Cooks Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 well my youngest son has these next week, he's relatively calm about it thankfully, although a few weeks ago he was worried until I told him, relax, do your best, that's all you can do, relax and breaaaaathe!!!! lol anyone else got children going through them next week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickvic Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 Yep - my DD is. She's ok at the moment and her school is doing a breakfast club for everyone in year 6. They can go in from 8.30am and chat with the teachers and friends before they start. Hopefully it means they won't be too wound up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluekarin Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 I haven't this year, but my ED sat them last year. She wasn't too stressed. Actually, all she went on about was the year 6's were allowed to take in a choccy bar every day to help (the school has a strick no chocolate policy) The way I like to look at it is it's testing what the teachers have taught as opposed to the pupils passing or failing. Well, thats what I tell mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooks Posted May 8, 2009 Author Share Posted May 8, 2009 yes my sons school are having a breakfast club each morning for them, which is a great idea I think. I told my son that no-one can ask more of him than that he does his best so dont stress, enjoy it, as they are fun days that not everyone is having.. lol I think I only just got that one out without laughing that I had the cheek to say it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJuff Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 Yr6 sats are upon my DD next week too. She is fine about them, has no revision in place and I'm worried she needs to get more sleep in over the week!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooks Posted May 8, 2009 Author Share Posted May 8, 2009 my son is only revising now for a short while the night before an exam, other than that he's chilling out and getting a decent nights sleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seagazer Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 My YS is sitting them next week, he's mentioned them a few times but doesn't appear too stressed out. I don't think he's got any revising to do. He had a lot of homework over Easter to do regarding them though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen & co. Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 My daughter has these too she is so worried about getting the grades even though they are not putting too much pressure on them, her friend is more worried about having to eat the banana and drink the milk school are going to provide each morning Am going to make a big cake for them all to have after the last one, and then I start doing the safe cycling course with them Karen x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missuscluck Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 SATS here too for my youngest. She has worked her socks of for the last few weeks with revision and practice papers. She is fine now they have arrived. I think she is happy she has done all she can do now. They do some fun stuff in between doing the tests so I think overall it will be not too bad of a week for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhapsody Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 *soapbox alert* I totally disagree with SATS. Never let my kids spend a moment worrying about them and refused to discuss them with their teachers. You can't educate a child by testing them, you do it by inspiring them. I have to say once I moved my sons to private schools I never heard about these wretched exams ever again, they were done as per government requirment but no big deal was made and no extra prep was set. Weird that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poachedegg Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 *soapbox alert*I totally disagree with SATS. Never let my kids spend a moment worrying about them and refused to discuss them with their teachers. You can't educate a child by testing them, you do it by inspiring them. I have to say once I moved my sons to private schools I never heard about these wretched exams ever again, they were done as per government requirment but no big deal was made and no extra prep was set. Weird that! Well said! Is there any more room on that soapbox?! I totally agree - I am a governor in 2 schools (1 a primary), a reader helper in school and am an active, supporting, interested parent..........however I agree with Rhapsody, with my oldest 2 (now 15 & 17), I took the same tact - no extra work, or "special food" - just go and do what they would do for any school test. Same with youngest (7) doing yr 2 SATS. A lot of of the mums on the playground worry that that the SATS are used to stream them for High School, however round here it is an urban myth, they aren't streamed until yr 8. Even if they were what would be the point of hothousing them to pass SATS to get them into a higher stream, surely they would struggle anyway? *Steps off soapbox before I'm pushed!* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 they were done as per government requirment but no big deal was made and no extra prep was set. Weird that! I think that's how it should be! My granddaughter is taking hers this week - there doesn't seem to be any hoo-ha about them as far as I know. She's coming to stay this evening so I'll ask. She was talking about them with Claret's Rosie the other week and neither of them seemed concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickvic Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 At my DD's school they have been mentioned nearly every day! She has been 'warned' that these are really important and they must work really hard. Thankfully, she is bright and has never struggled at school and she's not the kind of person (yet!) to feel really pressured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seagazer Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 I think they are totally unfair as well, around here we have the 11+ so he's already sat that. Then to get into his secondary school he has had to sit a banding test anyway. We did no prep for that either. He is what he is, I know he's a clever little boy who is interested in lots of things. Just because he doesn't pass exams doesn't mean he isn't clever. Thats not to say that we don't help him all we can. He has a tutor once a week to give him some one to one help, which he needs. His tutor is great at building his confidence. His school teacher said that she has been amazed at his growing confidence (didn't tell her about the tutor!