Average levels end of Y7? (sorry!!)

Grading every single piece of work is a horrible misuse of levels. Utterly meaningless.

Because they have to.

DDs maths teacher said she hated having to grade every single piece of work, because inevitably DC get some maths concepts quicker than others.

Pupils and parents wouldn't worry about 7/10, 9/10, 8/10, but after so much emphasis on SATs, levels going down cause panic.

We've just got the end of term reports

Gives us a target
Effort grade
Tracking to target (yes or no)

Dd is predicted a 5a in pe but is in the bottom set so I don't understand that one
Spanish 4a

The rest are various 6s which she's bothered about as the children that she went to primary with that went to the other high school are being targeted as 7 in maths. She feels like she's being left behind so I told her not to be daft -her school hasn't targeted any if the yr7 with 7s

As long as her effort grades stay high and she is happy at school I really don't worry about levels

I've just received a profile for my year 7 DD listing all her achieved levels for this term and targets for next term. I would have thought the school would also be communicating with you soon. If you hear nothing ask for this information. This is a box standard comprehensive that she attends, who I must say are excellent at communicating with parents and keeping them informed. We had an introductory target level meeting in October.

Levels will be scrapped from 2016 because they are a bunch of arse parents don't understand what they mean.

However, they haven't actually been replaced with anything, and so schools will probably continue to use them.

Why do they bother doing levels if it's so arbitrary, then? (Naive question, I know!)

Dd is 5s and a 6b for Maths - she got 5s in yr 6 sats so I'm figuring that this probably means her first term at secondary school has been okay academically.

I should say that according to our HT there is a highly scientific system.

However, wearing my scientists hat, there really isn't enough data until Christmas Y8, at the earliest, to give statistically sound levels.

My dyslexic DD1 puts so much random jitter on doing some tests well and others less so (and forgetting to revise or not bothering because she's got a concert and a real Controled assessment) that I think her GCSE grades will be the only believable levels we ever get. (Due to yet another new system, she has two different sets of predicted grades)

secondary levels are VERY different from primary.
Do not compare year 6 and year 7
just make sure they are happy and the levels start to shake out by year 8

Is 4b average for end of year 6 ? Aren't they all supposed to be at that level ? Then it can't be average ? Confused

Thanks for the info ISawMama - my DD has just done a spoken French assessment, and I now understand where she is and what she needs to add to achieve the next level (eventually....!) This will help me to help her when she is preparing for the next round of tests

First term year 7 targets are indeed finger in the air or drunk spider in the ink
wait till the Easter figures
and just make sure the kids are happy, getting their homework done and making friends

Starball, mine too! I don't think she has normal nerve endings.

I also have a DD who would get L7 for staying in freezing rivers or sea water when no sensible person would put in their big toe.

Utterly hopeless at conventional PE

at Starballbunny

The one that made me PMSL was the fact that dd has a target grade of 7 for PE end yr 9. Unless she has been hiding her light comprehensively under a bushel for 11.5 years, or unless they judge targets solely on sports conducted outdoors in cold water, I think they may be disappointed . . . .

Y7 levels are very very very easy to understand.

You put pieces of paper with 3c-4a in a hat for MFL
And
4c-6a for everything else!

Draw a piece of paper write grade on book, report etc.

They are utterly meaningless and not worth stressing about.

MFL teacher here. For reports we use an average of all four skills - listening, reading, speaking, writing.

Generally (there are obviously always better / worse ones) expected is to reach level 4 by end of year 7, level 5 by end of year 8 and level 6/7 by end of year 9 which is equivalent to a D GCSE grade, so they then progress onto C and above grades after. Obviously all levels then subdivided by a, b and c.

In a nutshell, levels go like this:

Level 1 - word level
Level 2 - short sentences and phrases
Level 3 - three to four sentences, starting to add connectives
Level 4 - five to six sentences, connectives, opinions
Level 5 - another tense is added, usually past tense, variety of sentences
Level 6 - third tense is added, usually future tense, variety of structures
Level 7 - complex sentences etc., conditional and other tenses

Level 4 is easy to reach, then it gets complicated.

HTH

My DD1 had an English target of 5c for the end of year 7, which I found weird as she got a level 5 for her year 6 SATs and a teacher assessed level of 5a. I emailed the school and her English teacher called me. She said the target was based on other tests - can't remember the name (but not CATs). DD1 had already had a few things assessed as 5b, so she agreed the target was too low and changed it to a 6c instead. I would contact the school to check.

Probably supposed to be 5b

It sounds like a mistake, I would phone the school to query.

Can somebody explain this to me.
My son is in year 7 and his English target is a 4b.
I think is too low, because the teacher has market two assessment and in one of them is level 5c and in the another one is a level 5b. In year 6 he was a level 4a in writing, a level 5c in comprehension and 5b SPAG.

@Spanish. Thanks. I know it wouldn't be unusual for the odd child or so to be at a level 7 for Maths in year 7. Be interesting to know what his English level is like as it's not uncommon to have a few whizz kids at Maths but who are less whizzy at English (one child I knew, for example, in a regular comp was a level 7 in Maths but only a 4 in English).

With regards to CAT's versus SAT's, I thought it not to be unusual also for there to be a discrepancy between CAT's and SAT's results, but not so big to warrant there being so many talented children in the top two sets.

Does your DS school keep them in the same sets across all the topics for all the years until options? I'm so anti that system for the reason's I mentioned above: a level 7 in Maths but 4 in English yet in top set.

It is a comprehensive secondary school. The school did the setting according to the cat results and not sat. Maybe after the holidays he will change setting ( he is in the same set for all of the subject).
One of his friend is in the top set and is already level 7 in maths.

@Spanish, is that a regular comp? Quite high for middle set (assuming middle is set 3), although I could be talking poop. Do you have any idea what the top set children are achieving? That would have to be around 60 all on level 6 already across all the major subjects and it's not even the end of the year yet. having said all that, it's not impossible.

My son is in year 7 in the middle set. His levels are 6b in maths, 5b in english, history and science. The rest I dont know because his tutor has been sick for a moth.