Y7 how is your child doing academically compared to achievement in Y6 or any Y7 teachers.

[Doordye]

Just wanted to get some views before school meeting tomorrow.

Ds left primary with solid level 5s. He'd already achieved L5A reading in Y4, L5A Maths in Y5 and the writing in Y6, so not just for SATS.

I understand there has been a lot of change in the curriculum but not enough to make sense of what's happening academically to him.

His end of term report, which isn't national curriculum levels as these aren't being used, instead just has him down as what academic year he's working at.

Which are, Maths Y4, English Y5. Has anyone else had massive drops like this?
Weirdly History and Geography which when DD started Y7 were a lot lower than Maths and English as they're not studied in the same way in primary are highest with him achieving Y6 in both.

Any ideas?

[t4gnut]

Always a dip between primary and secondary - plus (SATs aside which are a pointless activity) primary always are always over in their assessment.

[user789653241]

I have no experience so just an impression, but that doesn't sound right at all.
Assume your dc achieved Level5+ in sats and also TA. Expected level of end yr6 was 4b/4a in old NC, so your dc has exceled those. So even after a little dip between primary and secondary, going backwards to yr4/5 level doesn't sound right. Only thing you can do is talk to the teachers and find out why, I think.

[noblegiraffe]

I can't imagine a secondary school telling a level 5 SATS student that they are working at the level of a Y4 and not expecting a phonecall asking what the hell is going on. Either they've given the wrong levels and you've got someone else's report, or the teachers or you have misunderstood what the report means.

For maths, I'm a secondary maths teacher and have no idea what Y4s are expected to do, so it would be very weird to have to assess a secondary student against the primary curriculum.

[Lookingagain]

My DD is in year 4. They just finished simple perimeter/area and are now being introduced to fractions/percentages.

I think you should politely ask for more information from the school and explain why you are concerned.

I have heard many parents with older children express concern that their DC seem to be falling back in yr7, but this seems like more than a little adjustment.

[TeddTess]

are you sure the Y4, Y5, Y6 marks are the "year" he's working at?
year 4 in year 7 for a solid level 5 child at primary CANNOT be right. i'd be contacting the school .

[AntiquityUbiquity]

Ds1 is in year 7 and got 2 level 6's and a 5 in SATS. He dipped but now he's at 6A in both. I'm not sure how a solid level 5 can be working at a year 4 level!!

[eyebrowse]

Have you seen his books - has the level of work changed? has he been doing his homework? Has he said anything about his class?

[cece]

We have been told not to assess children out of year group. So they are either at expected level, working towards expected level or exceeding expected level for their current year group.

[TheSecondOfHerName]

Perhaps they mean that at his current rate of progress, he's heading towards getting a grade 4 in Maths and a grade 5 in English at the end of Y11?

I have two children in Y7 at different schools, and they are using different ways of quantifying progress. It's quite confusing.

[Clonakiltylil]

I am surprised the secondary school is using levels as these have been dropped from most schools for precisely the reason you are giving: in English especially, students go up or down depending on how familiar they are with the task and assessing is difficult.

It could be that these are not the old NC levels (as you experienced in primary), but the new grading from 1 to 9 which is being introduced at GCSE, although, as no one yet knows the standard for these, it would be virtually impossible to say for certain. But - where would I expect a very bright Year 7 child to be in English? Probably approaching middle grade (whatever that is).

Have a chat with the teacher just to clarify. The gradings mean absolutely nothing at the moment. What matters is that your child is learning (check exercise book), is enthusiastic and is happily doing lots of reading and writing.

[noblegiraffe]

But a for a level 5 student to be headed for a grade 4 at GCSE would be poor progress, and still need querying. Not that schools can actually predict GCSE grades from Y7 with any accuracy now, let alone for the new exams that no one has actually sat yet. (My school has made me do this and reports are now a stab in the dark, it's embarrassing).

[Clonakiltylil]

Oh - I am sorry. I didn't see the age groupings. This is even more bizarre. Does the Maths or English teacher know what a year 4 /5 student is capable of? Unlikely, unless they've been trained in both primary and secondary. I am door for my error.

[Clonakiltylil]

Sorry, not door!

[Doordye]

Sorry I'm guilty of drip feeding but didn't want people's views to be swayed.

Ds has gone from a mainstream primary to an indi ASD school, the age range is 8-19. The have two different academic routes, one GCSE route which is what ds is on and one vocational with functional skills. That's how they are able to mark him as working at Y4.

I'm definitely not reading his current scores wrong because when the report was sent home, I asked for clarification as to what the numbers meant and this was part of the reply-

"Therefore the number is equivalent to mainstream year groups.
For Little DOD.

In English, he is equivalent to a typical child at the end of Year 5 and beginning of Year 6.
In Maths, he is equivalent to a typical child in the middle of Year 4"

I am also confident that what he achieved in primary is correct due to the level of scrutiny he was under due to having a statement and then and EHCP. He has also had numerous EP cognitive assessments which all support that he was achieving well above his age.

I wanted to just check if it could be the changes that I known have taken place for primary curriculum affecting them, wasn't sure if there could be a knock on affect. I have asked other friends whose DC were achieving similar and they have not seen drops like this.

If he'd made no progress or a small drop that would make sense with the change in school etc although I would have thought that would be balanced out by the change from being in a class of 32 to a class of 6 and all the extra strategies in place with it being specialist placement compared to MS.

Thanks everyone, I will update later once I've had meeting.

[Balletgirlmum]

It definatly doesn't sound right. I have a year 7 child with asd. He didn't do sats as he went to an Indy primary but was working around Level 5.

My suggestion would be that the class as a whole are not working at a higher level for some reason. I would query it.