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Gifted and talented

When do they do sats?

11 replies

bronze · 24/05/2009 23:33

and are there different levels?

Ok I admit I know nothing about them.
Ds1 is 6 and though not officially registered as g&t as his school don't tend to they have given me all the paperwork relating to it and talk about him as being g&t.
Hes currently in year 1 and working with year 3 for maths. He would also be working with them for literacy apparently except he can't write fast enough to keep up. He is reading with them in their groups though.

Anyway I was wondering about sats. Will he do them when his age group do them or would he do them before then? Also are there different levels like there are in gcses?
I normally hate exams and the like and actually disagree in principle with sats but I have to admit I would now like some kind of official marking of where ds is at so it gets properly recognised and I can make sure he is getting the teaching he needs.
(wish I knew where he had got his braind )

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bronze · 24/05/2009 23:35

I@ve also just realised I have no idea what age they even do sats normally or how they're marked or anything. Steep learning curve for me

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frustratedmom · 24/05/2009 23:40

As i understand it sats are aged linked and only measure up to a set level. ie if say the top grade it an A and you get it as soon as you pass 80% a G&T might score 100% and give answers far higher then the test required but will not come out with anything higher then the A. The child has out performed the test, but it is not possible to then say how high child working because it is not tested.
Don't rely on sats to say how bright ds is. It wont necessarily give you any indication of anything other then whether he is struggling or not. struggling kids can be identified but not the highest fliers.

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frustratedmom · 24/05/2009 23:41

Was warned about this when looking at schools. Are you finding the school flexible and helpful?

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bronze · 25/05/2009 11:10

They're pretty good as far as I can tell. Theres currently only three classes so all the infants are together which gives them flexibility to move him around between groups. Though year 3 is actually the class above so in a different room.
Its so hard to know what to do next. So many things to consider, letting him find his way/encouraging him/pushing him to fulfil his potential as well as trying to get help without sounding like a pushy annoying parent or that you're boasting. Luckily they seem to have realised he needs that push otherwise he gets bored and is more likely to cause trouble so its in everyones best interest.
I just feel a little out of the loop and wondering what I can do more.

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frustratedmom · 25/05/2009 12:01

I am looking forward to someone else taking over - I have had to take an ou short course just to stay one step ahead of DS. It will be nice to have someone else trying to figure out how to keep him occupied and challenged enough to stop there being mischief.

If you are worried I would reckamend extra curriculum activites. Secondary school is problematic for advanced children as there is sooo much less flexibilty for advancing bright kids. Have you thought about maybe language lessons? Will keep ds challenged and provides him with a life skill especially something like spanish which is used (in some form) by a large proportion of the world. He can translate for you on holiday

I would advise you to put your worrying on hold til secondary school when you are more likely to need it. Right now it seems the school are on top of it and you might be wasting precious energy. Hope my school turns about to be as good as yours.

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frustratedmom · 25/05/2009 12:48

just thought - have used an american website enchanted learning when needed resources to challenge ds and found the small subscription well worth the hours of peace and ideas available. Dont know how much use it will be to you but would reckamend a look www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html they have stuff for every level

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Yurtgirl · 25/05/2009 13:00

Bronze -You are fortunate your ds school are trying to help him, my ds school seemingly arent interested

Re fab websites for kids - there are loads and loads that I have found far better than enchanted learning which dont require a subscription at all

Try websites to do with all the big museums -NAtural History, British Museum etc
Also BBC history for kids, Woodlands school site

Loads more available all free

RE SATS usually first lot in year 2 and Key Stage 2 SATS in year 6 - I dont know how that works re G&T though

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ramonaquimby · 25/05/2009 13:28

there are different tiers for SATS papers at KS1, he would probably write them when he is in Year 2, not Year 1 (they have already happened in most primary schools)

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TheFallenMadonna · 25/05/2009 14:20

The year 2 SATs are largely teacher assessed anyway. They will be formally assessing his level and progress this year too, so ask his teacher now. But also talk informally about how he is doing and what they are doing with him. My ds's teacher gives me a fab picture of how DS is doing - what his strengths and weaknesses are - which tells me far more than NC levels, particularly in literacy where he is a very mixed bag.

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lljkk · 25/05/2009 14:53

OP, just ask your teacher what level he's on now for literacy and maths, they will have a pretty good idea. Ask what those levels mean in terms of targets for age (he may be working at the average target ability ("level") for Yr3 children, for instance). Ask what his reading and spelling age are from most recent assessments (exams); they probably have tested for those things specifically. You don't need to wait for the formal SAT assessments in Yr2/Yr6, which are capped below what your son could probably achieve, anyway.

Eg, For Yr2 the OP's child almost certainly won't sit higher than a Level 3 paper, so the official result for Yr2 won't read higher than Level 3, no matter how gifted the child.

If he were my child I'd ignore SATs, I'd be looking at broadening his horizons and interests.

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mummyrex · 06/06/2009 15:48

SATs are about minimum standards and are a way for the govt to formally express what it expects the avearge child to be able to do (as a minimum) at various ages.

Sounds like your school is doing a good job, if they have recignised his ability to the extent that they have alerted you and given you some extra material then I would be quite confident that they are probably differentiating and setting his appropriate work at school.

Now that they have put this out on the table you can discuss at parents evenings how he is doing, how they are supporting him.

The SATs scores he gets will be interesting and somewhat informative until Y6. For example my son had at least high level 5's in all subjects in Y5 and in Y6 he got......level 5s. That's because they only test up to that level.

Your school will probably do lots of other sorts of tests over the years that will be helpful too.

If you are interested there are a coulple of reading/spelling tests in the Free Downloads section of larkeducation.co.uk which would indicate ability compared to large normed studies.

But again, sounds like the school is doing good!

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