According to my lad it was “ridiculous” compared to the mock tests they’d done. Think he meant **** hard! Too much for kids, just too much…

Bloody exam culture! Thankfully we live in Wales where they were done away with.

My Daughter is Y6 and started SATS today. She said it was ok, but she is bright, and is used to exams, having gone through the 11+. Her teacher had also handled a very stressful (for the kids) situation really well.

My y6 daughter came back today and mentioned her literacy sats paper was much harder than she expected.

Laddo is bright, in fact genius at maths, but average at English. From what I’m gauging I think it was a shit storm even for the English whizz’s today. Would love to have been a fly on the wall when they were discussing in the playground.

Just for completeness, I am wholly against the appalling curriculum changes imposed for SATS this year. In particular the Grammar concepts are a joke.

Yes. Daughter in year 6. She didn’t sleep at all last night – she was so very anxious. Considering she was very relaxed when taking the 11+, she has been getting very worked up about these.

I have never been in favour of SATs and i am even less so now.

My youngest had them – but he seemed unfazed. He strongest subject is maths, but he’s good at English too.

He said they were fairly hard but was surprised to hear the reaction they have got in the media.

I have never made a big fuss of SATS at home – they were introduced when my eldest was at school, I have never agreed with them on principle. I praise them when they have done well afterwards but I try to minimise the fuss in the build up to them – it’s unnecessary stress for them as far as I’m concerned.

Same as,daughter had unsettled sleep last night,just said to her this morning to take her time,read the questions & just try her best & not to worry about them,only wish I could swap places with her,bless her.

I was one of the first years to do SATS. They were an utter waste of time, infact that year I think the government pretty much told the teachers to ignore the results of them.
Exam times…takes me back.

What do SATS actually affect in their school life? Decides which set they go in?

SaxonRider – Member

Bloody exam culture! Thankfully we live in Wales where they were done away with.

They still have to do the Nation Reading and Numeracy tests though

My Lad did his last week – he’s year 5. We told him not to worry about it, his Maths Tutor told him not to worry about it, he’s not really one to worry but he was worried, a lot.

I fear the pressure came from school hoping to do well in some league table or something.

I told my daughter that they were actually testing the teachers and whether or not they’re doing an adequate job of teaching, not testing her so not to worry about it. She said it was easy yesterday, more today.

I wish the teachers would made as much fuss about preparing for the 11-plus, which actually does matter round here, A LOT. But of course the teachers are not judged on that…

hexhamstu – Member
What do SATS actually affect in their school life? Decides which set they go in?

Good question. One thing they definitely do do is to set the baseline for ‘expected progress’ in secondary school – so if large numbers of students ‘fail’ these super tough SATS it will have a big knock on effect.

Listening to the debate on radio yesterday – the stress was coming mainly from the teachers (my head/boss needs to see this) and/or parents. Good job that kids are more resilient

SIL having to deal with major fiddling of SATS tests at the moment – astonishing how some schools play the system. I thought it was about kids and their education – how wrong can you be?

I wish the teachers would made as much fuss about preparing for the 11-plus, which actually does matter round here, A LOT. But of course the teachers are not judged on that…

Thats a problem with who ever is setting the 11-plus rather than the teachers. The teachers are required to teach an increasingly prescriptive curriculum which leaves less and less leeway for variation as successive politicians add to the requirements. If the local state funded (I assume) grammar school is setting an entrance exam that varies significantly from the national curriculum (whether you agree with it or not) they are consciously favouring families who can afford private tuition. If that is the case they shouldn’t get state money/should be taken out and shot (figuratively speaking).

One thing they definitely do do is to set the baseline for ‘expected progress’ in secondary school – so if large numbers of students ‘fail’ these super tough SATS it will have a big knock on effect.

What use is a test that ‘proves’ 85-90% are below average? The only knock on affect will be that secondary schools suddenly appear to be giving significantly more added value in seven years time. But by then the politicians who are engineering this car crash will be long gone.

mike_p – Member

I wish the teachers would made as much fuss about preparing for the 11-plus, which actually does matter round here, A LOT. But of course the teachers are not judged on that…

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. You can’t introduce a test which teachers are judged on then complain when they treat it seriously.

I thought it was interesting that the answers get leaked on the internet but that’s no cause for concern 😯 And the government response is “it was a rogue marker trying to cause us trouble” when it seems that the “rogue marker” is actually Pearson, who they’ve contracted to run the marking.

All our local secondary schools run their own tests for setting. SATS are mainly for school/teacher assessment.

SATS are mainly for school/teacher assessment.

enough said…

My eldest did them yesterday. He said it was harder than the mocks they had been doing, but not ridiculous – like others had said, he was surprised at the press hysteria.

Our attitude has been just do your best and don’t worry as they have no real impact on him. The secondary school he’s going to will test all year 7s in the first week of the new term in any event.

All relative though – some kids have come out in tears and get really worked out about them.

