Does this sound right (re levels, progress, written feedback).

[EdwiniasRevenge]

On my daughters report she has not made any progress in maths over 4 terms. She is yr8.

Levels are given every half term.

Year 6 SATS put her at level 5.

She has been given a level of 5a on every single report, so on paper she has made no progress in maths since starting secondary school. Her other subjects are fine. Her end of ks3 threshold is a level 7.

I've just had a look through her maths book. I can't see any glaring problems with the quantity or quality of work that she is doing, but my attention was drawn to the marking.

School use the '2 stars and a wish' approach to feedback. Think it has to be done at least once a fortnight; which it looks like it is. BUT in every instance the 2 stars and a wish is self assessment. Sometimes the teacher has done the 'wish'. BUT examples of tge wish are 'to learn how to calculate the circumference and area of a circle'. If you look at her work none of the work marked relates to circles...but that is what is taught the following week. So basicslly the wish is just next weeks LOs.

So my questions are

1. What questions should I be asking at parents evening next week to ensure that dd is supported to make appropriate progress?
2. Does it sound right that written 'feedback' is so dependent on self assesment. I do undrstand that self and peer assessment is of great value; but in the virtual absence of teachers feedback? Other subjects appear to use a mix of the self/peer/teacher feedback.
3. Surely the 'wish' should relate to something which dd coukd aim to improve, not tell her to learn something she hasn't been taught yet IYSWIM.

Any suggestions as to how I can address #2&3 without telling the teacher how to do his job would also be appreciated.

[noblegiraffe]

Have her calculations been marked right or wrong? That's the most important thing, that she knows if she is getting stuff right.

The two stars and a wish approach is a bit bollocks for maths, really. In maths, if you get everything right, the thing you need to do to get to the next level is usually 'learn more maths', so if she is getting everything right, then I can understand the teacher resorting to putting next week's topic as the wish.

As a maths teacher, I would expect to see all her work ticked and crossed. I would also expect to see regular marking by the teacher (weekly, hopefully) of a piece of work that was annotated with things like 'show your working' or 'remember units' or an example of how an incorrect calculation should have been carried out.

If this isn't been done, I would certainly query how your DD is supposed to know, if she is going wrong, where she is going wrong and how to fix it.

I would also query the static level, and ask what level she should expect to be at by the end of y8. It should be at least a solid level 6.

[EdwiniasRevenge]

Ty for your comments, they make a lot of sense.

I've just had a closer look and:

ALL of the work is marked by dd, when the teacher reads out the answers (with the exception of 2 pages which is diagram based answers not numerical.
The teacher collects the books in every couple of weeks.

It appears that if dd has got no wrong answers on a page he has ticked it and written the word 'good' or 'excellent'.
If she has a couple wrong he has just ticked the page.
On one occassion she has marked an answer with a question mark (apparently this is a code for 'I got it wrong and I don't understand') and the teacher has shown all of the working. Unless she has indicated that she needs help no (written) help is given....maybe she just doesn't need it.

If just looked through dtd2s work (different teacher). Most of here work is marked by the teacher. Stars and wish is about 60% teacher, 40% dtd2. Where she has got it wrong the teacher has indicated the problem eg. Circled the operator.
Her wishes mostly relate to the skills that have been covered - even if it is just a reminder to look at the + and - signs more carefully, and often indicate what to do more examples of during revision. But at least it is feedback on what she has done and not a look forward. There are a couple that look forward.

Dtd1 (who I have concerns about) has a LOT of 'notes' which look like they have been copied from the board, and much less 'maths practice'. Dtd2 has less 'notes' and much much more maths practice. The latter may be a result of dtd2 being more work focussed and less chatty in class.

So.

Do I have something I need to bring up? And how to do it in a non confrontational way?'

[EdwiniasRevenge]

(The majority of her maths falls into the category of 6-8 questions per page, with 1-2 marked wrong. Some pages are all correct. A handfull of pages have more wrong)