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Post by mudlark on Mar 21, 2016 22:22:07 GMT
I have a meeting tomorrow at school given to all parents of those in year 2 about SATS.
I part home school my two ( aged 5 and nearly 7) but they will be undertaking SATS.
Just how important are they? I don't mean to the school I mean for the child, does it matter if they do 'badly' in year 2?
I understand their usefulness for the teachers and school, but wonder about their usefulness for those of us with kids who have so many other issues to struggle with. Any opinions or experiences?
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Post by serrakunda on Mar 21, 2016 23:24:33 GMT
Personally, I they really have very little use for the child
They are supposed to give you an indication of where the child is, and how they have progressed when they do the second lot. Simba didn't do the first round as he was in special school. He did do the second round but school weren't that bothered and said I could keep him out if I wanted to, they said they would give him the papers to do so he wouldn't feel excluded, but wouldn't submit them, I didn't need SATs to tell me that Simba had progressed. We had the assessments done by the school which me more.
I think the issue is how big a deal the school make of it. Will they pile on the pressure, make the child feel like they have to 'perform' . Will they make the child feel bad if they don't do well, you get my drift.
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Post by rosie on Mar 22, 2016 1:00:44 GMT
The end of year 2 assessments are split into SATS tests and teacher assessment. I would say teacher assessment based on their work throughout the year is far more valuable. SATS do not usually tell the teachers anything they didn't already know. Schools are under great pressure for all children to achieve at least the expected progress by the end of each key stage, which is why some schools do put a lot of emphasis on SATS. At my school the teachers do try not to pressure children and they do the tests over several weeks rather than have a SATS week, with writing particularly done like an ordinary lesson. I would never encourage parents to go out and buy SATs practice papers. There seems to much more pressure with SATS as the children become older.
I wouldn't worry too much about SATS. It is more important with children with lots of issues that they are coping with school emotionally. The important thing is that the school are supporting them in areas where they have more difficulties so that they can make progress; even if it isn't what the government call 'expected progress'.
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Post by mudlark on Mar 22, 2016 9:29:29 GMT
Thanks Serrakunda I guess I will get a feel of how the school 'expect' the children to perform at todays meeting, I hope they have the attitude you describe Rosie and keep it reasonably low key.
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Post by kstar on Mar 22, 2016 19:29:39 GMT
Absolute stuff and nonsense and most teachers will say the same.
I think all SATs are ridiculous but the y6 ones are at least used to create teaching groups etc at secondary but I can't think of one point to the ks1 SATs apart from to stress everyone out!
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Post by milly on Mar 22, 2016 21:24:54 GMT
The only point to KS1 SATs is to act as a baseline with which to compare progress by KS2 - targets are set for each child arising from their KS1 results. SATs this year have changed - the tests at KS1 have higher expectations, are timed and even less child-friendly than they used to be. Writing is no longer tested but grammar now is and the maths and reading have changed. The way the results are reported to parents have changed too - the whole system is a bit of a mystery to us teachers as all we know is the children get scaled scores (with 100 being 'at expectation'), but the government are refusing to tell us exactly what the 'pass' mark is and are quite woolly about the standard expected - although it is definitely higher than in the past.
As a teacher I find it of some interest to know what my child gets / got but the teacher can give you a good idea anyway from their assessment.
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Post by mudlark on Mar 22, 2016 22:12:56 GMT
Milly you described pretty much was said today... and yes the teachers did sound slightly mystified by the whole thing. But from peoples comments here and what was said today I am not going to lose sleep over it. I do though wonder who is advising the government and why they are listening?!
I think Kstar put it quite succinctly!
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Post by corkwing on Mar 26, 2016 9:13:24 GMT
...but the y6 ones are at least used to create teaching groups etc at secondary... I was talking to someone the other day who said that secondary's DON'T use the SATs scroces. They do their own assessment (CATS?). Apparently lots of people are home educating their children at the end of year 6 so that they avoid the stress of doiong the SATs. |
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Post by kstar on Mar 27, 2016 9:02:56 GMT
Ah right we used to do CATS but now we don't - we use the SATS scores and also our own baseline assessments.
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