Year 7 English Levels

[katrina81]

Just been sent a letter from the school with dd's levels on, in December she was a 5b in English, on the letter she has been sent it has gone down to a 4b in English, is this even possible in 3 months?

DD said they had a test just before they broke up and she said she did not do that well in it.

She was a level 5 in Sats for reading, spelling and grammar, should I question the English teacher?

[Martorana]

Could just be on that particular test. And they often go down a level or two when they start secondary- so much lose to think about and a differs way of working. But it does seem a big drop. I would email the teacher and ask her to explain. How are her levels in other subjects?

[katrina81]

Thanks Martorana, I think I will email the school when they return after Easter. She is a 5b in Science and 5C in Maths, she has met most of her end of year targets already in a lot of her subjects and surpassed some.

She said the English teacher told them it was a hard test.

Her end of y7 target in English is a 5b.

[rollonthesummer]

It's perfectly possible that's her most recent test score.

[RedRoom]

This is quite normal.

Levels will be based on recent assessments across reading, writing and speaking & listening tasks, so if the most recent unit of work has been on an area she finds harder it will affect her level.

It can also vary between tests: if I gave a child two comprehension tasks a few months apart and the child misread the latter one, then they could drop a whole level even though their reading in general hasn't deteriorated.

Sometimes, a child can drop part of a level because they have forgotten to do some fairly simply 'tick boxy' requirements for, say, a creative writing task. For example, they may not remember to use similes or metaphors, and not shape the work well because they ran out of time.

I really wouldn't worry about it at all, promise!

[katrina81]

Thanks RedRoom, she said she missed out her introduction on her test, so I guess her English teacher knows she could do better. It was on the book Holes apparently.

[RedRoom]

Ah- it sounds like she just didn't do one of the things that helps a pupil to get a tick in a particular level's box. This is the problem with levels: they are a lot about jumping through hoops! Levelling will be abolished soon (think next year, not sure if it's already begun in some state schools), which shows just how unreliable it is! I know it can be worrying when it looks as if your child is making no progress or, worse still, going backwards, but levelling is so snapshot that it doesn't always give the full picture.

[Nocomet]

My 5c on a very very very good day dyslexic, got 7c on her Y7 report. Last test was a speaking and listening one.

It's a totally nuts system.