Reports!

ask whether the targets are from Fisher Family Trust. The FFT targets are created through a mathematical formula which takes the whole child and their background into account but not the actual child its self!

In other words, if you are married, in a good job, live in a good area, have a university education and your child scored as normal in KS2, then the targets go very high!

I am often given targets for children that are so high they are laughable and there is no way that child will achieve even if they were given 5 hours a day of 1-2-1 teaching!

I have always said to my DS1 that I don't care what his grades are as long as he has tried his best (just waiting for his GCSE results to test this )

This is why I have such a huge issue with effort grades. They are inaccurate, meaningless at best, and harmful at worst.

In Y7, most children are expected to attain level 4s. His target level should have been assessed by looking at his previous attainment (KS2 SATS or sometimes CATS results).

So yes, in theory, one of his grades is wrong- however, if you take into account that effort grades are largely completely subjective units of measurement, I would be more likely to trust the target grade. It does not follow that he has been making insufficient effort though; children's achievement can come in fits and starts. Try and view the target level grade as an indicator of what he is theoretically capable of rather than where he should be.

Do question school about how they arrived at his target grade, though.