Key stage 1 Sats!
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That's interesting and explains something DS told me earlier which puzzled me a bit at the time - he mentioned, unprompted by me, that they were doing level 3 tests this week after doing level 2 ones last week. When I asked if everyone was doing the level 3 tests he said they were, not sure how reliable this info is, though, as the call of the sunshine and his bicycle brought a swift end to the grilling session!Ed's mum wrote:The tests are national tests from previous years. My school administers tests to the year 2 children but uses teacher assessment too. If a child scores really well in the test but is not normally that capable the teacher will err on the side of caution and reduce the child's level. Any child who scores a level 2A would then, ordinarily, be given the chance to take the level 3 paper (specifically for year 2s). Any child who reaches level 3 at end KS1 is then expected to make the sort of progress which results in them getting a level 5 at end KS2. This puts a lot of pressure on the school. So level 3s are only given to 'secure' level 3s. Of course I only speak from my experiences at my school where I teach.
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Kegs Mom 3
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:55 pm
- Location: Birmingham
Thank you to everyone for all your replies!
This really explains the completely different approaches by the three primary schools that I know of!
The faith school had even told my friend the subject of the English 'tests'! Now I understand how this was possible, I must admit, I thought it very unethical at the time!
My DS is blissfully unaware of doing anything at school other than 'stuff'!
Strangely, he quite liked the idea of doing Sats, as it made him the same as older year six brother! Year six DS obviously less enthralled by 'doing proper Sats'!
Thank you all again!
This really explains the completely different approaches by the three primary schools that I know of!
The faith school had even told my friend the subject of the English 'tests'! Now I understand how this was possible, I must admit, I thought it very unethical at the time!
My DS is blissfully unaware of doing anything at school other than 'stuff'!
Strangely, he quite liked the idea of doing Sats, as it made him the same as older year six brother! Year six DS obviously less enthralled by 'doing proper Sats'!
Thank you all again!
Quite so. My 5-year-old can't wait to be given homework like the older ones and is quite put out that she has to wait until Year 1 for the privilege!Kegs Mom 3 wrote: My DS is blissfully unaware of doing anything at school other than 'stuff'!
Strangely, he quite liked the idea of doing Sats, as it made him the same as older year six brother! Year six DS obviously less enthralled by 'doing proper Sats'!
Regarding salary, I asked in our playground of a friend; she's doing an access to teaching course, and going into teacher training next year.
She'd just spent a couple of weeks work-experience in this school, and was surprised when she'd chatted to one of the Y1/2 teachers. According to her, the achievement of that teachers class is supposed to improve year on year, as measured by the SAT results (including the optional ones). This is irrespective of the fact that one year might be brighter than the next year.
Her salary increases are linked to this. It's a foundation school, so this may be different from mainstream LEA schools.
This may explain why the teachers are so keen for the pupils to do well in Y6 SATS (they've been doing at least 2 practice papers a day since Easter and one to do at home)...
Or is it pressure from the head to keep up in league tables? Either way, it's not helping the pupils much.
She'd just spent a couple of weeks work-experience in this school, and was surprised when she'd chatted to one of the Y1/2 teachers. According to her, the achievement of that teachers class is supposed to improve year on year, as measured by the SAT results (including the optional ones). This is irrespective of the fact that one year might be brighter than the next year.
Her salary increases are linked to this. It's a foundation school, so this may be different from mainstream LEA schools.
This may explain why the teachers are so keen for the pupils to do well in Y6 SATS (they've been doing at least 2 practice papers a day since Easter and one to do at home)...
Or is it pressure from the head to keep up in league tables? Either way, it's not helping the pupils much.
Capers
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fm
The first cohort to reuse old Sats papers for Key Stage 1 was our current year 6 children. I had learned prior to the exam that they were re-using the year earlier's papers (which was now on sale in WH Smith) but felt that couldn't be true so I checked with the deputy head with whom I was quite friendly. She confirmed they were using the same papers.
I then pointed out that loads of people would have bought these papers for practice which would distort the results and she said, "Exactly". I debated with myself whether to buy them, too, but, in the end, resisted temptation because I wanted a true indication of how my child was progressing within the school.
I wonder how many parents, having innocently practised these papers at home with their 7 year olds, ended up with a distorted idea of their child's ability.
As a tutor, I tend to ingore Key Stage 1 results as they are often more an indication of how much parental input the child has had than how good the school is or how clever the child is.
And Sats, if my memory serves me correctly, were brought in to have a measure of the school's performance, not the child's, and were administered in a very low key manner at the beginning. Which is exactly how it still should be.
I then pointed out that loads of people would have bought these papers for practice which would distort the results and she said, "Exactly". I debated with myself whether to buy them, too, but, in the end, resisted temptation because I wanted a true indication of how my child was progressing within the school.
I wonder how many parents, having innocently practised these papers at home with their 7 year olds, ended up with a distorted idea of their child's ability.
As a tutor, I tend to ingore Key Stage 1 results as they are often more an indication of how much parental input the child has had than how good the school is or how clever the child is.
And Sats, if my memory serves me correctly, were brought in to have a measure of the school's performance, not the child's, and were administered in a very low key manner at the beginning. Which is exactly how it still should be.
