Secondary school levels for year 9 - can anyone explain?

[Doookie]

My daughter has just left year 8 and gone into year 9.

Her current levels are:

English 5b
Maths 5a
Science 4a
ICT 4b

She tells me these are good marks and her teacher was pleased but one of her friends has 7b for everything.

She's hoping to do a-levels after her GCSEs which require 5 GCSEs grade A-C.

Can anyone tell me if her current levels are ok and what kind of GCSE grade she should expect? Thanks

[moulesfrites]

At my school a child is expected to make 2 sub-levels progress over a year. (Obv this does not always happen, for a variety of reasons. oth, sometimes a child will stay steady for a year and then make a great leap)

So, in English, of she starts Y9 on a 5b, she should be looking to finish on a 6c at the end of year 9. On average, such a student would be expected to get a B at GCSE - this is based on general guidelines. If you are worried about GCSE, find out what the school % is for 5 A-C grades including Eng and Maths*. This should give a good indication as to whether most pupils would be able to go on to study their a-levels of choice. (The nat. average is about 64% I think)

Having said all that, I wouldn't get too hung up about the levels, and certainly don't worry about a levels yet - the more important questions are - is your child motivated? Do they put effort into schoolwork and homework? Do they feel sufficiently challenged and able to ask the teachers for further explanations when required etc. I would say this is more important at this stage.

[moulesfrites]

sorry, meant if she starts Y8 on a 5b..

[moulesfrites]

No I didn't mean that, I meant what I said in the first place - sorry - pregnancy brain!

[bellavita]

These are DS1's levels - he has just gone into Yr9

English 5b - target level at end of KS3 6c
Maths 6b - 6b
Science 5a 6a
Art 4a 6b
D&T 5b 6c
Drama 5c 6c
Geography 4a 6c
History 5c 6c
ICT 5a 6c
MFL 4c 5c
Music 5b 5c
PE 4b 5b
RE 5b 6c

[moonminmama]

Our pupils are expected to improve by 2 to 3 sub levels per year. Our 'average pupils' are achieving 5b by the middle of year 9. I would be giving as much encouragement as possible to improve on the level 4s. As said above you dc levels are about average. There is no reason why with hard work they can't get fab grades and do a levels too. Hth

[jinglesticks]

I teach at a high performing school and our average at the end of y8 is 5b. At the end of y9 is 6b. I believe this is about 1 level above national average. 99% of our students get 5 A-Cs. I'd say she was right on track! Well done to her!

[tenacious]

Oh dear me. Just read this thread. Sorry I repeated a similar question this evening .. .. All good feedback and information, though!

BelligerentGhoul said in answer to my similar question that 7a now = a GCSE A or A*

[Kushanku]

DS has been predicted a level 7 in maths for year 9. I promised him I'd give him £100 for every A* he got at GCSE - I'm starting to regret that! lol

[pollyjay]

I am really confused! My 12 year old son has just gone in to year 8. He has 6b in maths, 6a in science and 5a in english. He has just been informed that he has been put forward for one to one tuition because hes not on track!! And no he doesn't have behavioural problem, he received the schools "pupil of the year award"!! Has the school made a mistake????

[Enida]

Im in year nine myself. The average for a year nine student is around 5a. Every year you should improve by two sub levels. As he has just started year nine these levels are good.

[Dominodonkey]

polly jay they are individual targets. He probably did really well in primary school ie got a top level 5 in English so is now seen to be not making enough progress.
The levels sound fine to me though so I wouldn't worry too much.

OP - I would suggest Cs generally across the board with some Bs. However if she is a hard worker there is no reason she cannot do better than that.

[titchy]

This is a three year old thread folks!!!

[Swanhilda]

okay, I know this a zombie thread, but I've just been to the Parent's Evening at ds1's high performing secondary (year 9) and he is across the board a 5B or 5C (apart from 6A in PE which doesn't mean anything does it?).

Should I be worried? Everyone around me seemed to be looking at 6's and 7's, only I couldn't see over their shoulders properly

I'm worried. He is dyspraxic. His target is 6C at end of Year 9. Is there any hope of getting a 6B with those levels? Or getting anything better than a C at GSCE, if that? He's been on report for not doing homework properly, and now attending homework club, but he still seems to struggle to understand some of the evaluative stuff, and in Maths and Science.

His IQ is average. Maybe he will just get average results - or should I be pushing him or helping him more?

[intitgrand]

I am sorry but they are not high performing schools.MyDc are at an ordinary grammar school ie takes the top 28% and at the end of Y8 nearly everybody is getting grade 7s

[Marmitelover55]

But I think they meant high performing comprehensive school, so not selective like the grammar you are comparing to where you would expect considerably higher results.

[Swanhilda]

That's the point. Everyone else at the Parents' Eve seems to be getting 6 or 7. Ds is in 3rd set for most things. But in your average comprehensive what do people get?
Is there anyone whose child was on a mid 5 in Year 9 who made the leap forward?

Of course it is not a selective school, unless you count that it is a Faith School. But it does not select academically. It achieves well at A level and GSCE 88 percent A*-C pass so I suppose I would assume it was a high performing school in the sense of teaching well.

[Swanhilda]

Obviously I have spoken to his Form tutor,but she hasn't of course told me what everyone else in the class got, or whether I should be worrying overall. Clearly I should be worrying, but just to what degree?

[LucyOL11]

Well i'm going in year 7 in september and a 5a in english, 6C with writing 5A in maths and 5b in science

[marmitegirl23]

MY DD'S LEVELS

ENGLISH - 7A-8C
MATHS-7A-8C
SCIENCE- 7A
HISTORY- 7B
REP-7A
GERMAN-6A
GEOGRAPHY - 7C

[Student01]

I shouldn't worry; if she continues to push herself (which she should, she sounds very bright) then she should achieve those A*-C grades. I know this feed is inactive, but I'm writing this for other mothers that might be worried. I don't particularly know if other mothers genuinely worry about this stuff because I'm only a student in high school myself. I had similar grades my self and in yr 8 I had to choose my GCSEs and in year 9 I started the GCSEs courses. I know this is a year earlier the other schools but I, personally, think it is helpful to start learning about the subjects you want to do a gcse on, as early as possible. This has helped me a lot and also changed my grades to A B C D. I was similar grades (some of my grades were a bit higher) and now I am at the end of year nine I have ;
Maths: B-
English: C
Science: B-
Art: A
French: D+
If your worried your child won't get there I'm positive they will, they just have to keep pushing themselves

[marcopront]

If you look at the date of the original post, I suspect the OP is way past worrying about levels her DD could be doing a degree by now.

[Emochild]

I love how this has been resurrected as a zombie thread so many times 😁