Year 7 grades / targets?

[Deb13b]

Hi everyone, wondering if anyone can explain my 12yo school grades. If I'm reading it right he's done really badly in just about everything Can anyone help?

[HPFA]

I can't read enough of the explanation as to what the numbers mean. It looks like one of the columns is a prediction of his final GCSE grade but not sure which one?

[user1466610292]

Could you include the text at the bottom, I'm a teacher but not sure what grading system they are using without some more info.

[Deb13b]

Sorry,does this help

[Deb13b]

Here's the full pic

[Margrethe]

I don't understand either, but it doesn't look good in the face of it. I would ask to talk to his form tutor/head of year or whatever his school calls your key contact. If he is falling behind, you would hope that they would seek you out themselves, but since they haven't, I think you need to take the initiative. Find out what this means and if it is a poor performance compared to his capabilities, agree a plan together to get him back on track.

How did he do in primary? Did he leave year 6 having reached national targets?

[Mu51cal]

It looks like they're using the new 1-9 assessment grades. 1 is low and 9 is high. The "-" means it's a low score for that number, and the "+" means it's a strong score for that number, and no sign means it's in the middle... If that makes sense? They are getting rid of the old NC levels... They should have given you a conversion chart so you know how the new numbers relate to the old levels... A 9, for example, is the equivalent of an A**...!

[Deb13b]

He did absolutely great in primary. I'm floored, I really expected him to have a glowing report.

[Deb13b]

Yes it's the new system.

[Mu51cal]

His effort and behaviour scores are all 'A's, so he's obviously trying his best and well-mannered. This system of assessment is new to everyone... I'm amazed that all of the subjects are already using the new system - it's only meant to be maths and English until September...

[Mu51cal]

The only subject that looks bad is history... Languages are always low for year 7 & 8 as they start from nothing (if you see what I mean).. Not many pupils know a single word of a foreign language when the start secondary school.

[Deb13b]

I'm going to get in touch with his head of year to see what we can do to help. Thanks everyone x

[user1466610292]

Ok I understand now, so they are using the new GCSE grading system which is replacing the old letter grades. With the new grades, a level 4 is considered to be a low grade C at GCSE and level 5 is a high grade C at GCSE.

In my school we don't start using these grades for kids until the second half of year 9, and even the top set kids in there we aren't really giving anything higher than a grade 4 or 5 at the moment. To expect a child in year 7 to be getting the equivalent of a GCSE grade C in maths seems totally crazy to me. He has another four years until he does those exams and he won't even be being taught the GCSE level material yet, so I don't really understand how the school can judge what level he is at using these grades. The problem schools have is that we have been told to stop using the old grading system for KS3, but we haven't got a new on to use instead. Also as GCSEs haven't been awarded using these new grades of 1-9 yet as teachers we are essentially guessing what each level will be at the moment.

Their report isn't clear at all, I can't tell if the "on course for" grade is at the end of year 7, or as a GCSE grade in year 11. If it is the year 11 one then yes be concerned, but if it is the end of year 7 I wouldn't worry at all. As I said before he won't even be doing the KS4 syllabus in his lessons so I'm really not sure how they are awarding him KS4 grades. It looks like a lot of guess work on the part of his teachers to me! If I was you I would go in and ask for further clarification on the following.

1. How are they giving GCSE grades if they aren't doing work at that level yet?
   
   
2. Does the on course for grade refer to the end of year 7 or his GCSEs?
   
   
3. Why are his on course for grades so behind his target grades if he is putting in such excellent behaviour and effort?
   
   (As a parent I would focus on the effort and behaviour scores, he is doing excellent there and I wouldn't be concerned in general.)

[M2676]

TBH thats not a good result,my daughter had the same last year and i wasnt happy,i arrange to meet with her teachers and really had a long talk about it of how i could also help from home,im glad i did cos my daughter is now thriving. Shes gaining 5-7a and im super proud of her.She was given extra homewk and an activity each day to complete with me at home,lots of encouragement and letting her know that even though i have other 3 kids,i promised her that i would set aside time in the evening just her n me doing maths games and science cos those were her week subjects! Actually one of her teachers said that maybe shes not use to a new environment,give it time,it will be ok once shes settled properly X

[user1466610292]

It's really difficult because every school judges it differently. They will have an idea what a level 2 means in year 7 etc, but they need to let you know what that means as a parent.

