Y6 SATs cancelled - implications for secondary?

[noblegiraffe]

I’ve just looked in the primary section and can’t see anything about this - obviously GCSEs and A-levels have taken priority in terms of information given. What is happening about Y6 SATs? I know that they’re not happening, but I’ve also heard that teachers aren’t going to be doing a teacher assessment? When there was the SATs boycott a few years ago, we had FFTs generated from teacher assessment.
Since then Progress 8 has been introduced.

A lot is based on KS2 SATs data, is this being discussed somewhere I’ve not seen?

Interested in any replies OP. Thank you for asking the question.

Secondary schools will be pursuing academic information about all their incoming year 7s from their current year 6 teachers. They will be getting information about their current levels at school and what they were predicted to be achieving in their SATs.

Secondary schools will also likely be giving their incoming year 7s their own CATs tests, as they do every year anyway.

My school doesn’t do CAT tests!

Hedgehog what that sounds like is that you expect primary schools to be providing secondary schools with a teacher assessment.

Primary teachers - what have you been asked to do?

I lead assessment at my school (primary) and we have had no information whatsoever from the DFE. I’m assuming at this stage we won’t be submitting teacher assessment but knows?

We have teacher assessment that is up to date that we will of course share with secondary schools.

I haven't been asked to do anything yet. I've briefly raised it with the HT, but he says there's no hurry at the moment.

I always meet with the Y7 HOY or some other secondary school representative to discuss the pupils they are getting. It's usually more pastoral focused but I imagine there will be a strong academic slant too. One of our secondaries (our most local) does CATs, I don't know about the other two - the rest are grammars so presumably have some confidence in the 11+ outcomes.

Oh - and in the assessment and accountability document from the DfE (April 8th) I'm pretty sure it said no teacher assessment at primary, no performance tables this year and that Ofsted and other external agencies would look at data from 'previous years' (it doesn't specifically say 18-19, which is interesting) and not take this year into account at all.

I always meet with the Y7 HOY or some other secondary school representative to discuss the pupils they are getting.

Not sure my secondary does this. We get kids from all over. I suppose it’s more feasible if you have feeder primaries.

I think no league tables this year is totally understandable. But will it mean no league tables for GCSEs in 5 years time? Will this be a year group of zero accountability?!

The secondary school I teach in always asks for information from primary teachers about the children who are joining us. I assume we will continue to do that.

The SATs results, in all honesty, aren't really used. I have organised the Y7 groups for my core subjects for the last 3 years and mainly go for mixed ability.
The children who go into our smaller group who need more support are children who have been identified as needing additional support by their primary teachers. Yes, the SATs results match that but the teacher can make a judgement without that.

We then do our own assessments during the first term and throughout the year and adjust groups accordingly.

Sometimes, a child can have a low SATs score, but then really flourish in Y7. I have had a few like that.

The SATs results, in all honesty, aren't really used.

My school certainly uses them for setting. Obviously we will do our own assessments.

But pretending that secondaries don’t use SATs data when they form the basis of our accountability measures is something that has always bugged me!

It's a good question noble - I'm pretty sure I can assure you the DfE will find an alternative way to beat schools with a big stick for that year group

My assumption is there will be no Progress 8 (or whatever the measure happens to be 5 years down the line) for that year.

The government will realise thus using SATs results as an indicator of progress in totally different skills/subjects is a load of rubbish, Progress 8 will be abolished and we’ll all live in a glorious world where pupils learn things because learning is good rather than to prove they’re learnt it.

Nah, there just won’t be league tables in five year’s time, is my prediction.

*that

We have already had contact from the Head of the Secondary School my Year 6 will be attending next year; email arrived for the entire incoming class yesterday. She said they will be reaching out to the Year 6 teachers regarding each incoming student, she's been reading through the information books the students have each already sent back, and are actively looking for more ways to get to know their incoming class. She's also currently writing to each student individually based on what she has so far.

I'm sure they'll figure it out. I am in the primary school myself, and we will no doubt be liaising with the secondary to make sure they get what they need.

All your Y6 go to the same secondary, Hedgehog? I can think of 5 different schools my DS’s classmates are headed for off the top of my head!

won’t be league tables in five year’s time

I’m not sure if that will be a good thing or a bad thing for current Y6.

Our secondary school doesn’t set in the first term of year 7 so it’s not going to make a huge difference.

I'm just a parent but did feel like SATS have been completely ignored which was surprising. I know that at DDs secondary school they have CAT tests and testing in each subject before they are set (in year 7 ) but obviously I don't know how things are worked out behind the scenes in schools.

We have to complete a borough spreadsheet about the children in year 6. The information is collated centrally and then disseminated to the various secondary schools. I think there 12 different destinations for our year 6s this year. The information includes teacher assessment.

I wonder if they might make them sit them at the beginning of year 7. To get a baseline and to measure progress for GCSE.

What about Y2 SATs? Do they feed into anything? (We were abroad for Y2, so dont have any).

I usually meet with the HOY of year 7 and talk them through my data anyway. We all know that realistically some of the kids will be boosted through sats but naturally sit at wavering below. So I always talk about likely sets and needs and where the children will likely be in September and without the intensive help they get at primary. Particularly those without echp who nonetheless receive a lot of support and continuity in primary that they won't get in secondary ( simply through one teacher all day who is hyper aware of their needs rather than lots of teachers and 15 mins of tutor) Usually we do a lot of work with those pupils around transition and I am very worried about them this year.

I was a secondary teacher for years though and I know I never really took notice of the year 6 data . Honestly, the data is just a set point. Sometimes used to bash you with!! They will be tested on arrival anyway and for this year group, just as for our new year 6's in September, the expectations will surely be that everything has fallen out of their heads more than it normally does after Summer.

They won’t have any FFTs.

Heads of Y11 will have empty intervention spreadsheets when the time comes.

What about Y2 SATs?

They are used to measure progress for primary schools between Y2 and Y6. They were going to be scrapped in the next couple of years anyway and replaced with a reception baseline assessment, which as far as I’m aware is still supposed to take place for Reception in September

As a secondary teacher we would love not to have to regard the KS2 sats. Because they are naturally practiced for they aren't real grades, when they hit secondary , they all reach a lower grade due to the different nature of study. Every single subject is judged against them so eg. Computer science , when they've been assessed not in that subject. It causes all sorts of issues for secondary and restricts the curriculum in primary. Hopefully. They will scrap then now we have deemed them unnecessary.

The DfE have said that there will be no submitted teacher assessment for the current cohort of Year Six children.

FFT have invited schools to enter predicted data for these children based upon how we think they would have achieved but this is entirely optional. They have said that this will only be used for internal data and will used for external comparison nor for performance management and target setting.

Pure speculation but I think that this current cohort will have FFT targets for GCSE generated based upon their submitted data for Reception and Year Two and making the assumption that each child was "roughly" on track for their FFT target for Year Six. There are both positives and negatives to that.

Thanks for this thread. I have a child in Y6 and had been vaguely wondering.