Advice re: sats for Yr6

sherbie28

Hello,

I am helping my nephew with revision for his SATS. His school is useless and they never update their website and unfortunately I don't have access to letters that might have been sent home etc. What I'm confused about is on another primary school website it states they have 4 tests: an English reading, English grammar, punctuation and spelling test, Mental maths and maths test papers. He's told me that they are doing a science paper even though I can't find it listed. Also, I believe the English grammar, punctuation and spelling test is new for this year? I've been looking for old past papers online but if they've changed it I'm guessing it will be no good giving him examples from past papers. I've found this: http://lettsrevision.com/grammarpunctuationspelling
but on one site it said that this test isn't until late June? I'd really appreciate any advice. Thanks

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Seriously, it really doesn't matter to him what score he gets. It matters to the school for league tables, nobody else. Most senior schools won't even give them a first, never mind second, glance, because they rarely stream according to ability in the first year; if they do, it's generally as a result of the child's performance at their school in the first half term of the new Academic Year.



All this revision stuff achieves is to stress 10 and 11 year olds about potential failure. When they can't fail.

Spendless

They sit SATS in May. I'm sure my youngest's school sit them w/c 13 May. She's in yr 5 though and has the tests the school does a week later then they break up for May 1/2 term.

Can't remember all the tests they do, but know handwriting used to be one of them, as it was always the one my eldest scored the worst on.

Having had a child who has now gone onto Secondary school. I would say that Secondary school sorts out what they think of the pupils ability by their own testing. Always easier when you have a child who has gone thru it though, I really felt I was wandering into the unknown when son was yr 6.

daisiegg

I think that science SATs in Y6 were abolished a few years ago, but it may well be that some schools still give them a science test (probably using an old SATs paper) to get their end of year level.

I know as a parent/relative it must be very hard to believe when you are going through it, but the Y6 SATs do not matter whatsoever for the child. I am a secondary English teacher and we completely ignore the SATs level when they come in Y7. They are absolutely useless. Seriously, he is 10 or 11. There is a lot of time in his life for stress and revision and homework. Send him outside to play!

thunderbird

My son is doing them this year and I must admit I'm not sure when they are - week after next maybe?
He isn't doing any work at home for them - I do not want him to feel any pressure. The secondary school he is going to put them in sets according to their own tests and they get moved up or down if needed.

sherbie28

Wow, that's a real eye-opener. I had no idea, it's a long time since I left primary school and I'm sure we didn't have league tables then! He came home with loads of study books: and they bang on about 'stuff you need to know' so I've convinced myself that he needs to know everything inside out.

balletshoes

my DD took her SATS last year - its for the school, its not for your child. By all means help by trying to make sure your child has slept enough and is well rested. Make him a decent breakfast to get his brain cells awake, and then pack him off to school same as any other week.

No need for any extra pressure, either at home or at school. When he goes to secondary school the school will more than likely set him according to their own tests, not SATs results.

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

yes, SATS testing is week beginning 13th May and most schools do not do the science anymore

susancs

As others have said KS2 SATs are mainly for the school league tables. Secondary schools in my experience place little value on the KS2 SATs results as children can be over coached throughout year 6 in the specific skills needed for these tests. This can result in inflated levels of achievement. Secondary schools will do their own assessments during the first term. I would imagine your nephew is doing enough SATs revision at school, so I would not continue doing revision at home.

sneezyboots

Just to clarify the papers the year 6s will be taking this year for you:

Monday- Reading paper
Tuesday- Spelling paper and grammar and punctuation paper
Wednesday- Maths Paper A and mental maths paper
Thursday- Maths paper B

The writing paper has been taken out this year. The children will receive a writing level but this will be teacher assessed and moderated. The spelling, punctuation and grammar papers are new this year too so there is very little out there in terms of revision material. Questions are things like circle the nouns in the sentence; write an adjective to fit the sentence; add the correct punctuation marks to the sentences; choose whether the part in bold is a phrase or a clause; choose whether the part in bold is a main or subordinate clause; put the inverted commas in the correct place etc etc.

Courgette

I hate to say this but although I agree with everything written above about Sats not being important and schools setting according to their own tests on a personal level, as a secondary English teacher I should point out that secondary schools do place a lot of value on KS2 results or at least the ones I've worked in have done. Your KS2 results will determine how many levels of progress you are expected to make and what your GCSE target grade will be. As a teacher I have to show that I use the data that's available to me and that includes making sure that my students progress as they are supposed to do and get the grades they're supposed to achieve. I hate to say it, but the reality is that once a student is on course to reach their target grade they will not be pushed any further so the teacher can focus efforts on students who aren't on track. This means for the student that they might not do as well as they could have done had their Sats result been even a sublevel higher.

Utter b0llocks if you ask me and my days in teaching are definitely numbered.