Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

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DebsB
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:25 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by DebsB »

I meant to say we don't use them for decisions about sets etc. Obviously tracking goes on, but a child arriving in Y7 would not be treated any differently from any other child with different KS2 SATs results.
DebsB
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:25 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by DebsB »

Another thought -

I wouldn't want a child to understand about how KS2 levels are used for tracking. An ingenious child might feel it was worth doing deliberately badly in order to have an easier ride at secondary and more scope for displaying apparently dramatic progress!

Not that DD would be the type to do that....
Kismet
Posts: 195
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 8:23 pm

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by Kismet »

Yer made me laugh, Debs! I think we had similar conversations but DS want quite smart/mature/awake enough to think he could reek havoc by throwing the SATs. I told him that even if he hot level 2 I wouldn't care as I knew he'd tried and everything else showed he'd tried. He was pretty stressed by the build up to the level 6 stuff. I stopped making him do the optional work at home eventually as it felt like he was being pushed quite hard. I did casually do some work with him around his regular homework and just said that anything he did now would just make next year easier for him. I think part of the problem is that the children who are attempting grammar school are often putting pressure on themselves even when parents try not to, because they just want to do their best but are worried they won't. I think I told DS that the SATs were really about seeing if the school had done its job properly and he should just do his best.

Techie dad, you've made me stop and think. Actually DS must have done his mock in July because we did sign for one to one tutor in June (only found a space so late in the day because of a cancellation). decid to tho as I just didn't feel enough of an expert to judge how DS was doing and also because I came to realise that the majority of DS s going for grammar in our school were tutoring. That's not to say I don't think it can be done without tutoring. Having come out the other side I now wonder whether or not to tutor for DD next year.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by Guest55 »

DebsB wrote:I meant to say we don't use them for decisions about sets etc. Obviously tracking goes on, but a child arriving in Y7 would not be treated any differently from any other child with different KS2 SATs results.
Some schools use the results for setting from day one ... we don't though.
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by Amber »

Sadly The Times is now protected by a paywall but Janice Turner in yesterday's edition wrote a really good op ed piece entitled 'Our children are being tested to destruction'. Of SATs she says
The whole of Year 6 - just when ten-year olds' minds take flight and they can read, think and explore the world more independently - was given over to repetitive practice tests
She also says, and I think we need to be careful about encouraging this on here (not the Gloucester bit, but generally) of the level 6 tests -
...parents begging schools to include their kids, even if this means extra lessons, pressure and after-school tutoring. They boast about their 'gifted and talented' offspring on Twitter and Mumsnet. All for a test which doesn't matter at all.
I hear what you are saying G55 but I think we have to resist the idea that these are important tests. Unless we do, then the stakes will become higher and higher and children will be put under even more pressure to do well. There can and should be no way that a child's fate should be sealed in the May of Year 6 and if it is, then we should be out on the streets protesting.

Sorry if OT.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by Guest55 »

I agree - as everyone knows I detest level 6 tests as there is no need for them.

There is also no need for Year 6 to be full of 'practising for the tests' - but is league tables that has driven this - not the testing itself.

Underplaying the tests is sensible but do that for the 11+ as well ...

[last post on this thread about this]
steppemum
Posts: 480
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:27 am

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by steppemum »

Thanks everyone.
Ds is in year 7 at Marling. He was tutored for a bit. I DIYed and then my mum was very ill, and ds and I clash really badly when I DIY, so we found him a tutor so I didn't have to do it.

He wasn't stressed by it as he didn't really want to go to 'stupid posh school' :D
Needless to say he loves it and Marling is just right for him.

he waltzed through SATs, was very not bothered, having done 11+, SATs seemed easy (apparently). He did level 6 for English and Maths, and refused point blank to do any out of school work. I didn't make him. He got level 6 maths and not English. He is now repeating most of that level 6 stuff in year 7, so I cannot see the point of it.

Anyway, back to dd. She and I work well together. I am a teacher so am confident to give her what she needs. I wanted her to do one mock in exam conditions. We talked about when and she said as soon as possible so I have plenty of time to work on the things I don't know/get wrong. So we did this one.
As she has talked about it, I realise there were quite a few things that were exam technique, which we haven't done really yet, so we can work on those later.
Catseye
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Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:03 pm
Location: Cheshire

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by Catseye »

All this accelerated learning/prepping will come to nothing we will never be able to compete with the South Asian countries unless we want a group of automatons .

The advantage of a British education has been it's creativity, no wonder all the oligarchs want a traditional British education, even they understand this!

level 6 English at KS2 is a nonsense, only a few percentage achieve it.

My dd achieved it but still writes nothing of interest not because she stupid but because she does not have the life experiences to write anything of deep meaning! but when she is 15 or so I bet she will put me to shame.
Stressed?Moi?
Posts: 1844
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:28 am

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by Stressed?Moi? »

Ref mocks, we did a few last year in readiness for September and on the first one my ds really bombed. It was awful. However, it did serve as a wakeup for him as he had been cruising. It also was invaluable for getting him ready for test conditions. He did really well in the last one before the exam which buoyed him and definitely gave him confidence on the day.

Ref SATS, they aren't compulsory in indies.
steppemum
Posts: 480
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:27 am

Re: Anyone do a mock in gloucester today?

Post by steppemum »

Oh my goodness, we have just had the results in and seen the paper.

English was hard but fine as expected.

Maths!
We have been following the CGP books and I was confident that if she could do everything in those books she would be fine.
But the stuff in this test was sooo hard.
If she needs this, then we have a massive job to teach it all to confidence level before September.
Her maths is good (level 4a at end of year 4) and she has a good teacher this year, and we have already come across lots of things that she hasn't yet done in school which we have had to learn (eg mode, median and mean), but wow.
Loads of percentages, and difficult ones, not straight forward. Square roots (one question was what is square root of 361, I don't even know how to calculate that :( ), algebra, again, hard level.

feel a bit overwhelmed.
ds did it when it was VR. He didn't do any of this. I cannot see how this a fairer test. It just tests if you have been taught it.

She did very badly, not going to tell her the results. But it was mainly that she only did half of the questions. the ones she did she got right, which is a good thing.

:(
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