Showing progress for new pupils

[Underhiseye2]

My DD has just started Y4 at a new school this September. Does anyone know how the school will show progress has been made for her? Before this she was in an indy school abroad and was strong for maths. I've seen the curriculum for this year at the new school and it's all stuff she did as mastery last year. I've got her old maths exercise books from year. I had a chat with new teacher today who said they wont give Y5 work but they will stretch using mastery. But this is the same as what she did last year.

I'm aware that primary schools are measured on progress but what are the markers? EYFS goals and sats? My DS hadn't done any sats and the new school haven't done any formal assessing.

How can I get them to stretch her?

[JoJoSM2]

It sounds like they might just stretch her. Stretching doesn’t mean racing ahead with the curriculum.

To give an oversimplified example, they wouldn’t ask her 3x9=

Instead, it would be:
A farmer planted 4 rows of 9 cabbages. Unfortunately, he didn’t water the first row sufficiently and they failed to grow. How many cabbages did he grow?

[JoJoSM2]

If you fancy doing a bit extra at home, WH Smith’s will have some good practice books.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

if she did year 3 mastery last year which overlaps with year 4 curriculum this year then this year they would do year 4 mastery.

[Underhiseye2]

Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify, last year in Y3, she did y4 curriculum mastery. Now in Y4, she's going to be doing that again. Which suggests to me that she won't make any progress this year. Hence the question.

Why she did Y4 mastery last year isn't really the issue, she just did, and her workbooks show it.

[JoJoSM2]

I doubt that any school would try to teach her the Y5 curriculum in Y4. Do they give her interesting, challenging things to do/projects to work on or is she completely bored?

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

If I understand it correctly they aren't supposed to go above the year group they are in, they are just supposed to go deeper into mastery. unfortunately there are a lot of children that could learn more and carry on progressing much faster but where do they go in the future hence the desire to go broader with application.

so the last school unfortunately has probably not gone as broad as it could have done within the year 3 curriculum and have instead opted to do a bit of mastery, move on and then do some of the year 4 mastery with it (and presumably had been teaching ahead in previous years too, perhaps as an independent school it started teaching year 1 in reception for example) and now you are unlikely to persuade the school to start teaching her year 5 stuff in year 4. Otherwise what will she do in year 6 if she has completed year 6 in year 5?

[cabbageking]

Each school has their own assessment system. But for a new starter you do an initial assessment asap.

[Underhiseye2]

Thanks cabbageking, I asked about an assessment and was told they assess all pupils 3 x a year. There didn't seem to be anything in particular extra for DD. Any advice for what I could ask for or how to ask, without sounding pushy parent?

[cabbageking]

There will be an initial assessment whenever a new child starts.
All children are tracked regularly by the teacher. This data is then checked by the SLT. You would check a child at least half termly as three times a year is too long and there will be other checks along the way. The data goes to the curriculum meetings at least thrice yearly and any changes or interventions are already in place before this.
School will have the childs KS data to refer to and the new starters assessment.
Mastery at one school is not mastery at another.
Reading levels at one school are not the same as another.

If she is at an advanced level, school would move her into a group of similar ability children from other years to ensure the whole group moves on in that subject

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

they might formally assess them 3 times a year but teachers are always assessing. The vast majority of teachers will review groupings regularly and shuffle children around and they are basing that on observations and work they are producing.

Did they get information from her previous school? If it was in the UK then I would have assumed they would do but as she was abroad I am not sure how that works? Did her previous school follow the National Curriculum? If not then I think your starting point is to check that she has covered everything she should have done.

It is hard as a parent of a bright child, I know that. A few years ago I would have been thinking similar to you but now I see it makes no difference in the long run and unless they are going to go on and take all their formal exams early there is absolutely no point pushing them on further through the curriculum because at some point they run out of curriculum.

I am not saying you are wrong to be concerned but I would say just keep an eye on it. Don't put ideas in her head about being bored, carefully word questions to find out what she is doing and if she is happy with it etc.

I don't think asking for a short meeting with the teacher just to see how she is settling in would be seen as too much, perhaps you have a parents evening shortly anyway? She has just moved to the UK from abroad, different school system, needing to make new friends etc, I think any school would see that as reasonable to want to check she is doing ok. At that you could raise your concerns about the maths if necessary.

[ColdRainAgain]

Are you sure the curriculum is identical to last years stretching?
Both my kids had place value homework last week. The Y6 stuff was significantly harder than the y4 homework, but both were on the schedule as place value.
We have come from abroad, independent British school, and DS2 was easily the best mathematician in his year. It has very much come as a shock to him not to be miles ahead of the others. He is still strong, still good, but not noticeably better than the rest.
I guess what in trying to say is be absolutely sure of where your daughter is compared to this schools schedule, and that they are not stretching her already. I'm quite happy that mine have some lessons that are not pushing them to the max, as they are already absorbing loads of the social and UK specific stuff that is different to their previous location.
If your daughter is happy with the lessons, I'd sit back and leg the school get on with it. If your daughter is bored, that is a different position.

[RedskyLastNight]

Y4 curriculum mastery is not a specific set of things you do - it's finding challenges within the knowledge that a Y4 child is expected to have that will stretch them. So there is no reason why she can't be stretched in different ways to those used at her previous school. This doesn't require her to be moved onto Year 5 work. It sounds like she just studied the normal Y4 curriculum as mastery work last year anyway - so stretch activities for the Y4 curriculum will be new to her.

(as an aside, because I'm sensing a bit of "the previous school was so much better" in your post, my nephew went to a private school that also had the approach that able mathematicians were pushed on to the next year's work. Unfortunately when he got to the top year of the school they had no where else to push him on to, so he just had to literally repeat the year's work. And I do mean literally. So your DC might have come unstuck even at the old school.)