Can someone explain grading levels to me please

[Frusso]

Dd is in yr7 and marks for a particular subject are currently coming back as Level 6. she's also been told her marks are highest in class but what does this mean in terms of what level she is working at, and how it may predict GCSE grades?

I will add that dd didn't do Sats so have no reference as to previous levels but was mostly described as "average" when she was at primary. But this subject is one of her strongest.

[titchy]

You need to ask the school. There is no definitive marking scheme across the country sorry. Each school has their own.

[AlexanderHamilton]

Unfortunately each school is doing its own thing for Key Stage 3 since levels were abolished.

Dd's school used to use the old SATs Levels. A Level 6 under that system would be well above average if you think that in Year 6 level 4 is average, Level 5 above average & level 6 exceptional.

However many schools are moving towards the new GCSE headings. If your school is doing this you need to ask whether she's already working at Grade 6 which would be pretty exceptional (equivalent to GCSE Grade B) or whether it means she's working at a level that means she's on track for a Grade 6. I've known schools use both systems.

[AlexanderHamilton]

Oh & a third system is the one ds's old school used where the Levels corresponded with year groups. So 7.5 would be exactly average for a year 7. 7.9 at the top end, 7.1 at the bottom end with 6 & 8 being the standard expected of the year above & below respectively.

[noblegiraffe]

They might as well have said 'your DD has had the top marks in the class and that means she is on purple' for all the meaning that grade holds in terms of anything. Levels were scrapped, schools are doing their own thing and no one can predict GCSE results because apart from maths and English, no one has sat the new ones yet. We couldn't even predict them had your DD actually sat her SATs and had some nationally comparable data.

[Frusso]

Thanks alex, I don't think it's the 3rd system. Th

[AlexanderHamilton]

It's annoying that there are so many posts about this sort of thing as schools clearlybare not explaining things. At least my children's schools sent/send an accompanying explanation sheet for the grades/Levels awarded.

[CraftyGin]

You need to ask the school about the scale and about the work this is based on.

GCSEs are a nine-step scale, and a 6 in Year 7 would be high.

There is also the Pearson step system, which is a 12 point scale. 6 would be high, but not unheard of in Y7.

Or they could be using their own scale.

[Frusso]

Posted too soon.

I guess I will have to phone them to find out which system they are using.

noble they may as well have said purple for all the sense it makes to me.

[noblegiraffe]

It doesn't matter what system they are using tbh, at the moment it's all laboriously-produced bobbins.

[Frusso]

Bobbins?

[noblegiraffe]

Bobbins. Nonsense. Meaningless.

[JufusMum]

Our (under achieving, under subscribed, full of kids who have been excluded from everywhere else in the county) school is using the Fisher Family Trust system, so DD is predicted a full sheet of 8's, as she went to a high achieving primary school and aced her SATS.
She's working to a bunch of 6's, the odd 7 and some 5's on the mocks, so her target grades show she is failing to achieve target.
She's more than happy with a bunch of 6's so as Noble says it's all rubbish.
If anyone comes out of her godforsaken pit of a school with an 8 I'll eat my hat. Oh and her Science and Maths teachers both walked out last week. Hooray.

[clary]