Aspirational target grade?

[QueenOfIce]

Friends son has been given 4s across the board for his aspirational target grade, I have no idea what this means and since the grading changes she's finding it tough to understand so I said I'd ask the MN massive.

Is this the grade predicted for his GCSEs? He will be going into year 10 in September. Would it be worth some tutoring to bring his grades up?

[RedSkyAtNight]

Hard to know without knowing the school set up (every school does it differently).

A Level 4 is equivalent to a low C under the old grading system.
As it is a target grade (and the same across the board) it may well be his grade that is predicted based on his SATS in Y6 results and no reflection of his actual current working level. Do you know how he did in his SATS?

[greathat]

Grade 4 is low for aspirational. How did he do in year 6?

[QueenOfIce]

I'm not sure how he did, I'll ask his mum. So if that's a low aspirational target is he unlikely to get above a 4 should he have some tutoring?

[Hopeislost]

An aspirational target is not a predicted grade. It's a target that they could achieve if they work hard and revise well.

A 4 is considered a pass. Below a 4 in Enflish and/or Maths will lead to compulsory resits in further education.

[QueenOfIce]

Thank you hope that's very helpful info I'll pass it on. He is the class clown apparently and has been told in parents meetings that if he applied himself he could do much better so I guess he needs to buckle down. Not sure his mum will be pleased

[QueenOfIce]

Is the resist policy under review or is it still compulsory? Will it still be compulsory when he takes his I wonder.

[clary]

Yeah you have to resit if you don't get 4+.

Grade 4 across the board would have been aspirational for ds1, he has LD and gained CCDDDEEF which we were very proud of him for. But for a more able student, yes, 4s is not especially high.

[anotherangel2]

Resist policy is complusory and there are no current plans to review it. See the pic below for how the new grades map to the old grades. The new GCSE are much harder than the old GCSEs.

[noblegiraffe]

Aspirational target grade generally means ‘on a good day if the wind is blowing in the right direction’ so it looks like he’s heading towards failing and compulsory resits.

However if he has been pissing around and could actually do better then this is time to give him a kick up the backside, he definitely has time to improve. Tutoring would be a good idea, but expensive and not really putting the onus on him to pull his finger out at school. I would also suggest a meeting with the school on what he needs to do to improve his effort and behaviour.