Year 4 school report - what does it really mean

[Notcontent]

I just got my dd's school report. I am really happy with it - but then I started thinking about it and realised that I am not sure what it really means. It's a state school in England and the report has scored for effort and attainment. For attainment it's a score from 1 to 4, with 1 being the best - "working above national expectations". But reading some of the other threads people talk about percentages and "standardised scores". Why the difference in approach?

[mrz]

Some schools are using tests which will provide a standardised score and/or percentile rank and/or age. The problem with this is that different tests cannot be compared. If your child achieves a score on one test it can't be directly compared with another child achieving the same score on a different test.
Other schools are using a model similar to the EYFS profile of emergent (below/working towards) expected (secure/within) exceeding (beyond/ advanced) based on year group expectations.
You need to ask your child's school about their model