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You can't really generalise as MB says, for a child on a level 2 at the start of year 7, achieving a 3/4 would be fantastic.
You also need to bear in mind that the levels aren't a continuum. I've had students who were level 5 according to their primaries, but were actually a 3/4 according to the secondary level descriptors, for the subjects I taught. Parents aren't always aware of this, and they should be.
wow i didnt know that my ds is doing sats now, he is on level 5,s.so do you think all secondarys do that.i must say he missed 8month of school last year so we are really pleased he has caught up.(sorry for hijacking i had never heard this before)
If I get told a student got a level 5 at primary, I would wait until their first assessment with me to see where they really are. Mostly, they come out a high 3/low 4, which is more realistic for secondary as we expect them to deal with harder concepts than at primary.
I teach humanities, so I was always more concerned with their reading age, as this gave me a better indication of how they would do. Someone with a GLA of -7.4 would find it well nigh impossible to access the curriculum, whereas someone with a GLA of 13-14 at age 11 would do well.
I think SATS are a pernicious waste of time and energy and tell us nothing apart from how a child performed on a particular day. They tell me nothing about how they learn, how they cope in class or what they'll get a GCSE. They are a stick with which to beat teachers, and take attention away from the wider curriculum that should be taught at primary.
End of rant! Honestly, don't stress yourself or your lad about SATs, it's pointless. As an exercise in how to approach an exam they're useful, apart from that, they're not.
thanks scaryteacher,we dont push him just tell him to do his best ,he does have a high reading age though 14+ last time assessed.we have just been offered a place at a secondary school that had the best results in merton but have went for different school because we know ds will be happier and have lots of friends at a different school.thanks for your wisdom though.
As a science teacher the level 5 thing is very annoying. We get kids in with L5 from primary and this leads to them having targets of 6.5 in secondary when in reality they were really coached for the KS2 SATs and had less content to deal with. They come to secondary where we have 12 topics a year so 36 by the end of KS3 and can't cope. We also get kids with L4 science but N for maths and english. This is mainly because their teacher read the science SAT for them.
The expected level at the end of Year 6 is a 4. That is what the govenment of expect the majority of children to achieve at that age.
The expected level at the end of year 9 is a 5. So children are expected to progress a full level in KS3. Therefore I would presume the expected level at the end of Year 7 based on govenment expectations is a 4a/5c.
However this is not what your ds's scores will be calculated on. Level 5 at end of year 7 would indicate someone who was bright. Level 6 would indicate someone who was G and T IME. This would mean they would be level 7 or 8 at end of KS3
I had year 8s who were hitting level 6 for my subject Fizzbuzz. I agree with MB re the science SATs results. One of my last tutor group had a L5 in science with a GLA of -7.4, so he couldn't read or write. I still can't work out how he got the L5!
Continuity between level 5 at primary and level 5 at secondary is not exact. The grade descriptors are not the same which can cause parents to worry their child is not progressing or has been inaccurately assessed. So a child can come to us on level 5, be assessed at 4 and then reach 5 by the end of year 7.
