Looking At Twelvemonth Vi Sats

I intend it's a skilful thought for secondary schoolhouse maths departments to pass some fourth dimension looking at Year half dozen SATs papers. Ideally this should live done at the start of September when our novel teams are inward house in addition to we're planning lessons for the starting fourth dimension few weeks of term.

When nosotros facial expression at papers it's of import to deportment inward withdraw heed that only because a topic was on their terminate of twelvemonth assessment, it doesn’t necessarily hateful that an incoming Year seven knows that topic well. Just similar at GCSE, aeroplane boundaries are relatively low. This twelvemonth a Year half dozen kid needed to acquire 53% of the answers right inward their maths SATs to gain 'Expected Standard' (ie a scaled score of 100). It's a real similar province of affairs to the Year xi to Year 12 transition - when a pupil starts H5N1 aeroplane amongst a Grade seven it's of import for us to live aware that they only knew how to produce closed to 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 aeroplane in addition to inward Year seven (and inward fact at the start of every schoolhouse year) nosotros should never just assume that topics that convey been previously taught in addition to assessed are totally secure.

Saying that, nosotros know that many pupils joining us inward Year seven are bright piddling mathematicians. Often they convey splendid fluency inward arithmetics in addition to times tables in addition to good developed reasoning in addition to work solving skills. But nosotros won't know that only from looking at their SATs score. H5N1 skilful SATs score might only say us that dorsum inward May the kid had a skilful aeroplane of fluency inward written methods of arithmetic. H5N1 short, focused baseline testify amongst incoming Year 7s might assist us piece of work out if that's nonetheless the illustration in addition to plough over us an thought of a sensible starting betoken for each pupil.

When my previous schoolhouse had incoming Year 7s sit down baseline tests inward September, nosotros were surprised yesteryear the variation inward results. The graph below shows pupils' Key Stage 2 SATs outcome against the score they got on their Year seven baseline assessment. Although nosotros catch 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 illustration notice that pupils who got 104 on their SATs scored everything from 35% to 80% on their September baseline test. If your schoolhouse sets inward Year seven based alone on SATs results you lot withdraw to live aware of this potential variation.

Schools are able to access information for their incoming Year seven pupils that shows their SATs marks yesteryear question. Like the QLAs nosotros operate for mock exams at Key Stage 4, this information is of express use. Getting a unmarried inquiry right or incorrect on a exceptional topic at a exceptional fourth dimension doesn't actually say us real much nigh a child's agreement of that topic. We convey no thought how much a kid actually understands something until we've spent fourth dimension questioning them, working amongst them, assessing them, drawing out misconceptions. Clearly nosotros withdraw to acquire to know our students in addition to nosotros can't brand whatever assumptions based on information inward a spreadsheet.

Saying that, let's convey a quick facial expression at a fleck of national data just because it's interesting. The next 2 questions were the worst answered questions inward lastly year's maths SATs.

Paper 3 2018. Answered correctly yesteryear 24% of pupils. Content starting fourth dimension taught inward Year 4.

Paper 2 2018. Answered correctly yesteryear 31% of pupils. Content starting fourth dimension taught inward Year 6.

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

Paper 1 2018. Answered correctly yesteryear 45% of pupils. Content starting fourth dimension taught inward Year 6.

I intend 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 interesting to catch how many Year 7s tin shout out back how to produce this inward September. And it would live interesting to catch how many Year 11s tin acquire this right.

I intend it would live skilful maths subdivision CPD to hash out all these questions inward item in addition to intend nigh what pupils would convey flora difficult.

The breakdown of topics in the 2019 Year half dozen 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 abide by that Year seven teachers are sometimes unsure what algebra their pupils convey 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 learn collecting similar damage etc inward Year 7, it's their starting fourth dimension time manipulating algebra inward this way.

I've been trying to abide by fourth dimension to write this post service for nigh eighteen months hence I'm glad I finally finished it! I promise it's a helpful starting point. The primary betoken I'm making is that SATs information is of express operate - instructor sentence is agency to a greater extent than of import - but I strongly recommend looking through all iii 2019 maths SATs papers inward a subdivision coming together inward September to assist teachers acquire to know the primary curriculum better. If you lot don't convey fourth dimension to facial expression through all iii papers in addition to hence peradventure only convey a facial expression 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 seven inward September (I am!) in addition to hence you lot mightiness similar my post service nigh activities for a starting fourth dimension lesson amongst Year 7.