Predicting a 5b in yr6 after achieving a 3b in yr2?

[Joyn]

Hi

We had our kids parents evening this week & we were really pleased as both have settled in well to their new classes, they're happy & meeting/exceeding expectations with their progress so far. However, I asked a question & I'm a little confused by the answer.

Ds achieved 3bs in literacy, numeracy & reading at the end of last year (yr2) & as someone else had told me they base predictions for end of ks2 on ks1 results I asked the teacher what he'd be predicted in ks2. I was told the 'average' is to go up 2 full grades in ks2 so they would be looking for him to come out with 5b. But this is what had left me a bit confused. If it has taken him 2 years less than 'average' to get to a 3b, should he not continue to make faster progress than 'average,' rather than now follow the same curve but reach a higher level?

Is my understanding correct? So at age 7 he was 2 years ahead of the average, does that mean at 11 he should still be 2years/that many grades ahead, or should he not continue to be able to learn/meet targets faster? I'm just wondering what other people have found with their kids?

I've been told that it's normal for kids, for instance, in yr3 to only go up 1/3 of a grade, but I always assumed that that was because there is a lot of 'bedding down' to go from a 2b to a 2a, but if ds has already gone through this process, are they right to assume it will take a full year to go from a 3b to a 3a?

I've also been told that teachers have to make differentiated lesson plans to accommodate children who may be 2 years behind or ahead of the expected level for that age group, so I'm just wondering if that's why things work this way? And that they would be unlikely to stretch him beyond this because he'd become too much of an outlier.

Btw i hope this comes across as a genuine question, rather than a "hurrah, my son got 3b in yr2!" As he's my eldest I still don't have that much experience of the national curriculum, especially ks2 & how these things work & I genuinely just want whats best for my boy.

Thanks for reading. :)

[Iamnotminterested]

I think you are correct in thinking they are expected to make 2 full levels of progress in KS2, REGARDLESS of their KS1 score, IYKWIM! Hence a 2b at year 2 = 4b @ year 6, a 3b = 5b etc.

Don't know why though. I too wonder "how high" for want of a better phrase my DD2 could reach with literacy in year 6? She is only in year 3 now, and got a very high level in KS1. I do know the level 6 tests will be available from next year.

[rabbitstew]

My understanding is that there is quite a big leap in attainment to get from a level 2 to a secure level 3 - much more than the leap from level 1 to level 2. My assumption would, therefore, be that going up a level is not exactly the same amount of progress regardless of the level, it depends on which level you are going from and to. Also, as you get higher in the levels, any areas of relative weakness are likely to get more pronounced as your weaknesses are increasingly challenged, and as such this might well pull down your overall result (ie to a certain extent you are only as good as your weakest area). Expected progress is really the least amount of progress they would hope you would make, not the most, in any event. A school that wants to be outstanding is going to be wanting to get its children to make better than expected progress if at all possible.

[Joyn]

Thank you for the feedback.

Rabbit stew I had assumed the same about the 'jump' from level 2-3 compared to 1-2. Does it thus follow that the move from 3-4 is an even bigger step again?

Ismnotminterested- now sure what you meant by the level 6 tests being available next year, could you explain please?

[belledechocchipcookie]

They don't test for level 6 at the end of year 6, I was told the highest the SATS score could be was level 5. Ds's teacher wrote on her assessment that he was consistently achieving level 6 when he sat his SATS, they marked him as top level 5 though. At the end of key stage 1 he was a top level 3 and was not allowed to sit the next paper. IIRC, level 6 is secondary school level so the SATS won't measure it.

[GiganticusBottomus]

I am a teacher. In KS2 they should make 2 sub levels per year. Eg 3c to 3 a or 3b to 4c.

I am VERY surprised that your son was given a 3b at the end of year 2. Standard practice is to give a level 3 with no mention of the sub level. You would then be given the sub level at the end of year 3.

HTH

[Feenie]

There is no requirement to qualify the level 3 at the end of Y2, but schools would most certainly do so internally and so may well share that information with parents.

2 levels progress is satisfactory progress from Y2 to Y6, so 5b should be the least your dc gets.

Progress in KS1 is more accelerated, with an 'average' child starting on 1c going to a 1a, and from a 1a to a 2b in Y2.

[Feenie]

They don't test for level 6 at the end of year 6, I was told the highest the SATS score could be was level 5.

Externally marked level 6 tests are restarting this year, the first time since 2002. Teachers have always been able to teacher assess at level 6, so don't let any teacher tell you they don't 'measure' past a 5a.

[belledechocchipcookie]

Ds is 12 now though so 3 years ago this wasn't the case, Feenie. The teacher assessed him as level 6, the sats paper only went up to the top of level 5. Poor lad scored 98-100% on the papers.

