again in my subject (English). However, the new GCSEs are also rigorous in a completely different way. The standard for a top level performance in English Language is exceptionally hard to achieve in the time constraints of the exam. It's almost like there are two separate departments in the DfE who don't liaise with each other as Secondary English doesn't seem linked to Primary in any real sense. They can't do the things I want them to do but are on paper capable of degree level linguistic analysis! Is this just an English issue, or is it me, or is it the system?
Apologies for quality of my writing, my brain is currently fried from marking writing tasks for GCSE Language!

@swisscheeseplant indeed MFL but not your standard french/spanish. It's one that's mostly just taught at private schools or grammar schools. I used to teach French though. That was dire - the kids came in in year 7 with piss poor French and their parents went mental that they had to start from scratch. I remember doing a stint in a primary school and the teacher admitted she spoke no Spanish, yet had to teach Spanish. I think that's pretty standard at primary, sadly. But this isn't the teachers' or the kids' fault

If (some) Y7 did well on maths SATs will have gone GCSE level stuff already and be succeeding does that mean the government plans to make GCSE maths harder? (Not saying that they should, I’m sure not all students are at that level)

My big gripe is all those fronted adverbials etc when children can't even use capital letters correctly. And the primary focus on narrative - there's more to writing than that. Make sure they can write a sentence first.

There isn't a primary focus on narrative. My portfolio for each child this year was a myth, a formal persuasive letter, an explanation, a tension narrative, an informal non fiction, a formal report, a diary and an internal dialogue.

And when I see them in year 7 they will look at me blankly when we do text types and fail to use apostrophes correctly. Something is wrong with the English Curriculum.

If (some) Y7 did well on maths SATs will have gone GCSE level stuff already and be succeeding does that mean the government plans to make GCSE maths harder? (Not saying that they should, I’m sure not all students are at that level)

My point earlier is that the actual maths in the Foundation is similar to primary level, but some of the Year 10/11 students I support find it difficult to understand what the question is asking them to do so then cannot apply their maths knowledge. The Foundation Maths paper is wordier than the Higher Maths. A lot of my support is based on deconstructing questions and on vocabulary - sometimes the students can decode (read) the words, but have no idea what they mean.

There is a huge problem nationally with the gap between students general literacy level and the literacy required for GCSEs. This includes understanding the general vocabulary used in the classroom.

www.teachingtimes.com/news/gcse-reading-age-lags-five-years.htm

For Maths SATs, a child can have a reader (if it is their normal way of working), or can have any words in any question read to them if they request it (in Maths...obviously not in the English Reading paper!)

That does separate the 'decoding' and the 'maths' aspects of the paper, though obviously doesn't help with comprehension.

I am not sure whether the ACTUAL wordiness of the questions are different (certainly the Twitter link Noble posted earlier suggests that the two are similar enough for even professional Maths people to be confused), but perhaps the different level of decoding support allowable varies?