Will Tiffin Yr 7 Boys be affected by their KS2 SATs?

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runningmum
Posts: 77
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:27 pm

Tiffin groups

Post by runningmum »

You may be interested to know that setting only happens for maths at Tiffin and then only from year 9 onwards. From this September, they are moving to vertical tutoring, based on houses, with boys from each year group in the same form for tutor time. They will be taught, as now, in year groups.
allegra
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:03 pm

Post by allegra »

My personal opinion is that you shouldn't worry about KS2 exams at all, unless perhaps your son goes to a comprehensive school. Even then, I'm told they tend to re-test them once they arrive, if they need to know their levels to put them into sets. I reckon SATs are there to judge the schools more than the children and so, particularly at primary school, teachers can really wind the children up about them. Unnecessary stress. They'll have enough hoops to jump through with GCSEs, As and Alevels. If your child has got into Tiffin, he's done quite enough hoop jumping - give him the rest of the year off to play and pursue his interests and read (I'd certainly encourage that rather than Sats cramming). From what I hear Tiffin Boys' attitude to KS3 SATs is very relaxed indeed - good for them!
Rosette
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:48 pm

Post by Rosette »

I quite agree with allegra!

DS will take tiffin exam in December and preparing for that is my main concern. I really have no interest in the SATS and agree they are there to judge the school - in my view those hoping for grammar school should be expecting level 5s with no extra effort.
Rosette
JaysDarlin
Posts: 548
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:34 pm

Post by JaysDarlin »

Thanks to everyone for replying,

See here, I consider my ds to be very bright , hee hee. Sorry!

But I think the SATs are nothing but hoops! I see the 11+ like that too! LOL. But the 11+ in my mind, was a hoop that was quite necessary to jump through! I am no way going to slack on my ds's education, he will no doubt be a level 5 when he gets to Secondary School, but I'm not sure if your aware of my ds's situation. We had been going to a tuition agency ever since he got poor KS1 results. It was a drastic calculated decision. Since then he has been on the top table, getting extremely good marks, his younger brother went on to take the KS1 sats and got level 3's so they were all on par with the the top levels, etc.

But come 11+ time, we realised that the agency just wasn't doing a good enough job and took them out. That was June. After which we slogged our guts out to get to 11+ standard. I felt the 11+ had nothing to do with their school and their knowledge of English, Maths and Science. It was more along the lines of how much to do you understand of the English language. How well do you read, how vast is your vocab?

The SATs are nothing like this though. They have so much criteria and I would rather my son to just have a Well Trained Mind rather than jumping through x amount of hoops in May.

Just my thoughts, and don't mean to offend.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

I teach in a GS and can assure you that the levels are given to us by the Local Authority via some national system (every child has a unique number so they can be tracked). We also get the actual marks so we can tell a strong level 5 from someone who got a level 5 by one mark.

In Bucks about two thirds of GS pupils have three level 5s - I do see level 4 maths quite often - hence why I look at the levels rather than 11+ score.

JaysDarlin' - yes there's plenty of time to catch up - most GS see Y7 aa a 'settling in' as Primary schools can be variable and a child should not be set on how good their Primary school was!
JaysDarlin
Posts: 548
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:34 pm

Post by JaysDarlin »

Guest55,

With the credit crunch and its strains, we are toying with the idea of taking the kids out of their private school. If we did so, and were to home-educate all three, how would a GS (or any other school) react to a child not having taken their SATs?
runningmum
Posts: 77
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:27 pm

ks3 sats

Post by runningmum »

No need to worry about KS3 Sats as they were abolished this year. From what I remember with Tiffin girls, my dd hardly noticed that they were taking place and I only heard by asking her, the levels she obtained (virtually everyone obtained level 8 and this was expected and unremarkable).
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