Looking At Twelvemonth Half-Dozen Sats

I mean value it's a skillful thought for secondary schoolhouse maths departments to pass some fourth dimension looking at Year six SATs papers. Ideally this should live on done at the start of September when our novel teams are inwards house in addition to we're planning lessons for the offset few weeks of term.

When nosotros aspect at papers it's of import to comport inwards heed that merely because a theme was on their destination of twelvemonth assessment, it doesn’t necessarily hateful that an incoming Year vii knows that theme well. Just similar at GCSE, degree boundaries are relatively low. This twelvemonth a Year six kid needed to acquire 53% of the answers right inwards their maths SATs to make 'Expected Standard' (ie a scaled score of 100). It's a really similar province of affairs to the Year xi to Year 12 transition - when a educatee starts H5N1 flat alongside a Grade vii it's of import for us to live on aware that they only knew how to produce to a greater extent than or less one-half the questions on their GCSE exam. Plus nosotros all know that a lot of forgetting happens over the long summertime break. So both at H5N1 flat in addition to inwards Year vii (and inwards fact at the start of every schoolhouse year) nosotros should never just assume that topics that bring been previously taught in addition to assessed are totally secure.

Saying that, nosotros know that many pupils joining us inwards Year vii are vivid picayune mathematicians. Often they bring fantabulous fluency inwards arithmetics in addition to times tables in addition to good developed reasoning in addition to work solving skills. But nosotros won't know that merely from looking at their SATs score. H5N1 skillful SATs score might only say us that dorsum inwards May the kid had a skillful flat of fluency inwards written methods of arithmetic. H5N1 short, focused baseline bear witness alongside incoming Year 7s might assist us piece of work out if that's yet the instance in addition to laissez passer on us an thought of a sensible starting yell for for each pupil.

When my previous schoolhouse had incoming Year 7s sit down baseline tests inwards September, nosotros were surprised yesteryear the variation inwards results. The graph below shows pupils' Key Stage 2 SATs lawsuit against the score they got on their Year vii baseline assessment. Although nosotros regard a full general correlation every bit expected, the middle chunk of the information (expected scores betwixt 100 in addition to 110) was all over the place. For instance notice that pupils who got 104 on their SATs scored everything from 35% to 80% on their September baseline test. If your schoolhouse sets inwards Year vii based alone on SATs results yous remove to live on aware of this potential variation.

Schools are able to access information for their incoming Year vii pupils that shows their SATs marks yesteryear question. Like the QLAs nosotros piece of work for mock exams at Key Stage 4, this information is of express use. Getting a unmarried enquiry right or incorrect on a exceptional theme at a exceptional fourth dimension doesn't actually say us really much almost a child's agreement of that topic. We bring no thought how much a kid actually understands something until we've spent fourth dimension questioning them, working alongside them, assessing them, drawing out misconceptions. Clearly nosotros remove to acquire to know our students in addition to nosotros can't brand whatsoever assumptions based on information inwards a spreadsheet.

Saying that, let's bring a quick aspect at a chip of national data just because it's interesting. The next 2 questions were the worst answered questions inwards in conclusion year's maths SATs.

Paper 3 2018. Answered correctly yesteryear 24% of pupils. Content offset taught inwards Year 4.

Paper 2 2018. Answered correctly yesteryear 31% of pupils. Content offset taught inwards Year 6.

And here's the worst answered enquiry on the 2018 arithmetics paper:

Paper 1 2018. Answered correctly yesteryear 45% of pupils. Content offset taught inwards Year 6.

I mean value this is a pretty grim question. I'm surprised it's only i mark. I'm too surprised how many pupils got it right given the unnecessarily fiddly numbers. It would live on interesting to regard how many Year 7s tin recall how to produce this inwards September. And it would live on interesting to regard how many Year 11s tin acquire this right.

I mean value it would live on skillful maths subdivision CPD to beak over all these questions inwards exceptional in addition to mean value almost what pupils would bring constitute difficult.

The breakdown of topics in the 2019 Year six SATs was similar to previous years. H5N1 large chunk of the questions were calculations in addition to fractions, decimals in addition to percentages. This is unsurprising. There weren't many questions on shape in addition to statistics.

I notice that Year vii teachers are sometimes unsure what algebra their pupils bring seen before. Here are 2 algebra questions from this year's Paper 3.

Here's the primary curriculum content relating to algebra:

It's mainly 'missing number' stuff. So when nosotros instruct collecting similar price etc inwards Year 7, it's their offset fourth dimension manipulating algebra inwards this way.

I've been trying to notice fourth dimension to write this postal service for almost xviii months hence I'm glad I finally finished it! I promise it's a helpful starting point. The original yell for I'm making is that SATs information is of express piece of work - instructor sentence is means to a greater extent than of import - but I strongly recommend looking through all iii 2019 maths SATs papers inwards a subdivision coming together inwards September to assist teachers acquire to know the primary curriculum better. If yous don't bring fourth dimension to aspect through all iii papers in addition to hence mayhap merely bring a aspect at the Third Space Learning blog which has an analysis of this year's maths SATs papers including some examples of questions to discuss.

By the way, if you're didactics Year vii inwards September (I am!) in addition to hence yous mightiness similar my postal service almost activities for a offset lesson alongside Year 7.