11 Plus Exams Forum

My son is says he is bored of all the revision his class are doing - especially the maths - and his teacher has sort of run out of work for him to do. I am worried for him. He has been doing lots of research on his new school - KEFW - in the prospectus and on the website, and has discovered that apparently there is no streaming because there is an entrance exam. He now thinks that him doing the SATs is a waste of time, and according to his teachers that he is doing very well already - so now I am worried that he might get too laid back and his levels might diminish. Any ideas for what I should say or do?

Hi Dan-the-man.

This may be of no consolation to you, but you are definitely not alone with a bored Yr 6 child. I try to get mine to do whatever he can on computer i.e. bbc bitesize. Our school also has a website which encourages work for bright children and gives them Yr 7 work.

Don't know what it is, but DS does not feel like it is work when he is doing it on computer. Hopefully something is going in and mixed with 'proper work' makes it a little less boring.

Hello Dan-the-man,

With your son, try and talk to him about how SATs lay the foundation for later life and education. At least get him to revise 1 - 2 a week if he really can't be bothered. I find coaxing DD onto her laptop for revision quite helpful as she can play lots of useful games and learn at the same time!

LQ

Bribery and more bribery - try and get the top mark in the class and surprise everyone, try and get the best mark the school has received, think of the kudos and offer whatever will spur him on to do this.

As an adult, competitiveness really doesn't do it for me, but there is no mistaking boys especially (it must be in their genetic make up) , just love a challenge if there is a reward at the end that tickles their fancy.

We are certainly inundated with old SATS papers for homework, can he get full marks for the questions, can he beat you at them.


Also, the sheer level and pace of work where he is going next will be such a shock to the system, he does need to keep the momentum going, however dull life is at the moment

Good luck, we are sort of in a similar position so feel for you, it's going to be a long few months.

Ambridge

Hi dan-the-man, welcome to the club! Our son is exactly the same (except that he hasn't done the background research to justify his mutiny). His work is at such an atrociously poor level across the board that he was called in earlier this month for a stern talking-to from the head.

He's going to KECH which likewise doesn't stream so I'm not bothered from an achievement point of view (if he was going to a comp and would be streamed based on SATS I'd be jumping up and down) but I am worried about him turning up in September after 6 months' holiday and not being able to cope with the pace.

I don't have any easy answers, I'm afraid: we're absolutely not going to try and ram any more work down his throat outside school when the school is already working so hard to put him off education for life. Our plan is to try (somehow) to spend more time with him taking him to interesting places, doing fun things and generally trying to make life more interesting while the SATS misery persists at school. I've got some Y6 maths which I'll work through with him if he shows any interest, but if he doesn't want to I'm not going to insist.

Mike

You're not the only one - my son pretended to be ill with a tummy ache the other day because he wanted a day off school. He is bored to tears with SATs practice - we don't do any work at home because he does not need to do any.

I have explained that its only 6 more weeks til May and then it will all be over

My daughter's bored too, and asking for days off here and there. She said she just wants to go on to her secondary school now. Even her teacher (head of year 6 also) said the kids are now chomping at the bit to move on, and feel they have outgrown the school. Much as I'd love my daugther to do well in her sats (predicted 5a all-round), she did extremely well in the 11+ (419/420) and she just says that she's already proved herself!

There is no excuse for boredom! Revision can be made exciting - I was visited by an Ofsted inspector the week before Year 11 left one year and still managed to 'revise' in an interesting way.

What is unacceptable is weeks and weeks of past papers with no review of 'gaps' in learning. You can use games and matching cards to make it more interesting - also push to the next level.


If your child's Y6 teacher is gettting them to do paper after paper see if you can get the paper home and talk through the 'gaps' yourself with your DC.

Past KS2 papers and mark schemes are freely available on:

http://www.emaths.co.uk/KS2SAT.htm

Thanks everyone. You've really helped. I think J is defintely not as bored now... Just got to wait a few more weeks now!

I agree with Guest55 my friend a fantastic year 6 teacher is covering her science sats revision with a murder mystery..working in reading charts , insect habitats , forces etc to the plot.