Between results and (hopefully) starting a grammar school

[TheDirector]

What do you do in the interim? Just let your child go "de-mob happy" with no work. SATS don't really matter, do they?

OR do you continue with giving them "extra work"...................

[Ed's mum]

I subscribe, and did for both of my children, to the 'enjoy the last few months of primary school' idea. I expected them to work hard for their teachers and, despite considering it as an option, did not keep them off school during SATs week. But, as for doing extra work at home? Nope. I suppose it depends on the child though. I certainly wouldn't encourage the attitude that some children develop in year 6, the 'I'm leaving in a few months and I've outgrown the school and I'm not planning on working hard' attitude!! But, outside of school, enjoy the freedom. For many, year 7 brings much more homework, exams and less opportunity to be a child.
However, if there are independent exams looming after the 11+, you may need to keep them ticking over for a little while longer.

[blessedmum]

We have independent exams looming but my dd seems to have lost the will, with xmas almost here and lots going on at school re sports, plays and all its really hard to stay focused.

I think one should let them relax and enjoy the last few month but just keep their brains ticking. Secondary school is hard work and lots of important decisions will need to be made in just a few years so enjoy now

[mike1880]

With our last one we let go after 11+ in Nov (I made a half hearted effort to pick things up again after a break and prepare for indies but it didn't really happen). After Christmas we tried to make up for the awful grind running up to SATS by doing a lot of out of school stuff. The school also let go after SATS with the result that by Sept he appeared to have forgotten all the maths he'd ever learned !

This time we have indie exams running into 1st week in Feb and we've kept going with only a one week off after 11+ (will perhaps allow a day or half day off at Christmas ). I intend to let go in Feb though and I'm seriously thinking that she looks as though she might get a D&V bug during SATS week (I'm really quite irritated by the school at the moment ). I won't be doing anything after SATS if she's going to GS or comp - if there's a problem with kids going backwards between Y6 SATS and start of Y7 it's a problem of the state education system's own making and they can deal with it. And if she turns out to be going to indie, well, I'm not paying them so I can educate my own children...

Mike

[ourmaminhavana]

OR do you continue with giving them "extra work"...................

This presupposes that one was giving them extra work in the first place! We did some 11 plus papers at home in the run up to the exams, but certainly didn't do anything once DS had taken them.
That's us, after the exams!


PS I must admit that I'm one of those who feels that, except in exceptional circumstances, if a child needs a large amount of extra work to get them there, that they may not be suited to grammar school. However, before you all start shouting at me, I appreciate that primary schools vary a lot and that we were particularly lucky with our state primary. I just feel it would be very demoralising not being able to keep up with a class, whatever type of school one was in.

[sherry_d]

My daughter will continue to do a bit of work perhaps once a week. I am sure most people here have very clever kids so there is no need to keep helping them so it looks like I am the exception .

[Rob Clark]

SATS don't really matter, do they?

SATS don’t matter if they pass the 11+, ’tis true as the GS take no notice of them.

However, in Bucks (which I think the OP is) they definitely do matter if you don’t pass the 11+, for 2 reasons: 1) You can’t do the 12+ without level 5 SATS and 2) some of the upper schools set from day one based at least partially on the SATS results.

[mike1880]

I expect gthey take them into account but not all kids will have SATS results.

[muffinmonster]

SATS were always intended to measure the school, not the child, so it would be wrong of me to distort the results by making my DS do lots of extra work at home, wouldn't it?

We have 11+ in December and three indie exams in January. After that lot, I feel that DS should take SATS well in his stride just by keeping up with normal school work. Can't wait!

[Rob Clark]

I expect gthey take them into account but not all kids will have SATS results.

Indeed, which is why I used the word ‘partially’ Not all kids have CATs results either, but secondary schools are still allowed to factor these in when assessing applications.

DS’s GS laughed SATs results off and said they took no notice of them whatsoever, whereas DD’s upper school said they were one of the 3 criteria used for setting, along with the 11+ scores and the primary school’s reports/references. Obviously I have no idea what other schools in Bucks do, only the 2 which my DCs attend.