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Secondary education

What does a 1st form school report mean?

20 replies

Struwwelpeter · 16/01/2018 11:02

A colleague asks for help with a child's first form report, it has just started at secondary school. It's all gobbledegook to the rest of the office.

The question is: How can a child score (1 is best, 4 is worst)

Homework: 1; Effort: 1; Behaviour: 1; Progress: 4.

This is repeated fairly consistently across several subjects. To me it looks as though the child is trying its best but has no hope of doing better. However, the child's target ability is described as E- (E-for-excel being the top, and the minus being a bit below that) but its current ability is D (Developing, being the third grade). [For the education of the class: Excel, Secure, Developing, Forming. What was wrong with ABCDE?! I'm guessing you all know this anyway!]

Does anybody actually know the answer?

Thanks

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TeenTimesTwo · 16/01/2018 11:11

Well, colleague needs to ask the school.

Could it be progress made in relation to what is expected that academic year, so after only 1 term little progress will have been made?

Sounds unnecessarily confusing to me!

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Struwwelpeter · 16/01/2018 11:14

Thanks. Colleague is indeed going to ask the school. But it seemed easier to ask the internet as presumably these KS3 reports are similar from one school to the next.

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Chaosofcalm · 16/01/2018 11:14

Since the government got rid of level and left schools to individually find some thing else to use it is very unlikely that anyone outside (and maybe inside) your child’s school understands your child’s grades/level. But if their behaviour and effort is perfect but they are not making progress I would be making an appointment with or ringing their year leader to find out what is going on.

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BubblesBuddy · 16/01/2018 11:16

It seems to mean the child has not made any progress. I would be asking the school why not. After one term, the child should have made progress and this grading looks ridiculous unless the teachers are all useless of course. Ask the school.

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Chaosofcalm · 16/01/2018 11:18

It sounds like they are using age related targets so it could be that the child is not very bright and will never be more than forming or developing or it could be that the teacher thinks they will get to securing (age expected target) but the end of the year.

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BubblesBuddy · 16/01/2018 11:20

Having said that, my DD was once given a B grading when she had achieved 39.5/40 for a test and no less than 90% for class work and homework. When we queried it, the teacher said she did not speak much in class, so a B. (Clearly that should not have over-ridden written work anyway). My DD was one that was super-enthusiastic and always answered in class and probably for others as well!! . Teacher gave the grade to DD that belonged to another pupil who was very quiet but had a similar name. Schools can get it wrong.

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RaspberryIce · 16/01/2018 11:27

It looks like they have a very high target due to doing very well in ks2 sats and are trying at secondary but not performing very well. Did they have a lot of tutoring or coaching in ks2 maybe so the good result they got is hard for them to keep up without this?

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CeciCC · 16/01/2018 13:28

Hi Op.
My DD2 is in Y8 and they were told at the end of Y7, that students that started in Y7 in higher levels, would probably show in their report that they hadn't done as much progression as students in lower levels, just because they hadn't been taught Y8 syllabus. As well, in Y7 and more so the first term, is more about finding their way in a new school, getting used to different teachers for different subjects, moving around the school for different lessons. I might asked the school about a 4 in progress, and keep an eye on it, but I wouldn't worry too much.
Unfortunately as other posters had said, every school has their way with reports now, since levels were scrapped.

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Struwwelpeter · 16/01/2018 14:31

Thanks all. Very (un)illuminating!

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AChickenCalledKorma · 16/01/2018 19:39

Just one thought - if the poor progress scores are in subjects other than maths and English, it may be simply that they haven't been at the school long enough yet for progress to be assessed. They don't have a reliable baseline to measure from. Possibly next term's report will be more enlightening. At the same stage in year 7, my daughters' school does not give progress grades - they only report on "attitude to learning" in each subject. Grades come later in year 7 and then every term from that point onwards.

But it's also a bit rubbish that the report doesn't come with any explanation. As you've discovered, these things are not standard and each school should be explaining how they monitor performance.

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Chaosofcalm · 17/01/2018 09:06

The above poster makes a good point. There will be lots of skills that he has never used before eg geographical and historical skills that they won’t have been taught so Autumn term year 7 can be a steep learning curve.

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Struwwelpeter · 17/01/2018 15:40

Thanks. Good spot, they are indeed Music, RE, History and Geography.

Bit peculiar to say that a child hasn't made any progress, yet is doing well. Quite demoralising, I should think, to be given a 4.

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Middleoftheroad · 17/01/2018 19:53

Sounds to me that this is another case of a child with great KS2 SATs score set high targets across the board.

There have been a few posts on this lately. My own DS did well in SATs so his targets in every subject are equivalent to a 9 or exceeding. He's never done some subjects before - like Spanish - and although he works hard he won't be a 9. In maths he's managing and a couple of others but mainly he's a 'lowly' 7 and deemed underperforming I guess. Flawed system Angry which can lead to some very stressed kids.

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RaspberryIce · 17/01/2018 20:52

In dd's school people got 9's in Spanish who had never done Spanish before. I assume they based the progress they expected on them never having done Spanish before rather than giving everyone a low mark for Spanish. There will be variation in how good they are at different subjects though.

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RaspberryIce · 17/01/2018 20:55

Flawed system angry which can lead to some very stressed kids
Is the stress self imposed or from pressure from the school? Dd never meets her target in some subjects which she will give up at option time. She just accepts she can't be good at everything and isn't stressed, but perhaps some schools place more pressure on them than others?

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Heifer · 18/01/2018 14:23

Our school uses similar scoring.
1 2 3 4 for effort/behaviour/homework etc (1outstanding - 4 unacceptable)
and for attainment
W (working at) / W+
S (secure) / S+
M (Mastering) / M+

In Year 7 DD first report there were quite a few 1s or 2s for effort and W or W+ for attainment. Soon realised these were often new subjects so being a W was the norm. By the end of the year she was mostly Ms. We didn't see target scores at that point but I think if we did her scoring would have been similar to your friends report.

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5plusMeAndHim · 19/01/2018 22:00

To me it seems obvious.
Their effort and behaviour is great.Their homeworks are always done , but their progress is very poor.Don't understand where the confusion is

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seven201 · 19/01/2018 22:13

5plus, I think the confusion is why if the child is trying so hard are they not making progress.

I think maybe the child had over inflated sats results or a tutor and is now in secondary school and struggling.

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 19/01/2018 22:54

Or the confusion is that if a child is putting in above average effort and doing all the work but is making less than expected progress, you’d expect the school to be flagging that up as an issue.

It would seem that somethings’s up somewhere, even if it’s the school’s grading system.

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Haskell · 19/01/2018 23:03

You know, progress isn't a straight line - children can be perfectly behaved, trying their utmost, but not yet grasping what could be very tricky concepts.
All schools track/measure progress in different ways from one another now (thanks DfE Hmm) so the only ones in the know are her actual school teachers.

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