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 My son has them next week too. He was sent home at Easter with a large Science revision booklet. He was so bored doing the first page that he hasn't touched it since! He isn't the least bit bothered about them. At the last parents' evening, he was told that he could get the best SATs results the school has ever had if he chose to. I'm not sure if that was meant as an incentive, but I suspect it's a prize DS is not interested in winning! Other children may have felt under huge pressure though. I know that his secondary school (a church school) does not take any notice of SATs results. It does its own testing. Our local secondary sets year 7s according to their results though. Good luck to all year 6s though. I hope there are some really good questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkshire Pudding Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 Secondary teacher here! Just to confirm, secondaries might use y6 SATs as a guide to setting, but actually we have found that the results can bear little resemblance to what the y7s can actually do and actually understand! We tend to rely much more on our own testing and teacher assessment. The way the KS2 SATs questions are set is often very different to what is required at the higher Key Stages. When the KS3 tests went I was delighted as they had been so restrictive of what we taught in the core subjects. For me they can abolish the KS2 SATs tomorrow, even though the DSs school makes very little fuss over them. If they are still in place next year, I hope they won't be putting DS1 (currently y5) under any pressure to achieve certain levels. He works hard all year round and always does his best - I think that is far more important than his performance in an exam or two at age 11! If SATs were just designed to test the kids that would be one thing, but they are used to rate and compare schools, and that places all the wrong kinds of pressure on the children and teachers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 My youngest son has them. I actually agree with SAT's but the whole point of them was to test how well the school was doing with our children. Unfortunately the emphasis has been switched and the children are now the focus. My son's class has had to go to after school SATs lessons once a week for the last 6 weeks. He said that he has learned more during each hour than he has in the last year! Not Good! Last week the teachers said to the class that if the children didn't acheive their predicted grades it was because they hadn't paid attention in class!!! Shocking!! This is a 'good' school made up of bright middle class children but only 1 (my son) managed level 5's in practise SATs when at least 6 should have acheived 5's. I have told him to chill, we are going to cycle him to school across the fields to settle his nerves and just make sure he has an early night and a good breakfast. If he doesn't get what he should get it is down to his teachers. His Secondary school only uses them as a guide. My daughter got straight 5's and was put in set 2 for English and Maths as there were so many children with 5's that they couldn't fit them all into set 1. She worked here way out and it was a great acheivement for her getting into the top set of an obviously bright year. Some parents don't make the situation any better in terms of stress levels. They wind their children up and offer silly incentives. In our school one child was 'bribed' with the offer of a pony, another a puppy! Good luck to all the Year 6's taking SATs in the coming week. Remember it is the school being tested NOT YOU!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 My sister has them too. She doesn't seem too worried, I told its normal to feel worried as IMO it would be wierd not to feel a bit nervous about them as they havn't done many tests in primary. Over Easter she was given a pack of practice papers and questions and she decided to work through them all so finished the majority. Also the homeworks she has been given lately have all been past papers and exam questions. This weekend inbetween going to see the Hannah Montana film, having a friend round and going out yesterday afternoon she has been looking at some of the books and example questions that mum had brought for my other sister when she did her SATs last year. She loves the mental maths and kept wanting to practice that! When i did my yr6 SATs(8 years ago) it was all for the primary school's benefit. My secondary school didn't use my results to set me in yr 7. However my sister last year has been setted according to her SATs results and it will be the same for my sister sitting her SATs this week. I don't think this is right at all, fair enough set them a few tests so the school is able to compare year groups and teaching styles and so they are used to being in a test environment fr secondary school. My older sister(yr 7) seems to be tested regulary in mini tests for most subjects. However i don't think that secondary schools should base their setting on the SATs results, like the secondary school here. Good luck to all those who have SATs next week Emma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seagazer Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Well it turns out my YS's school have been putting the fear of god into the kids over the SATS. He informed me that he was doing all his homework on Saturday and that on Sunday he must have an early night and that I had to make sure he got up early this morning to have breakfast. The amount of times he told me this over the weekend I think they must have really drummed it into them. Then we had the rush around to find pencils, pens etc. By the time we were on the walk to school he had tummy ache and felt sick Spoke to another mum who said that her son had said, the teachers had said, the kids had to do well or else! He came out of school ok so hopefully he won't be too stressed for the rest of the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Rosie has hers this week, as Lesley mentioned. She was slightly nervous this morning, and is predicted a level 5 whatever that is (I have no idea about all this new grading). I'm sure that she will be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Palmer Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 My son had his science papers today and is fine about it all. In fact, they were told last Thursday (there was an inset on Friday), to relax and chill out over the weekend, so as not to get stressed. The head used the analogy of a glass of water with sand in it and if you mixed it all up it all gets murky and you can't see clearly through it. This is how their brains would get if they got wound up over revision. I think some of them may have taken this a bit too literally though - as an excuse from the head to do absolutely nothing!. I'm sure the rest of the week will be good too, so long as they don't panic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooks Posted May 11, 2009 Author Share Posted May 11, 2009 well my son had the science papers today so they are done and dusted now.... what will ee will be, I told him this morning to just enjoy himself and it looks like he did, he came out full of smiles which is all I can ask really, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaireG Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Adam is in a mixed class of yr 5 and 6 children. The year 6 children are doing their SATs this week. The year 5 children are doing what the school is calling end of year SATs. None of his classmates looked too worried about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Yup, they were all on science today - and 'easy one' I understand. I will hear about it all from Rosie when I get home no doubt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chillicat Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 DD1 also had Science today. Packed her off on her bike (another new thing as of last week). She was told to relax over the weekend and not to forget to bring in a bottle of water! She's a worrier and we get all the "don't feel well"....."my so and so whatever is hurting"...."don't want to go to school today" nonsense quite a bit, but she's absolutely fine about this week's SATs..........................astonishing! Good luck to everyone who's in test mode this week.............and to mums too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
