Reports and new levels

[icecreamvan]

DD is in reception and the Expected and Exceeding etc are all written into her report. But for DS they haven't given him a level/expected etc for anything. He's in Year 4.
The teacher said today that they don't give them to anyone.
Is this right? Surely parents should be given some idea of how their children are progressing?

[Notcontent]

My dd is in year 5 and we have been given levels - something like emerging/not meeting expectations, working towards expectations, working within expectations, exceeding expectations.

[icecreamvan]

Can I request these levels?

Is the school allowed to refuse to let me know?

[SilverGiraffe7]

"The report must start from the day after the last report was given. It must be available to parents before the end of the summer term.
The report must cover the pupil’s:
• achievements
• general progress
• attendance record"

From www.gov.uk/guidance/2016-key-stage-2-assessment-and-reporting-arrangements-ara/section-11-reporting-to-parents

So you should have been given some information regarding progress (although I'm surprised reports don't have to include their current attainment! Unless they've just completed a national test)

[EarthboundMisfit]

I think they only have to offer levels at end of Key Stage.
That said, our school did give everyone levels. Emerging, developing, secure and mastery, with a letter explaining each category at the start of the report. It was all very clear and useful.

[TheRollingCrone]

Those are good descriptors Earthbound . The last reports given out at dd school had failing to meet horrible. I hate this new way. Some children could be reading that all the way through primary school

[mrz]

The problem is that there isn't a national expected standard for Y1,3,4 or 5 so teachers can't report what doesn't exist.
Each school is expected to adopt their own assessment system.

[user789653241]

If there aren't national expected standard, what is curriculum expectation end of year and mastery and all that stuff?

[mrz]

The curriculum

[mrz]

There are only expectations for the end of each Key Stage

[user789653241]

Mrz, I'm still confused. Each year group has curriculum, right?
So I thought end of year expectation must be completion of the curriculum for each year group.
So some are working towards, some has reached expected levels, and some doing it at greater depth?
At least my ds's school says they don't let children work beyond the year group(which seems wrong reading on the MN.), meaning they have clear target for each year group, I assume?
Is this not a national thing?

[NewMoonCup]

My DD in year 4 was graded with the levels mentioned emerging developing and secure plus they get given a "effort" grade so even if they are "emerging" they can get "outstanding" effort if they have worked hard.

[spanieleyes]

The curriculum is a national one but the assessment system, except for years 2 and 6 , isn't. So say, for example , that there are 100 objectives for year 3 maths. one school might say that, if you achieve 75% of them you are classed as working at expected, a different school might expect 90% for the same "grade" , a different school might call 65% secure or elephants or anything else they feel like!

[user789653241]

I see. Thank you spanieleyes.

[icecreamvan]

Very helpful. Thank you for all comments.

I won't bother school to give me these 'levels/expectations' then because it seems they're sort of meaningless.

But it does leave me feeling, as a parent, a bit like it I'm kind of separate and disconnected from the whole educational journey my children are going on. I'm not being informed of how they're getting on at school. They could be going backwards and I wouldn't know. The words in the report don't seem that meaningful to me. They're all a bit generic ...

[TrivialBlah]

Ds Y4 attainment levels were noted at expected+ and exceeding, which we were over the moon about. The attainment levels are described as 'emerging' 'expected' & 'exceeding', using a + sign to indicate they are slightly above a level.

His report was fantastic and very detailed.

[TrivialBlah]

Also to note, they have different terminology for Y2 & Y6 assessment points. Working towards, working at expected standard, working at greater depth.

[MauriceMoss]

At my school we have emerging, developing, secure and mastered apart from Y6 who get working toward or expected depending on KS2 test results.

At DD's it's working towards, working at or exceeding.

I find it bizarre that schools can all do it differently.

[icecreamvan]

Is it Ok that we are given none of this information though?

I've been told that the school is not allowed to give it to parents ...

[icecreamvan]

I'm talking about for Year 4 they've not given us progress indications. But my daughter who is in Reception has been given exceeding expectations etc ...

The Junior school and Infants are separate sites but part of the same school.

Clearly I'll have to ask our school about this now, as all schools seem to be doing things differently.

[user789653241]

My ds(yr3)'s school has given levels for attainment, effort and progress for all the subject.
It is actually quite informative.

[mrz]

.

[TweeterandtheMonkeyman]

We got working "below" ,"towards", "at" ,& "at greater depth" . I agree it's bizarre how the school has to pick it's own system

[WhattodoSue]

So, reading what Mrz posted, it sounds like the intention of removing levels was to go back to more old style school reports, where the teachers wrote personal comments about each individual child (I'm sure some do now, but in previous years we have only had a selection of stock phrases with nothing that reflected the individual). i guess one major difficulty is that people often do want to know how their child compares to the rest of the world (particularly if they think their child is able). And I must also confess, I think it is good that less children are getting exceeding. It isn't helpful, in my view, if 1/3 of a class are exceeding. However, it is also not helpful if meeting expectations is unattainable for nearly half the class. What we should really do is to switch our focus of importance. Report 'scores' should also be derived from how much effort children are putting in, how happy they are in school and progress. And they shouldn't be reported.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'm not sure if that was the purpose.

The curriculum does set out content for each year group but also says it isn't statutory to teach it in those year groups, only by the end of the key stage they are in. This gives schools flexibility to move things around if they choose to.

If they'd introduced a national assessment criteria that looked like levels, the not only would they have had the same issue as levels but it would have removed that flexibility. Unfortunately, like most things, I don;t think they fully thought through the implications of this.