My fairly average youngest sat them y’day and said they were “hard but alright”, whatever tf that means. To be fair they’ve done very little but practice for SATS since Easter and her year 6 teacher is very good imo.

you just need know how to game the system.

^that is quality^

not wrong either. Hope they get extra marks for ingenuity.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. You can’t introduce a test which teachers are judged on then complain when they treat it seriously.

I’m not complaining that they take SATS seriously. It’s good that Y6 kids get to sit tests before going to 2ndry school, because they’ll get them by the barrowload next year. The trick here is explaining to them WHY they’re sitting the tests, which most teachers and parents are apparently incapable of doing in any sensible way. Given this the kids themselves are perfectly capable of understanding the whys and wherefores. All the fuss is generated by a bunch of loudmouths who don’t like the idea of being held to account, wind up the kids and then use the poor ickle kiddy-widdy angle as an excuse, the evil bastards!

mike_p – Member

The trick here is explaining to them WHY they’re sitting the tests, which most teachers and parents are apparently incapable of doing in any sensible way.

It’s hard to explain in a sensible way, things that don’t make any sense. I’m repeating myself a bit from the last thread but this is the core issue with the SATs. They’re supposed to assess the schools but they’re too disconnected from the actual teaching to do that properly, which is why they stick out of the school year like a sore thumb and disrupt the learning process. Teachers are left teaching to the test- they’ve got little choice because the SATs are failing to test to the teaching.

Some people are against them entirely but a lot of people are just against bad testing, which is what this really seems to be. SATs very accurately measure how good schools are at SATs.

This year is even worse. New government policy this year – all grammar to be taught at primary, over years 1-6. As this was never the case before, 6 years of grammar is being taught in 1 year. To a ridiculously detailed level. Any idea what a subordinate clause/split digraph/embedded clause are?

Also, in the written paper testing greater depth, they need to write 5 paragraphs. Any spelling/grammar mistakes mean they fail to reach the standard. How the hell does that encourage greater depth??

Natural selection of the brightest.

If you have thick kids then sure, they won’t do well.

Sounds harsh and yet other countries like Finland don’t have these tests (they have fun in schools) and have bright students as they value education unlike some in this country.

A grade at English O level here (yes I’m that old) and I’ve no idea. Not like I’ve forgotten either, I’m fairly sure that’s stuff I’ve never been taught and never knew. I’m even a bit of a grammar nazi and take pride in using good grammar and spelling (setting myself up there – no extra marks to be awarded for finding mistakes in my post). Yet what the kids seem to be being tested on has almost no use in the real world. Crazy stuff.

A girl I know is doing a masters in education (?) She said to me last night that a lot of the stuff isn’t even covered in what she’s doing and is totally irrelevant.

Not the SATS but why are they teaching a Government mandated writing style (Cursive) and completely ignoring keyboard skills. Weird Govian 50’s thinking or is there a reason with supporting studies and evidence behind it?

another reason to dislike the Tories…

My eldest son is in year 6 and had the maths paper yesterday, his first words to me when I went to collect him and his brother were ‘I don’t know what all the fuss was about, it was easier than the mock paper we did the other week’ . We haven’t made a big thing about the tests , he knows they are about how well the teachers have taught them not how intelligent/good at retaining information he is.

FWIW mathematics isn’t his strongest subject he’s in the third group out of the 8 they have in his year. The local Faceache page was full of parents going ‘poor Johnny/Jemima was so stressed out and worried they were in tears when they finished school’ , there has to be some way for the leaders of the country (whoever they might be) to guage how well the teaching system is working and testing is probably the best way.

Kids nowadays need to know what pressure is like because when they leave school it’s going to happen, the days of everyone being a winner and ‘never mind it doesn’t matter’ have gone and our kids will be entering a global job market where their competition comes from nations that push their youths from an early age.

Not the SATS but why are they teaching a Government mandated writing style (Cursive) and completely ignoring keyboard skills

Do you know any kids who can’t use a keyboard? Me neither.

Do you know any kids who can’t use a keyboard?

No my kids can’t touch type, despite my rather lame attempts to incentivise them to do so.

My eldest son is in year 6 and had the maths paper yesterday, his first words to me when I went to collect him and his brother were ‘I don’t know what all the fuss was about, it was easier than the mock paper we did the other week’ .

Where are you- can we have the questions please? 🙂
I thought KS2 maths was tomorrow and Wednesday.

don’t worry, touch typing really isn’t important.

My eldest son is in year 6 and had the maths paper yesterday, his first words to me when I went to collect him and his brother were ‘I don’t know what all the fuss was about, it was easier than the mock paper we did the other week’ .

Where are you- can we have the questions please?
I thought KS2 maths was tomorrow and Wednesday.

Yeah I thought maths is on Wednesday and Thursday??

Just quizzed him turns out it was reading not maths ( he is blonde 🙄 ) .

So not surprised that he thought it wasn’t too hard as he reads way above his age.

I doubt any of them are incapable of typing on a touchscreen, using a proper keyboard may be another matter (we still have Windows PCs in our school, but they’re reducing the numbers in favour of tablets).