As a teacher I would read that report and think that they could give your son a GCSE maths paper at the end of year 7 and he should be able to come out with a 4+, old C grade, without any more teaching. In my mind that is crazy, but every school is different.

[peachpudding]

Sounds pretty similar to my DS school but not seen report yet. Plus and Minus equates to sub level A and C. Its the new 1 to 9 system.

However they cannot map directly from the old level system as its not the same. Also the Y6 result are useless for comparison as secondary schools do their own assessment.

All you can do is use the results as a base line to see if they improve next year. I would be very pleased that they got all A's

[Margrethe]

He did absolutely great in primary. I'm floored, I really expected him to have a glowing report.

Maybe this is a good report then, and we don't know how to read it! Still a good reason to talk to the school. With a history of good attainment, and all A grades for effort, he should be making good progress.

I hope your talk goes well and you can get an appointment. School is almost out for the summer!

[Jaimx86]

If they're the new GCSE grades, that looks good for Year 7! Very good for Maths!
Or are they using the old KS2 levels?

[Deb13b]

They're the new ones.

[BerriesandLeaves]

Our school does the 1 - 9 system and if they are making normal progress the number stays the same every year. So if they'd got a 5 in year 7 for a subject you'd expect a 5 in year 11 with normal progress. Dd gets 3 reports a year and in practice the numbers go up and down a bit depending on assessments, but not by much. You said he did really well in primary and we can see he's doing fantastically with effort and behaviour, so I'd definitely ask for clarification. It's possible they've mixed his attainment marks up with another child with a similar name or something. Or maybe we're not understanding how they are marking it

[HPFA]

Do you have any contacts with other parents? I realise this can be tricky but have you got anyone you can ask "Did Blank's report make sense to you?"

I have to admit this report doesn't make sense to me. If your son did well at primary and has clearly been doing well for effort and behaviour then such "apparently" poor results would surely have triggered an intervention from the school by now?
Don't like to raise your hopes but really do think that there's either been some mistake OR the school is using a very unclear reporting system

[noblegiraffe]

What an absolute load of shite. The school is lying to you if it is pretending that they can grade your DS in any meaningful way at all on the new GCSE grades, for a GCSE that hasn't been sat by anyone, grade boundaries unknown, and in most cases hasn't even been taught yet. I had to write working at grades for Y10 for the new GCSE recently and it was nothing more than an educated guess and they've just sat a full GCSE mock paper and completed most of the course.

And yet your school thinks they can distinguish between a 4+ and a 4- on the GCSE grade scale in maths for your DS? The whole thing is a work of fiction. A previous poster suggested your child is working at a level 6c for maths, but a 4 is going to be pegged at the pass rate of students gaining a C which is a level 7. However we don't know what a 4 actually looks like because no one has sat the exam yet.

Your boy has got an outstanding report where it really matters - in effort and behaviour. Forget the rest, it's all bollocks.

[Ladymuck]

Have you seen any of his exercise books? Has he had any end of unit tests etc throughout the year? Do you and he feel as if he has made progress?

Reports shouldn't be a surprise. Regardless of what the basis of assessment is, the report is telling you that a well behaved, motivated student is below the expected target for every subject. That is rather puzzling, and should be explained.

[eyebrowsonfleek]

He's started from scratch (zero) on many subjects so getting to a 1 or 2 is fine for year 7. He has 5 years to get to a 9 (my understanding is that these will be super rare) and in my experience, progress picks up rapidly in year 8 and some of those subjects won't even be studied up to GCSE so don't worry. Maximum effort /attitude grade is very promising.

I have children further up the system and their school won't predict GCSE grades for year 10 as number grades for GCSE start in maths/English next summer and for everything else next summer and nobody has a clue how they are going to award grades on these newer but harder tests. I'm surprised that your school is grading on this scale now.