SATS and year 3

[fatbananas]

Thanks Mushroom for your detailed knowledge, particularly that last sentence!

[mitasol]

There are some year three past papers on here http://www.st-josephs-pickering.n-yorks ... papers.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It also includes mark scheme and level thresholds.

[Minesatea]

I asked our school about them this morning and they said they were going to do them in year 3 either the week before or the week after the year 6 real thing. It's not long off as they are sometime in May. It does seem early to do them next week though. There's a whole term of possible improvement missed out on in the mark that way. Why so early I wonder?

Our primary always does them at the same time as the year 6 sats. The junior section of the school being semi open plan it is easier to keep the younger children quiet if they are also "doing tests" at the same time! It is also the only week of the school year that the head will not agree an in term holiday so years 3-5 are less likely to miss their assessments as well. It is very low key for the year 3-5's, no preparation, minimal stress - they are just told they are doing some papers quietly so that the year 6's aren't disturbed!

[fatbananas]

Hi, thanks for your further replies! And thanks for the link to the SATS papers. DS actually bought home some questions last night for homework that were supposed to be former SATS questions. They were all much harder than the 2003 paper given in the link and looked closer to the year 4 paper. It is a very hot-housey school. Do you think it's possible that the top set would be given a year 4 paper? Or are schools legally obliged to do age/ year appropriate papers? I'm going to be interested to see how DS copes with this homework (unlike other homework ) I think they look very hard for him.

[mystery]

Does anyone know how long the QCA optional SAT paper B for maths is supposed to take?