SATs taking over!!

[loobylou]

It seems a lot. I think dd had a week of mocks but no level 6s that week - they did some practice level 6 papers but only a small group of them in their extra teaching time, not in a proper organised fashion. I think it's hard to motivate them once they know where they are going to school - dd also felt she didn't learn a lot but they had their week away which was awesome, also a full week of cycling proficiency (practice and then tests) where they literally cycled around our bit of N London all day every day and lots of preparation for their summer performance which was a big thing. So she loved the end of year 6 once they got onto those bits! Hopefully your ds will too....

[MmeOgg]

Unfortunately a lot of local parents seem to be motivating their children to do well in their SATs by telling them they won't get the school they prefer if they don't do well.
Given that SATs result aren't mentioned anywhere is the admissions information and secondary school places are offered 2 months ahead of children sitting SATs, I can't make up my mind if it willful lying to children or poorly informed parents. Either way it seems cruel.

[rabbie burns]

In Year 6 sats do seem important.
Half way through year seven at a GS (not sure about other schools) you can barely remember what they ended up with as a whole range of new concerns have firmly taken over! Also level 6 is not really ks3 level 6 so you again wonder what all the level 6 hysteria was about - special groups, getting to sit it or not etc. Then you get the bragging when the results come out. Looking back the whole thing seems like a surreal dream. Having said that good luck to all the year 6's in May.

[Eccentric]

My daughters school went all out with SATs too. To the detriment of everything else. The last two years of school were so repetitive that it has left her feeling quite resentful. The repetition goes on at her new school as they have completely ignored what they did at primary. Year 7 seems to be consolidation. I have to say that according to DD many of the children didn't cover as much as she did at her primary and so I can understand why the school need to do this. Just a bit tough on the ones that retained all the information and were taught it.
Level 6 SATs seem to be the measure by which they decide whether a child goes into the top set for maths (if it is streamed) in year 7 so it is worth doing. Especially now that schools are required to show progress.

[mystery]

Which school is that which only puts children with Level 6 maths in its top set? It seems a bit odd when primary schools vary so much about whether they bother very much at all with level 6.

[J50]

In Year 6 sats do seem important.

... to the school!!!

Level 6 SATs seem to be the measure by which they decide whether a child goes into the top set for maths (if it is streamed) in year 7 so it is worth doing. Especially now that schools are required to show progress.

... they quickly find their level anyway. DS1 was a 4b in maths at the end of Year 6, having been bottom group in maths in about Year 3; from Year 7 was always in the top maths set (selective Indie) and is now on for A* in both Maths and Further Maths at GCSE and one of a few boys in the top set early sitting C1 for A Level.

[mystery]

Yes - you sent him to an independent. You can't assume that with the same levels at KS2 he would have been given the same opportunity in every other school in the UK. His primary school must have been appalling at teaching him maths (unless there's some other reason for the 4b) so why assume that all children "find their level" at secondary. He didn't at primary.

[J50]

Fair points. Yes they were, and it was only my tuition that got him off that bottom table in the first place.

[mystery]

It's scary isn't it. He is clearly very able at maths - but if you'd let "nature" take its course, it may well not have done!

[J50]

Can't disagree with that. Though he was never a natural in those early years, it wasn't easy to elevate his level and I guess that I wouldn't have automatically expected him to achieve what he is doing in the subject. Just goes to show how they develop at different stages.