Just received notification that the Past Papers for Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Tempest, which were taken by Year 9 (and some Year8) children in may 2007 have been released and are available from SATS PAPERS.

The Direct Link to the supplier is available here : Shakespeare Past Papers.

The “Stage Not Age Tests” referred to by Ed Balls in his Children’s Plan announced in Parliament on 11 December 2007 is an interesting development and will affect every school across the country if his plans come to fruition.  His analogy is that it would be absurd for a child taking music lessons and all to sit the same (e.g. level 5 exam at age 11), but he has missed the point I feel.

The Key Stage 2 tests which children take at age 11 (year 6), covers levels 3-5.  A child has the ability to obtain a high level 5 or a low level 3 – so there is a huge range of what can be achieved in the same test.

And while it seems like a good idea that children sit the test when they are ready – In reality it will mean substantial new pressures on every school, every parent, and every child in the country.  Why?  Well because it will bring about even more competition amongst parents in the playground.  “Has you child sat the test yet? – mine has and she’s only 7″.  Imagine the pressure that parents will now be placed under – and even more pressure for the child.

And what of the schools?  Well you can see the league tables now can’t you.  While schools have targets now, these are very simple ones – namely to achieve Level 4+ at age 11 (year 6).  Educators have the chance to target children over a period of time so that each can achieve their best.

The new targets will probably be annually and like this :

2009 Table for The Primary School

% age 7 and under taking and passing test (as a proportion of the school) – 7%

% age 8 and under taking and passing test (as a proportion of the school) – 17%

% age 9 and under taking and passing test (as a proportion of the school) – 45%

% age 10 and under taking and passing test (as a proportion of the school) – 68%

 % age 11 and under taking and passing test (as a proportion of the school) – 76%

And so I can envisage a situation where every schoool is targeted every year across ALL year groups.

The year 2 teacher will be asked to increase the percentage of her 7 years olds who take and pass the test (because she achieved 7% last year).  Likewise the year 3 teacher will be asked to try and beat his 17% that he managed last year … and so on.

The new Stage not Age Tests :

More pressure on the whole school for every year group

More pressure on parents to coach their daughter to pass “the test” before little jonny takes his

More targets for every year group – not just Year 2 and Year 6 classes.

More information about the current sats tests are here

The educational publisher ACTUAL SATS has just announced a promotional / discount code for all of its key stage2 and key stage 3 publications for english, mathematics, and science.  go to their website and at the checkout enter the code “ACTUALSATS”, and a 10% discount will automatically be deducted from your order.

What a bargain.

The voucher is valid until 31 december 2007, but it doesn’t hurt to try after that date !!! 

Just heard this announcement.  The dates for the 2008 KS2 and KS3 SATS have just been announced for Mathematics, English and Science.  Put it in your diaries …

SATS BRIEFING BEGINS …

Make a note for your diaries because the dates for the 2008 Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 SATS have just been announced and are available by following this link : 2008 SATS DATES

… SATS BRIEFING ENDS

Bonjour

Just a quick update on the latest information sourced from the internet regarding the past papers.  The actual past paper Mark Schemes are available from www.markschemes.co.uk.  There you can view or print off the answer sheets to maths, science and english past papers, which will assist you in marking the tests.

These are available for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, across all tiers, 3-5, 4-6, 5-7, & 6-8 for keystage 3 mathematics, 3-6 and 5-7 for keystage 3 science, and 4-7 for keystage 3 english.

They are also available for levels 3-5 for mathematics, science and english for keystage 2.

Happy revising … 

Schools choose from one of three plays this year.

Either : The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, or Richard III.

Did you know that the questions set by the exam board relate to just TWO of these set scenes, and so whilst pupils need to know the context of the whole play, the focus is towards just these two scenes?

So what are the scenes?

Well our friends at sats past papers have done it again – they have produced a downloadable document, which set out these scenes for each of the plays.  They also have DVDs for each of the plays which schools and parents will find useful.

Let’s face it, the more you watch the relevant DVD, while concentrating on the scenes that will be set the better!  The KS3 shakespeare question in may will print out the relevant text from the scene and then ask pupils a question relating to this text.  Pupils that already know the scenes will have a great head start.

