your Y8 top set children - what levels?

Levels will go and another form of angst generating measurement method will replace them.

Levels of some sort are incredibly useful in the modern age when kids change schools a lot more than they did 30 years ago.

7c -ish, but they are getting rid of the levels, anyway, so it's a bit pointless.

I thought schools were supposed to have got rid of levels now?

My dds school is a 10 form entry of 300

It is a non selective school but has a couple of 'selective by income' feeder primary schools which tend to bump up the top sets until yr 9ish

It does make a big difference, as Takver says. I teach at a school with a 12 form intake - obvious our top set is going to be different to that in a three or four form intake school. Our y7 classes are mixed ability and have a very wide spread of levels.

Makes a big difference - dd's school has an intake of around 80 per year, plus it's not a particularly high achieving school anyway.

Phew Takver, I did wonder why it was so different, there is about an intake of 120 per year at my dd's secondary, there are 6 sets but the bottom two have very small numbers.

katrina, that sounds much more like dd's school, I think a lot of MNers have dc at selective and/or big city schools with a large intake, so top set is likely to be higher ability on average (compared for example to dd's school, where there's only 3 sets across the year).

Maths 7a
English 5a
Science 6a

Crikey my dd is top set in year 8 and her levels are no where near as high as these levels, she is mainly level 5s and one 6.

She is very bright, but she does go to just a standard comprehensive.

dds school gives out termly Grade sheets which list the child's level in each subject. However it also gives information about the school average for each subject and the expected national average for each subject.
If more schools did this, there would be less need for this type of thread and people like the OP would have more info about how their child is doing compared to the rest of their peer group.

Chandon
Statistically most posters avoid these threads like the plague

And wonder how much difference it makes long term. A child might not excel in English, maths or science but excel in other areas.

Chandon

Wow at all these high achievers!

I wonder how many lurkers there are, who like me have more "average kids" and decide to keep quiet...

My dd is in top set for all subjects they are setted for, but there are 2 top sets as the year group is split in half iyswim.

The school is an average comp. No selection and a fairly mixed intake. 60% or thereabouts a-c.

She is second highest in maths with a level 7c, doing ok in science with 6b and not so good in English at 5b/5a.

i expect she won't make top set in English next year when they combine the two halves of the year. We're working on it.

DD is definitely among the top 3 - 4 pupils in the top set in her school - she says this, and came home with a sheaf of 'best in year' certificates at the end of yr 7.
Her end of term report levels - mix of level 5 & level 6 (no sublevels here). So as others have said, it really depends on the ability mix in the school!

I also think it depends how they level. I know they won't in maths say 'level 7' unless they are level 7 for everything they need to know, IYSWIM, so regardless of where they're working on probability, if they've not covered algebra or whatever yet, they won't be 'counted' as lvl whatever.

I reckon the effort grades are more to the point - too many 'b's and I would be having Serious Words . . .

My daughter is year 8 in a decent comp. and is all top sets. Left year 6 with 6b maths and a scraped 6c in reading. I thought the level 6's to be quite pointless though at this stage as she clearly wasn't a solid level 6 in maths.

Her latest report says Maths 6A Science 6A English 6A and I know (from her because she is very competitive) that these are pretty much the top marks, although there might be some 7C's.

As I said, the question to ask your child is how difficult he is finding work at school and homework. And what sort of feedback he is getting for the work he does. The ideal answer is good marks and good feedback (with useful EBI comments) after having to put a bit of effort in.

Levels mean absolutely bugger all, in reality. The only time it will ACTUALLY matter is when your child sits proper, externally- (and independently-) assessed exams. Levels are a loose guide. Don't get hung up about them and definitely don't get worked up about a, b or c within levels as these don't actually exist.

My ds is in a grammar and only just achieving a few levels 6 now in year 8. He is mostly scoring 5a and up to 6b in what are his core subjects. He says he is middle set and only a couple in his class score the occasional 7. I am not worried at all. I wonder if some school inflates their figures somehow

Ah, that makes sense. DS1 had a couple of 8s (for art and DT, of all things) a few years back, so I was a bit puzzled myself.

DD's school report had a list of 'levels and approximate GCSE predictions' which mentioned that they were only assessing up to level 8 for maths, but I think they may have meant just their end of term exams.

Sure thing, Hak, here you go ks3 levels

They have disappeared from the DfE website now, because levels no longer exist, but most schools are still using them while we make up some other ridiculous criteria to replace them with.

I don't know, pictures- I would certainly be asking the teacher as soon as the new term starts.....

MissMillament- I'd love to see the criteria- could you link to them, please?

Kitties - that page relates to KS3 SATs tests, which disappeared years ago. KS3 has been teacher assessed for many years now and we have the ability, certainly in English to assess up to L8 and indeed award a level of EP (exceptional performance) to a pupil working beyond that level.