Don't really know what to make of year 7 short report

As others have said, the effort and organisation are more important than the levels, which are largely meaningless. (Levels for PSHE! Oh really?!)

It doesn't matter what method is used to asses current attainment (e.g. the old A+, C- etc vs Levels). What's actually important is effort and behaviour.

OP, I've just looked at my daughter's report and it also shows no progress expected in a few subjects, for example where she's met or surpassed her target, they haven't adjusted it. In another subject she seems to have stalled too, but her workbooks haven't been marked for quite a while so that makes sense. She assures me that the teacher asks questions in class all the time though. I have been assured by a secondary teacher friend that this normal as it's very difficult to assess kids all the time, so they make levels up a lot of the time.

I would also be concerned about the level in maths. Low effort and teacher predicting no progress in the next 4 months would concern me. Maths needs strong foundations from year 7 and 8, so any gaps now could prove costly later. Particularly with the new gcse in maths. Always difficult to interpret the truth from a piece of paper though.

Don't forget the shading - I would expect green to mean no worries and amber that maybe he is in danger of slipping behind his target.

What a mindlessly complicated report. I couldn't be bothered with it tbh, I'd just put it aside or in the bin and wait until the parents' evening and then ask them to explain how DC was doing in plain language.

That said, broadly it looks ok. Science possibly iffy.

OP - suggest that you tell your DS that in 3 weeks time or something (2 weeks after Easter hols?) you will be checking back with science teacher that there has been an improvement, and then do so.

See now I know what I think about that report and none of it is based on the levels columns. He needs to sort himself out for the c and d effort grades and focus on his organisation. All the rest will follow once he sorts those out.

Were you given a matrix to explain what results in a good effort grade? If you were, go through it with him. If you weren't, tell him to stop staring out of the window, put his hand up more, remember all his books and get his homework in on time. "scatty" is no excuse. He has to get his act together!

It's worth seing if you can find out what the range of scores are though. Because you could find that in some subjects they don't expect to be scoring very highly at this point.

Dd1's school does a sort of marks system and tells you what the range of the year (large comprehensive-13 form entry, so pretty big) is: So you might get her mark 21 in a range of 9-22, and then 21 looks fairly impressive. But when you see 32 in a range of 30-40, you can see she's struggling more.
Because it does depend on the subject as to where they expect to be at this stage, plus a bit on the teacher/marks given at the school.

It is worth seeing if there's an issue with the science. Whether it is that that teacher only gives C and below, or whether he's just not interested, or that there happens to be someone/a group in that lesson for whom he's reacting to.

boss thanks for the explanation that was really useful.

This looks very similar to my DD's report - is it from go4schools? Very similar results too. It was a bit of a shock to get her first report and find that her levels didn't necessarily correspond to KS2 teacher assessments and SATS... From a solid 5a in Reading and Writing she went to 5c, but from a level 4a in Science she got a 6c! It seems that they measure very different things in KS3 and from I have seen in her homework, etc. the level of maturity required is much higher. Also reports in y7 vary a lot and go up and down depending on which module/topic they are doing. In your son's case I would be concerned about his attitude and effort, as there seems to be a consistent theme of disengagement that I would want to tackle now. Have you asked him what is going on?

No expertise in education. Ime ks2 SATs cannot be entirely trusted. My dc's friend who was still only level 2 maths in early year 6 but after put into a booster class for a couple of months in spring term she reached level 4 just before the actual SATs.

Very true baby. How can they possibly match? They spend all of year 6 intensively prepping for the SATS and are surprised when they can't maintain the same levels without such extreme anounts of support. Not to mention the fact that the requirements of the levels /assessments are very different at secondary school (in my subject at least). It's a stupid system.

DH is a teacher and says primary levels are so inflated these days, they do not match secondary levels.

Ha! Out of curiosity I just googled one of them and stalked glanced at the facebook page. Oxford, studying biochemistry and on the rowing team. As expected!

Level 5 at the end of year 9 is the national average. (Or was when they did KS3 SATs, there isn't a national reporting process at this stage anymore.)

Just track it through, using two sublevels of progress per year (the governments expected progress level for all children)
Level 5b end of yr6
Level 6c end of yr7
Level 6a end of yr8
Level 7b end of yr 9

National curriculum levels go up to level 7 (level 8 is exceptional performance and only exists in some subjects). So if a pupil is in level 7 in year 9, they are at the top available grade. Assuming a steady progress (which is stupid really, as kids progress in fits and starts, but it's what the whole levels of progress system is predicated on, so let's go with it) if they are working in the top available grade at the end of year 9 they will also be working in the top available grade at the end of year 11. So mid level 7 = A. If they are at the very, very top of the level 7 (7a) and pushing into level 8/exceptional performance then they will be an A*.

Ta da!

I have taught two truly exceptional kids who were, by the end of year 7, working in level 7 in some areas of my subject (English) in the nearly ten years I've been teaching. They are the sort of kids who will walk into Oxbridge, breeze through their degree / masters / phd, have huge successes everywhere they turn. They were just leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.

Secondary schools are famous for not being joined up with primary leavers levels, and often repeat work, work is to easy. Levels are too low.

I would be gutted if DS have l5/6 sats and then came home with 3/4s. I would be talking to the teachers. I would be most displeased.

Boss- how are you getting those levels? L5 in y 6 is a C I though?