Y6 Sats

[Guest55]

The secondary targets are set using the KS2 tests - so if your child has an off-day and 'only' gets a level 4 they might be put in a lower group in Year 7. Their initial target will be a grade C and if they are on track for that then no-one will intervene or will maybe push towards a grade B (I'm using current grades as an illustration).

So what I'm saying is the school might be doing well by their 'level 4' but may not push towards what that child could achieve. Of course it matters if the child 'underachieves' at GCSE by getting a C rather than the grade they could have got if they'd got a level 5 and then an A level choice is not available to them.

You may well say 'The school will notice if they are doing better than this'. Yes, they might but secondary schools are big and setting decided early could cap achievement later on. We've all seen on here students suddenly finding they can't do triple science because they aren't a certain level in Year 8/9 so KS2 doe matter to the child.

[PurpleDog]

We have already had details of an assessment day by TGS in June for CAT tests.
I have no idea what these are or how they differ from SATs but I assume they are being used instead of SATs to benchmark the new intake.

[Guest55]

Purpledog - Ofsted don't use CATs ... they judge on progress from KS2 tests.

[amfnc]

Guest55 does the secondary school also take into account Y6 teacher assessments? Or just the SATs score? Just wondered given your comment re having an "off day" which we all know happens. I know that the school my DS is going to also gets the boys to sit CATs test in the autumn along with various other assessments etc.

Also, am I right in thinking that most grammar school children will be expected to be at the very least a level 5c on entry in Sept and that most will be 5B/5A's in Reading, spag, maths with perhaps a level 5 in science? It's just something that DS's teacher said about the grammar school levels to my ds before xmas. (the only Level 6 SATs paper my son is sitting is in maths, he hasn't done any level 6 papers in spag/reading, in fact very few in his year have).

Sorry for all these questions, just slightly more concerned now than I was when I initiated this post ...

[Tinkers]

The child of a friend was sick during exam week, but was strongly encouraged to come to school and do the exams anyway. As a consequence the results did not reflect ability.

The secondary school does its own assessments early in year 7 so as far as setting was concerned, in the short term the child was allocated the wrong sets but was ultimately moved to more appropriate ones. However longer term targets set by ks2 results have not been adjusted.

[mystery]

I assume that schools do CATs to see how a child's attainment relates to their ability .... it helps the internal school judgement (not for ofsted etc) of whether the child is doing as well as they could or not.

I think that Tonbridge Grammar School (Purpledog you refer to this) is doing the CATs early this year due to the new Kent test. I don't think TGS sets at all in year 7 (think I'm right here) but I presume they still find the CATs useful in some internal way. I think the reference to the Kent test is maybe so they can give some feedback to KCC / GL Assessment on how this year's standardised test scores correlate (or don't) to the CAT scores relative to the previous test? Just guessing. Hopefully they are not doing the tests early in order to do some early setting.

[doodles]

My DS 's went to a school where they didn't do yr6 SATS so their secondary school had no formal idea about their ability before they turned up on the doorstep. However, their secondary school doesn't set in Yr 7 but does CATS later on.

[Guest55]

Guest55 does the secondary school also take into account Y6 teacher assessments? Or just the SATs score? Just wondered given your comment re having an "off day" which we all know happens. I know that the school my DS is going to also gets the boys to sit CATs test in the autumn along with various other assessments etc.

Also, am I right in thinking that most grammar school children will be expected to be at the very least a level 5c on entry in Sept and that most will be 5B/5A's in Reading, spag, maths with perhaps a level 5 in science? It's just something that DS's teacher said about the grammar school levels to my ds before xmas. (the only Level 6 SATs paper my son is sitting is in maths, he hasn't done any level 6 papers in spag/reading, in fact very few in his year have).

Sorry for all these questions, just slightly more concerned now than I was when I initiated this post ...

The teacher assessments certainly feed into FFT and we do get them as that's all there is in writing. It's amazing how many maths test level 6 have level 5 ta which begs the question why they were put in for the test! The rules say that must be achieving above level 5 to be entered for the test ...

In Bucks the GS select the top 30% so we do have some level 4s and with the old VR test we used to get a few maths level 3s. There are a lot of children in Upper School (secondary moderns) with 3 level 5s and I know of some with level 6 maths.

[BexleyKent]

[Guest55]

That is illegal! Teachers should NOT look at the papers at all - it is a massive breach of regulations.

I would report the school to STA.

No-one knows what the level boundary will be at the moment.