Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

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brummum
Posts: 67
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:48 pm

Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by brummum »

Virtually all my Y6 son has done this school year is SATs revision and mock SATs tests.

He is bored to distraction, and I think it puts the children under extra pressure. I have told him not to be bothered about them at all, but his teacher has told the class that their levels in the SATs makes a difference to which groups they start in at secondary school - absolute rubbish :x

Is it just my son's school, or are all schools like this :?:

They do have very good results in the league tables though :!:
Moonlight
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:20 pm

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by Moonlight »

My DS spent a lot of his Year 6 studying for SATS only for us to be told by his school that they were boycotting them just five days before the children were due to sit them! Very frustrating. My DS still ended up sitting papers that he had already practised previously just so that the teacher could have her own assessment of his progress. I feel that the months leading up to the SATS were a real waste of time. I don't think many secondary schools actually pay much attention at all to these results anyway. My DS's school certainly didn't. They all do their own assessments once the children have joined them, that way they are more accurate and up-to-date.
muffinmonster
Posts: 239
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:33 pm
Location: London

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by muffinmonster »

At my DC's primary school they start to concentrate on SATS revision after the February half-term, so the children get three months of it, which doesn't seem too awful.

I don't think many secondary schools would set children based on SATs results - what a waste of time that would be.
scarlett
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by scarlett »

My son seems to be spending a lot of his time teaching the year r to read......He is learning about the Romans as well.

I think he must be bored because he has turned from my lovely , compliant sweet boy into a bit of a nightmare.....

1) lighting matches under his duvet at night...
2) putting chilli sauce in his little sister's pack lunch so I have to take a new one to school...
3)Throwing a library book onto the roof....
4) growing his first spot ...
5)...and then squashing it to make a "spot beard"

I've changed my mind......Roll on secondary school !!!!!
mad?
Posts: 5621
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 pm
Location: london

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by mad? »

er...yes.
mad?
Alice in Underland
Posts: 159
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:19 pm

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by Alice in Underland »

Yep, my son is also learning very little in year 6. He is extremely bored but too polite to say so. I have actually considered taking him out of school altogether or sending him to a local Steiner school to keep his brain sharp.

But we recently moved house and he needs to make new friends locally and since it is only a year, best to tough it out. They have just begun working on SATS so that is a good excuse to do more reading and focus on giving more detailed responses to writing prompts.
.
He has had a lovely term learning about Ancient Egyptian civilisation, helped by a teacher who is also an archaeology graduate.
We are making the most of the extra- curricular stuff on offer - Tag Rugby, signed up for an Archery course, learning trombone, visiting lots of local Museums. Life is short, childhood goes too quickly, make the most of the"leisure" time this year and prepare for next (though my daughter at selective Girls Grammar rarely gets any homework and romps through everything in class). So I wouldn't say year 7 is particularly challenging either.
mad?
Posts: 5621
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 pm
Location: london

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by mad? »

Alice in Underland wrote: Life is short, childhood goes too quickly, make the most of the"leisure" time this year and prepare for next (though my daughter at selective Girls Grammar rarely gets any homework and romps through everything in class). So I wouldn't say year 7 is particularly challenging either.
Couldn't agree more, if ever there was a time for an extended cheap term time holiday year 6 is it!
mad?
wishful
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2010 11:09 am

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by wishful »

My dd has also been complaining about being bored in year 6. She said they are repeating year 5 maths and English. This seems to me a complete waste of time for her. I told her teacher last week at parent's evening that she was bored and she was surprised. I asked if this year was all revision but she said that it isn't. But I am wondering if it's all about Sats results, and maybe they are trying to bring the whole class up to level 5.
turtleglos
Posts: 455
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:04 pm

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by turtleglos »

Ds1 has been allocated jobs throughout this yr(all yr 6 pupils do this),he is involved in the setting up and running of a club for yr 1 pupils by some yr 6 students. They have had a trip to a rainforest(Newbury) and have had a percussion week.They have already had their week away and so they have something to relate to when they are learning about rock formations,historical events,marine animals,soil types etc.
I am sure they have done more however I can't remember it all now :roll: .
Oh,and they are managing to fit in some sats work as well! :wink:
Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will think it is stupid.
Midget Man
Posts: 950
Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:28 pm
Location: Bucks

Re: Is Year 6 a total waste of time?

Post by Midget Man »

MIdget's YR6 ws a complete and utter waste of time! He learnt absolutely nothing new, came out with same levels as he did in Yr5 as he was just bored, bored, bored. He kept calling out in lessons, why was he doing this? Because he knows all the answers already, but did they ever give him anything else or extra to do? Nope, it was about pushing and pushing to get the whole lot of yr6 kids above average in their SATs :( I do wish I had just pulled him out and had lots of fun at home instead!

Moving on to YR7, is he putting his hand up all the time? Not all the time no, because he's learning new things, yay!!!!
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