Bloody school flightpaths

[Grrrrrsnarl]

My dd school (secondary) now uses flightpaths instead of the old 4b + 2 sub levels per year.

We are now in such a pc age that it's not about where you rank in your year / class / subject but whether or not you are on a secure flight path to get to the correct GCSE result

I don't have a problem, with flight paths, but i wish the school would actually state the flight that she is on.

Example
Report says English on flight path,. Secure but the school fails to tell the parents if the flightpath is leading to a GCSE grade f ( or 3 as it's now numbers) or a GCSE A*. (9)

How hard is it for a school to tell me what they think my dd gcse grades are going to be without me having to write to them

Because it's all about progress and not comparing children with other children.... Apparently

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Sounds bloody confusing. But I'm mid thirties and like things in English

[toooldforthisshirt37]

Oh Gawd! I have a twelve year old and am trying to navigate the new world of high school, this sounds a nightmare! I hope our school doesn't go this route! I need to know exactly how my dd is doing! I have previously turned to for PIE, PIM, CA, CM, ER and C Av every other flipping set of letters they think of!

[grannytomine]

I think the trouble with comparing is that sometimes it is a really strong year group and sometimes it isn't. My GS is in a year that is incredibly bright, being average in that group is way above average most years.

I do understand your point about on track for what? A* or F, that is something that it is good to know and I imagine they can tell you.

[Grrrrrsnarl]

I do know because I wrote to the school . I just fail to understand why it's not given as standard.
Even if only a third of parents ask it's still about 80 enquiries ( it's a big school) extra work for the teachers

When dd did her sats she was a 5c English. I knew she was slightly above average (4b is average) so was happy

Now all I'm told it's that she is on a secure flight path. .....

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Do you think they have a "buzzword of the month" calender?

And come September they will be on a carriage way or a math canal

[Notevilstepmother]

It's all a bit crazy. Levels weren't ideal either. Sub levels are made up nonsense.

[towelpintpeanuts]

We have flightpaths - but a key part of the comms from the school is giving you both your 'rating' for the year and your flightpath - i.e. you are a flightpath B and have achieved an A - go you!

BUT I did have to push a bit to get grade equivalency on the flightpaths (which suggested that an A flightpath is basically 7+ at our school, but they don't publicise that, and there seemed to be some variation in the answers on different subjects too... ) - but tbf the new GCSEs are so all over the place at the mo, I don't blame any school for keeping a bit quiet on that element of things.

[JennyOnAPlate]

I thought this was going to be a thread about aeroplanes flying over a school.

What twattery will they come up with next??

[OddBoots]

My dd's school uses flightpaths but they automatically say the grade number that is being targeted then if the child is on target, working above or working below.

As you say, there is no point in the flightpath if you don't know the target grade.

[Crocky]

We have no targets given in the school my dc are at because of the Growth Mindset!

[Acopyofacopy]

Yes, telling you your target is so limiting
Insist on knowing what flight path your dc is on, otherwise there might be some unpleasant surprises when they are making good progress towards a 3...

[Acornantics]

We have an academically strong DS who didn't do SATs as we were overseas at the time and school wasn't interested in using his grades from overseas school.

Now in Yr9 (they start before summer), he's predicted As and Bs at GCSE but his 'target' grades are 6s and 7s, which I think are around the old B grade...but not too sure as no one seems to know! Is this so the school can show improvement? Maybe so, but maybe they didn't assess him properly in the first place as no sats scores to go off.

[IveGotBillsTheyreMultiplying]

I've had four dcs go through the system and have never heard of flight paths.

We have current levels/grade and target grades, or predicted grades.

What are the advantages of flight paths meant to be?

[AndNowItIsSeven]

My dd's report says average flight path target 7, but not for individual subjects. For the individual subjects we just get secure, developing etc.

[AndNowItIsSeven]

Acorn yes all approx but 6 is B, 7 is A, 8 is A and 9 A* .

[Snap8TheCat]

I was looking at my old reports last night (I'm 36) and they even stated where I ranked in the class! E.g. 6/27

[noblegiraffe]

It's nothing to do with being PC. It's because the government have scrapped levels and the flightpaths will be based on GCSE target grades which at the moment are total and utter bullshit because no one has actually sat the new GCSEs yet. Schools that have given out target grades for their kids are going to have a tough time next year explaining to multiple parents why their kid's target has changed despite there being absolutely no difference in the work rate or achievement or said child. The target grade will have changed simply because Y11 will have received their exam results.

[TiredMumToTwo]

Yes Snap, I'm 38 and always had my exact rank in the class I.e. 4/25

[eyebrowsonfleek]

That sounds crap. Our flight paths come with an actual graph with year:term on the X axis and each flightpath marked 7,6,5,4,3 etc There's a cross where the teacher thinks your child is at and it's often between paths so if the teacher thinks you're an 8 it goes above the 7 line.

[noblegiraffe]

There's a cross where the teacher thinks your child is at

There's a cross where the teacher rolled a dice and noted the score.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

JennyOnAPlate
What twattery will they come up with next??

Maybe is the government and ofsted did act klike such a bunch of fuckwits the schools wouldn't have to come up with the "twattery".

And FYI the fuckwittery that caused this has partially been U turned but no one yet knows what any of the new grades look like.

[blinkineckmum]

I'm a teacher and will do my best to explain. Apparently flight paths were created to stop this obsessing about progressing sub levels every term. They are much more general.

No-one knows what a new GCSE grade looks like, be it 1 or 9 or anywhere in between, as they will be set depending on how the first cohort does. There are no grade boundaries yet.

If you are Emerging, your eventual GCSE grade the teachers are hoping, pushing, expecting you to get, might be 1 or 2. But we don't know how that looks yet so we don't really know. Novice might be 3 or 4, Secure 4 or 5, Confident; 5, 6 or 7, Excelling 8 or 9. These flight paths are very broad, not like saying 'last term you were 4b, now you're 4a'. They are deliberately vague.

The new grades do not match up with the old A - G either. 9 is A* and they are still deciding if 4 or 5 is a good pass (they're sying maybe 5 is a high C and 4 is a low C. Originally exam boards thought 5 would be a good pass, but now colleges are asking for 4s, as the exams are more difficult).

This was a quick explanation as I understand it. I am not an expert. Hope it helps.

[eyebrowsonfleek]

Noblegiraffe - I totally agree but as a parent I want more from the school than
a "doing fine" at Parents Evening.

[noblegiraffe]

blinkin My school does it differently so if your GCSE target is a 3 and you are bumping along in the bottom set and so will most likely get a 3, your report will say you are making 'good progress', even though most parents would not be happy with that eventual outcome.

[BackforGood]

Wow! I opened this thread expecting it to be about a school near an airport too!
Just had dd's Yr10 report today, and there are no such flightpaths.... We get "Currently On target to Achieve.....{insert 7 or 4 or whatever their guesstimate is}"
It has been clearly explained and repeated ad infinitum at parents evenings that nobody know what the grades will be as no-one has taken these exams before, but they are doing their best to give a 'best guess' by roughly comparing with previous cohorts. Nobody will predict '9's but they are cautiously suggesting that, given the standard of work, they are estimating they might get a 7 or 8, as opposed to a '2', or, of course, a 2 or a 3 rather than an 8