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Original poster

Confused about KS3 levels?

30 replies

Oakmaiden · 07/04/2011 22:30

Right - this is similar to a current thread on here, but thought I would start a new one as I have a specific question. Hope this is OK.

Basically I have just been to my sons parents evening - he is in Year 8. Apparently his targets for the end of Year 9 (so End of KS2) are all level 5's (except PE, which he is aiming at a 4 for). When I queried this - as ds got Level 5 in his science KS2 SATS and only a couple of marks short of level 5 for maths (according to his teacher at the time) I was told that KS2 SATS results aren't really relevant to KS3 targets as KS3 was "all skills based". I don't get it, that's all. How can he really be expected to be on the SAME level for science at the end of Yr 9 as he was in Y6 - and have the school still say he is making "acceptable" progress???

And this really matters, actually - because his school will only let him do triple science for GCSE if he has a level 7 in year 9. And frankly, science is so much his thing - even the teacher said he has a surprising depth of knowledge and understanding about science, but that his skills are poor (ie drawing graphs, etc was her example). And yet - Even if KS3 science IS skills based - GCSE is NOT - which makes the whole thing make even less sense....

So - what I am asking those who might know is - are KS2 and KS3 targets really so very unrelated? Or is the teacher making excuses for the school having low expectations of my son?

OP posts:
Kez100 · 08/04/2011 16:30

My son got a 5a in KS2 science and has a target of 7c for KS3.

My daughter got a 4b in KS2 science actually managed a 5a at KS3 and wasn't offered triple as she didn't get a level 6.

I know exactly what you mean, science is my sons thing too and if he doesn't get the chance to do triple it does seem wrong. He has moved slowly in terms of progress in Science and I think that is to do with the fact a 5a ks2 child just wouldn't get a 5a at that age on a KS3 paper because they just haven't covered that work, so there is some catching up to do when you get to secondary to get from 5a KS2 to 5a KS3 but once that has happened I would hope my child would thrive in science (unless overly tutored at ks2).

dippingbackin · 08/04/2011 13:58

Hi..

I am a Science teacher and to be honest if your son's target for the end of Year 9 is a level 5 he will really struggle with Triple Science. At our school the requirement is a level 6 to do Triple, however I never recommend it unless it is a 6A.

You might want to check the government guidelines as I was under the impression that if a child got a level 6 in Year 9 they had to be allowed to do Triple - I could be wrong as have never really looked into it but worth checking out if your son is really keen to do it.

If I was teaching your son in Year 8 and he had got a level 5 in Year 6, I would definitely expect him to be getting a high level 6 by the end of Year 9. However, one of the problems with KS2 SATs results is that the students are often highly coached by their school so the level may not be indicitive of their actual ability.

If your son is really desperate to do Triple I would recommend doing lots of practise SATs papers as the question style can be very tricky - in some cases harder than GCSE.

noblegiraffe · 08/04/2011 13:48

Not a science teacher so don't know about their levels but it would seem strange to me as a maths teacher for a child to targeted at the same level in Y9 as they got in Y6. I mean, that's three years worth of teaching!

You could look at SATs papers online here for KS2 and KS3 to see the difference for yourself?

Original poster
Oakmaiden · 08/04/2011 12:59

He wasn't given levels in year 7, because we had to move from England to Wales during the summer term. So I don't know. I do know that in his school in England he was in the second set for maths and top set for science (there were I think 6 or 7 sets in all). They don't set at this school, so I have no idea where he is compared to his peers....

He wants to go into science in some way when he leaves school, so will need all 3 sciences really. And yes - he does want to do all 3.

I don't get the point of having a continuum of levels throughout the key stages if they are not actually building continually on one another.

OP posts:
sparks · 08/04/2011 10:54

Based on my dd's experience, they are different. My dd's levels in Y7 were lower than her Y6 SATs. As I understand it, the tests are quite different, they are not testing the same thing.

Have your ds's levels gone up from what they were in Y7? I'd say that was a more relevant question.

What does ds say about all this? Is he keen to do triple science?

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