Schools will already know which play they are doing, so my advice is to ask your teacher which Shakespeare play your child will be sitting, and then to get practicing as soon as possible.

Further details are set out below :

http://www.sats-past-papers.co.uk/index.php?cPath=41

Just seen the 2007 sats publications on amazon :

KS2 2007 SATS PAPERS
ISBN (13) = 978-0955614309
ISBN (10) = 0955614309

KS3 2007 SATS PAPERS – HIGHER TIER
ISBN (13) = 978-0955614323
ISBN (10) = 0955614325

KS3 2007 SATS PAPERS – LOWER TIER
ISBN (13) = 978-0955614316
ISBN (10) = 0955614317

You can search on Google for these ISBN’s and try to get the best deal, or go straight to the publisher’s website at : http://www.actual-sats.co.uk, where you can buy them on-line, as mentioned in a previous post.

I’ve not seen the ability to take the on-line mental maths test in the way provided in these publications, but it’s very neat – effectively, you go to the publishers website, with the user name and password given to you in the pack, and then you see a button – by pressing the button you can take the key stage 2 or key stage 3 mathematics test (depending upon what you have bought). The official audio is played through the speakers of your PC, and your child write down the answers on their answer sheet. You can take the mental maths test as many times as you like before the beginning of the sats in May.

They offer the mental maths in this way to replicate the real test, which children take by listening to a CD of the audio in their classroom during the test.

Children get 5, 10, and 15 seconds to answer each question, depending upon the difficulty of question. Each question is read twice, before moving on to the next question, and so on until the test is complete.

http://www.sats-past-papers.co.uk/ also has a simulated test (called the Harris test), which works in the same way, that they sell for £3.99 I would keep checking this site, because I know they sometimes have offers, and you can download the mental maths and other items too …

The BBC site is also good for practicing using their Bite Size questions. They also supply the actual past papers, but they are more expensive. Last year, the maths papers alone were £9.99 I believe, and when you add the science and the english, that comes to a whopping £29.97 (or thereabouts). The Actual Sats publications are only £14.50, so make much better value for money and sense to me.

Well these will kick off again in May 2008 for all UK schools.

I always recommend practicing the past papers to get the best results. This means going through them, and spending time looking at the questions you find most difficult.

The Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 are statutory tests before you get to GCSE. These are taken in Year 6 and Year 9 (although more and more schools are taking these in year 8, to give a longer GCSE course – and more change of higher GCSE grades!).

At KS2, pupils sit English, Maths and Science – three papers in English, two papers in Science, and two written papers and one oral paper in Mathematics.

At KS3, pupils sit the level 4-7 papers in English, and then sit either the 3-5, 4-6, 5-7, or 6-8 papers in Mathematics – they are put in for the appropriate level by their school according to their academic ability. There are only two different levels in Science – the 3-6 and the 5-7 levels. Once again the school will judge which paper each pupil is aligned to, and they will sit the exam accordingly. The more difficult papers are the higher tiered papers, with 6-8 being the most difficult in Mathematics and 5-7 in Science.

www.actual-sats.co.uk is the publisher for the Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 papers, and they provide three packs. The KS2 pack comes with all the papers and all the levels, and the mark schemes and on-line mental maths are also available. They do two packs at KS3, a higher tier, which contains the 5-7 & 6-8 maths papers, 5-7 science papers and 4-7 english papers. The lower tier contains the 3-5 & 4-6 maths papers, 3-6 science papers and 4-7 english papers.

These packs can also be obtained from www.sats-past-papers.co.uk where you can also get past papers from 2004, 2005, and 2006, as well as the latest 2007 papers.

After KS3, pupils are usually streamed according to ability in mathematics and science – those that attain good KS3 levels will be in the higher sets in maths and science. At GCSE, there is a combined science course, as well as the traditional physcis, biology, and chemistry split sciences. The split science are usually only offered to the more academic students, and so KS3 results in science becomes hugely important for what comes later for children at GCSE, and ultimately their overall GCSE results.