Year 8 maths question

[Bunbaker]

Can anyone tell me what level children should be performing at in maths by the end of year 8?

[schooldidi]

I have some performing at level 7a and some performing at 4c. I teach both a top set and a set 4 out of 5.

It depends on your child. We aim to get most pupils achieving a level 5 by the end of year 9, so possibly the average child would be a 4a or 4b by the end of year 8.

[MrsShrek3]

the national average for Y6 is 4b though.... so surely it's a bit higher than that, bun ? All that said, I do agree that there is a huge range so there is really a difficulty trying to give a "should be performing at" type level.

[schooldidi]

Maybe it is higher than that. I know in our school it is higher, most pupils in our school are achieving at least level 5 by the end of year 8. I am also aware that our school are significantly higher than national average by the end of year 9 though (probably due to our intake being pretty bright on the whole).

I have pupils who were achieving level 4a in year 8 who are on track to get a C in year 11. Any lower than that and we haven't managed to get them confidently to a C, more like a D or E.

[mymatemax]

ds2's secondary gives the expected level for the end of yr8 as level 6.
Many are on level 7

[MrsShrek3]

would also agree that a 5a/6c sounds reasonable, imho. But I'm primary so technically don't have a clue.

[schooldidi]

It sounds reasonable to me too, but it's not an answer I would ever give to a parent of a child at my school, as for every child it is different. Our school will happily talk to parents about targets for individual children but we would never talk about an 'expected level' because that is too high and unachievable for a lot of children, at the same time as being too low and far too easy for others.

We generally set targets of roughly 2 sublevels per year, but as progress isn't always in nice even steps it's not unreasonable for a child to make only one sublevel one year followed by 3 sublevels the next year.

Is there a particular reason you're asking OP? Are you worried about you dc being behind, or not being pushed enough?

[MrsShrek3]

spot on school, think we agreed early on that the range is far too wide to make generalisations and guesses.

I do acknowledge that some parents think we talk in code and that a ballpark very-average level range may be useful as a benchmark.

[Bunbaker]

Thank you for your replies. Level 5 seems very low to me. A high percentage of the pupils at DD's primary school left year 6 with level 5.

No, I have no concerns, it sounds like DD is doing OK.

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

DS was 7b at Easter (Y8) in an ordinary comp. he's top of set 2 but there's a big overlap between set 2 and set 1 - they are taught at same speed. They don't move people down from set 1 to set 2 - ionly if you're set 3 material do you go down. DD/ was 5b at Easter in Y5. DS has made big improvements in maths though he was 4A when he left primary school - he was still catching up from a period of deafness and lots of hospitalisation in Y3-4. He made a big leap forward in Y7 when he was off for a term with whooping cough and had home learning support from his school - he finally filled in his 'gaps'. The moral? Progress isn't linear. Some kids 'click' later than others especially in maths.

[Bunbaker]

Sounds like your children are doing well Russians. DD got a 7b in her maths tests last week and I had no idea whether it was a good or indifferent result, which is why I asked on here. She also goes to an averagely performing comprehensive.

[lljkk]

6b is about average, I think. DS's targets were plucked out of thin air & 6b is his target.

[HabbaDabba]

Level 5 seems low to me as well.

As for the L4 Year 8 kids being in line for a GCSE C Those kids are where my DC was when he was at the end of Year 5.

[schooldidi]

Habba, not all of my pupils who got a level 4 in year 8 will go on to get a C at GCSE, but I have 4 currently in year 11 who most definitely were level 4a at the end of year 8. They just caught up as they matured, they've worked incredibly hard to get there (and had a fantastic teacher for year 9, 10 and 11 ). Different kids are different, so there are huge variations in attainment in all years.

[HabbaDabba]

Well school, you are obviously doing a good job

[EllenJanesthickerknickers]

I thought that DC were supposed to improve by 2 levels during KS3, so if they were a genuine level 4b in Y6, they should be 6b by the end of Y9. Or am I wrong?

[lljkk]

Now I think you're right, Ellen (& my earlier post was wrong in that I meant DS's targets for end of y9 not y8 were mostly around 6b).

[mumsneedwine]

At our school you get given the range in the year, which is 2A-8A and the average (6B). It's quite helpful as you can see where your own kid is. Oh and the 8A is 1 student who is a total maths genius - just scored full marks on Maths Challenge.