Can anyone advise on NC levels at secondary?

[ScottMumofGirls]

My son does not seem to have gone up any levels from year seven to year 9. Is this normal?

[TheFrendo]

Is it possible that in Y7 old NC levels were used and that in Y9 the school has switched to new GCSE grade numbers?

[ScottMumofGirls]

No it the old number then abc system

[ScottMumofGirls]

Summer 2016
English 5c
Computing 5c
Science 5c

Spring 2018
English 5a
Computing 5b
Science 5a

They are both the old system aren’t they?

[PatriciaHolm]

Talk to the school. They aren't supposed to be using the old levels, but there isn't one system that has replaced them. We can't tell you for certain what they are doing. Haven't you ha d a parents evening in Yr 8 or 9?

[Itmakesthereaderreadon]

Schools can do what they want re levels. It's a right pita when.kids move though:"I'm a 1a." So you put them in bottom set cos at ks3, your 1a barely literate. Turns out previous school has been working on gcse grades from yr 7 and child is pretty good for yr7.

[ScottMumofGirls]

Had parents evening two weeks ago. Seemed to be issues Re his grades. He might be sitting triple science so I assumed he was doing adverage to ok.

His maths is 7c so that makes it sound like it is the old NC levels. I have just emailed the English and science teachers.

I dont know what made me compair them tonight not before.

[physicskate]

2 sublevels of progress was good progress in a year under this grading system. So it seems he's gotten a year 'better' in two years in the subjects you've listed.

From a science perspective, this was always a terrible system because you don't spend three years improving the same material or even skills. You're constantly learning new materials/topics/ subjects where the levelled understanding won't always compare. Perhaps this was a reason this type of grading worked better for some subjects than others, where progress may be a bit more linear...