[ASuitableGirl]

I personally wouldn't say that a 3b at the end of year 2 was two years ahead of average. Expected level at the end of year 2 is 2b but can't remember what the actual average is (seem to remember various teachers looking into it for me once). But DS got level 3s at the end of year 2 and although he is pretty clever, he isn't exceptional at all .

I think that test for level 6 at the end of KS2 are going to be available at some point soon although I can't see why KS2 can't be more teacher assessed like KS1 or at least why the teacher assessment can't be used more. Is it used at all or is it just based on the test results?

[Feenie]

I'm glad they teacher assessed him at level 6 then!

[Feenie]

It is, Asuitablegirl - average attainment at year 4 is a 3b, taking a midpoint between a Y2 2b average and a Y6 4b average.

Teacher assessment has 50% weighting at Y6 (although you wouldn't know it ). I agree that in should be in line with Y2, although the writing assessment will be, for the first time this year.

[ASuitableGirl]

Thank you Feenie - I am glad to hear that teacher assessment does have a higher weighting than I had thought :)

I think that as DS is in a pretty high achieving school that his level at the end of year 2 doesn't feel like it is that much above average whereas overall I suppose it is :) I also don't know what sub level his level 3s were at - so they may have all been 3cs of course.

[Feenie]

That's true, lots of level 3s in a high achieving school.

[Fraidylady]

I think the jump from L1-2 is massive, as the child has to move from simple 'counting' to understanding place value. We find that children who find maths challenging find this a very difficult concept to grasp securely and therefore take a long time to jump from 1a to 2c/b.

[Joyn]

Thanks, for all the interesting posts. I think basically what everyone is saying is, I should take his predicted grade as a guide to the minimum (baring some sort of upset,) he should get.

Hope you don't think I'm being dumb, but I have no idea how ks2 SATS work so can anyone tell me how these are different from ks1 SATS? Is the final grade in yr 6 based solely on the exams or a combination of teacher assessment across the year & the exams? All I really know is, up until yr6 it's based on teacher observation.

Also, does anyone know whether it's considered a bigger jump going from a 3-4 than a 1-2 or 2-3? Does anyone have details of the website you can find the tick list of things they are looking for at each level? My kids have them stuck in the front of their school books, (which i briefly saw at parents evening,) but I've never seen them, (in that format at least,) on the Internet.

[ibizagirl]

Dd is very able and on g and t and gained level 3a in year 2, 4a in year 3 and level 5a in years 4, 5 and 6. I was told she was getting 99% but was not allowed to do a higher paper than level 5 as it had been abolished because children could not achieve that level! Headmaster spoke to local education authority about it and was told thad dd had to remain at that level as it was a very high level as some don't even achieve a level 4 on leaving year 6. Head not very impressed as he likes pushing children who are bright. Dd now 12 and on level 7a or 8c. The levels early on do give a good indication i think of how your child would do later. I used to be a parent helper and used to know what grades certain children were on and they pretty much went the same way each year. Good luck everyone with your children.

[basildonbond]

ds2 is very able at maths - he was level 4 at the end of ks1, however he was level 5 at the end of y4 and getting 100% in practice SATS for the whole of y5 and y6 - he was only assessed as level 5 at the end of y6 - he's now been given a target of 7a for the end of y7 (is currently getting 6a/7c)

According to his results he made very little progress between ks1 and ks2, but has suddenly made enormous progress after being in secondary for 6 weeks ...

ime the levels they're getting are not necessarily telling the whole picture

[Feenie]

Did you ask why they hadn't teacher assessed him as level 6 in Y6, basildon? They clearly should have!

[basildonbond]

I did and was told they couldn't go higher than L5...

Poor child was so bored last year ....

[Feenie]

That's disgraceful.

All children should be allowed to progress - there is no ceiling at primary school.

[ibizagirl]

hi basildonbond. I had the same with my dd as you can see in my previous post. She was getting 99% in her sats and was told it was the highest scores the school has ever had and she always said they were easy. I expect your dc was expected to help other children like mine was. Once she had finished any work she was told to help others with their work. I did have to go into school and ask about this and was made to feel an idiot. Teachers always told me in a roundabout way that i was lucky dd is like she is and let her give some of her brains to other children! I asked them to stop all that rubbish and let my dd have some more challenging work and was told they had nothing for her. It was only as she went into year 5 that the lovely teacher made sure she was provided for and given ks3 maths and asked to do long stories using her thesaurus. All the helping others stopped too. It sounds rude but i don't expect my dd to help those children whose parents can't be bothered (and there were a lot like that). But in year 6 her sats were still 5a and like i said the primary schools are not allowed to give children a higher paper to do. That is what the head told me anyway. I know that she could have got a 6 and school knew as well as the head tried to get her a paper to do but without success. Dd is now in year 8 and was getting 7a and 8c for all subjects except p.e. in year 7.Best of luck.