Meeting/Exceeding Expecations

[hoping2016]

Hello

Any teachers out there who could help me..... my dd was exceeding in nursery and reception. At the end of yr 1 she was meeting expectations. Will she be just taught to meet expectations or is there still opportunity for her to 'exceed' ? She is currently yr 2.

Thank you in advance

[user789653241]

Not a teacher.
I am sure there's a chance of her getting exceeding, but I think it really depend on each child. You can check what is expected in NC for end of year group. If she is naturally able, she may exceed without too much effort, but if she is average, she might have to work extra hard to meet expected, then exceed.
If she can do what is expected already, school/teacher should give her differentiated work in more depth etc.

[GraceGrape]

The bar is set very high. If she's meeting expectations she's doing well.

[TinselTwins]

it doesn't mean anything. Almost all kids will "meet expectations" in primary school. Teacher is in deep shit if they don't.

It tells you nothing about their ability or aptitude or where they rank in the class. The kid in the bottom of the class might be "exceeding" their expected targets, kid in the top of the class might just "meet expectations" for them.

It's guff, politics in education, tick boxes for teachers. Ignore the lot of it. is she happy and challenged and engaged?

[user789653241]

If I read all those post correctly, Early Years goal hasn't been changed, but NC has become significantly harder. So a child exceeding in reception doesn't automatically equate to exceeding in YR1.

[WidowTwonky]

Ha! The joy of the internet Which is it then GraceGrape Tinsel

[TinselTwins]

AFAIK there's the fixed NC targets and the child specific expectations. All kids will "smash" the latter - that's what they tell you about at parent-teacher meeting and then people gush about on Facebook, even though it doesn't mean anything, for some kids, it's writing their name, for others it's complex comprehension then theres the NC targets which you get a report on at the end of the year, it used to be weird codes but last year it was colour coded. And broken down into specific NC targets for every subject

Either way, it's more about the teachers getting their boxes ticked -so they don't get their asses kicked than it is about the children's abilities.

What matters if if the child is enjoying their subjects and engaged, and not finding them too hard or too easy.. you won't get that from the tickbox targets or "expectations"

[mrz]

". Almost all kids will "meet expectations" in primary school". The data suggests this isn't the case with 52% reaching national expectations this year.

[TinselTwins]

Mrs there are individual "expectations", NC targets, and SATS.. some are child specific and some are not.

The "Expectations" they tell you about in parent-teacher meeting are the child specific ones. All their kids have to meet the expectations they set for that specific kid, it doesn't mean the kid is doing well.

[TinselTwins]

In one of my DDs years their teacher assessed them all to be very poor at reading at the begining of the year so that it would be impossible for her to "improve" them by the end of the year. She put them all back on much lower reading levels than they had been in in the previous year. She made head of year as all her kids "exceeded expectations"

Good teachers who set proper/honest expectations for each kid have a harder job.

[user789653241]

Tinsel, I don't think your cynical view would help parents who just wants to understand their children's education.

[TinselTwins]

irvine if you really want to "understand their education" then you need to separate government tick boxes from real indicaions that the child is or isn't learning well.

[hoping2016]

Interesting....it's the nc expectations I was thinking about. Does anyone know where on the net I could access yr 2 curriculm split into exceeding/meeting etc.

[TinselTwins]

These targets are not there to help children, or to properly assess children's real abilities, or to help teacher, or to help parents to understand their children's education. Its just politics

[TinselTwins]

What were the targets for year 3 in 2015 became the targets for year 2 in 2016.. who knows what they will be next year. They really mean nothing.

[TeenAndTween]

hoping To answer your question:

In a good school your child should not be limited by what they a happened to achieve in previous years. They should not be limited by a teacher's 'expectations'. In a good school it should be recognised that progress is not linear and thus a child can 'meet' expectations one year, but leap forward and 'exceed' the next.

You need to think whether you have faith in your school, or not.

[TinselTwins]

Well said TeenandTween

It's well researched that children don't learn in fixed incriments, they learn in bursts, then plateau, then have a burst.

The NC targets make no allowances for that and are assessing teachers and schools for continuous "improvement". Which doesn't allow for the essential plateaus where children perfect skills they've already reached some competence in.

the worst teacher DD has ever had, had fantastic stats with all her children "improving" and "exceeding targets". She was a politician not an educator

[mrz]

Sorry Tinsel but individual targets aren't the same thing at all ....the OP is talking about National assessment

[mrz]

Tinsel where did you get your misinformation?

[mrz]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/538412/2017interimteacherassessmentframeworksattheendofkeystage1150716PDFa.pdf

[TinselTwins]

mrz the OP didn't state till a later post that she was talking about the national targets. I had stated that there is a difference between individual and national targets.

National targets still tell you very little about your child's actual learning and are a government/business thing not an educaional aid.

[TinselTwins]

(and at this time of year it's usually when teachers tell parents about individual targets in parent-teacher meetings, national target reports are usually given out in the summer)

[GraceGrape]

As mrz said, Tinsel's information is not accurate. Children may be given personal targets but these are not their recorded attainment levels. Since assessment without levels was introduced, most schools have been making a bit of a fudge as there was no guidance from the DfE. Last year, they published interim frameworks for assessing end of KS1 and 2. Children's attainment was recorded as to whether or not they met the "expected" level or if they exceeded it, were working towards it or were well below it. There is still no published guidance for other year groups but most schools can use the interim frameworks alongside the national curriculum to work out what the "expected" level is for each year group. Most schools that I know report their child's attainment using the terms 'expected', 'exceeding'/'above', 'working towards' or 'below'.

As I said upthread, the bar is set high so a child working at 'expected' is doing well.

[GraceGrape]

X-post

[mrz]

"my dd was exceeding in nursery and reception." This was the clue Tinsel that the OP wasn't talking about individual targets

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Tinsel's information may be true in her school, but I don't think is true in most schools. The vast majority of schools would be giving information about national expectations, not individual targets.