School targets destroying dd

I know of local parents who have removed their children from grammar school because ridiculous targets were beginning to affect their mental health. Many schools are simply exam factories, unfortunately.

I know leccy. There's a new head been brought in with experience of turning round bad secondaries, so maybe things will improve. We've been hoping for that for over a decade though...

Emochild If you can persuade the school to alter your daughter's targets, will this solve your daughter's anxiety levels? I'm just wondering if your daughter needs a deeper level of help now to reduce her stress (i.e. whether changing her targets will be sufficient).

I have experienced similar issues - overly high targets for all subjects based mainly on SATS results for English and Maths. It's a ridiculous system when individuals and the different ways in which they are motivated are not factored in. If a child is predicted overly high targets, it can destroy any sense of ownership in making progress, because it's expected, and slower rates of progress than the target are sometimes seen as failure rather than a positive step in the right direction.

Can you talk to the school again, and get them to reduce the targets to ones which your daughter is comfortable with? It's very wrong that your daughter's health and wellbeing is being undermined by the school's crude system.

Wow, that is one damning report.

emochild have a look at the most recent ofsted for Ely college, Cambridgeshire. They were setting targets that kids couldn't ever meet, and it is one reason that they are now in special measures.

You could probably use that report to bolster your position that they are acting inappropriately. And if they won't listen, you could always complain to ofsted.

ours sets gibberish

No- the software might set inappropriate targets- often in my experience too low rather than too high- but it won't set gibberish.

Government software wouldn't have set a level 9 target. This is something else.

Possibly, but govt approved software is more than capable of setting complete gibberish.

Can't add much to what has been said here but in your position would be back into school. I know 2 year 10 girls having severe panic attacks and now under CAHMS and 2 year 11's with hair falling out so I would do everything possible to get it under control now.

After any telephone conversation or meeting send an email outlining what you have discussed so there is a written record.

Government software wouldn't have set a level 9 target. This is something else.

schools don't set targets, government approved computer software does. ignore. ignore. ignore.

The computer programme can't tell whether it is talking about a human child, and octopus or a jelly baby!

The school sounds rubbish. Levelling individual pieces of work is nonsense, levels are not designed for that so they are just making it up. On top of that research shows that individual pieces of work should not be given a grade but rather only comments otherwise the grade is all students focus on.

You could request that teachers stop putting levels on her work as it is causing stress. Ask for a meeting and state that it is school that is causing her attendance issues and you are worried that without action this will get worse.

If you believe she is having stress related illness then take her to the GP. Also complain strongly to the school, pointing out the facts that your DD does not respond well to stress and such (ridiculous targets) and that this is affecting her attendance due to the stress related illnesses. Most schools would take this seriously - but if they don't I would seriously wonder if this was an appropriate environment for my DD.

Any school worth its salt would take your concerns seriously. Put in a call to school to arrange a short meeting with Head of Year/Form Tutor and say what you've said here.
We get a number of children (more often girls) who get anxious about the expectations on them, and a support network of awareness and mentoring kicks in. As a teacher, I'd be sensitive when talking individually about levels, playing down the expectations side and taking more of a 'as long as you do your best and you enjoy the lessons' stance.

Your poor DD. She sounds like she's doing amazingly well and it's a shame the emphasis these days is on pushing harder and not stopping to reflect and reward.

I think you are absolutely right to be concerned OP, and I would advise you to take your DD's anxiety seriously, and make a lot of noise about it to school. I have a Yr 10 child who is now refusing to go to school in similar circumstances, and wish we had addressed it earlier.

So what are her targets and when is she expected to have achieved them?

Poor girl! That is certainly a difficult task- to achieve agrade which doesn't even exist!
Seriously though she needs to stop being so hard on herself or she will be burned out before she gets to Uni.I am sure a clever girl like her can set her own targets for herself.perfectionism is NOT a good thing.I would run a mile from any prospective employee that told me they were a perfectionist.

I am confused still. If she is 8B in mats than wht is her target for end of year?
My Dc is in Y9 and easter was the last time NC levels were reported.They are getting GCSE grades now.

I am a little confused.You say she is starting GCSEs in September so does tht mean she is in Y9.If that is the case, then she has made 2 levels progress in 3 years , an average of 2 sub levels per year which is the standard expectation I think.

I'm a secondary school teacher and despise the obsession with constant targets. The school has to set ridiculously high targets for all students as then they can tick OFSTED's box about high aspirations for every learner or something. Interestingly some colleagues and I were chatting and in the last couple of years we've noticed way more girls struggling with anxiety (and in some awful instances eating disorders) and do wonder if the pressure from the constant targets and levels is contributing to this.

Are you sure the History/Geography target is based on a general knowledge quiz? Most schools use an amalgamation of the KS2 SATS results.

I think you should contact the school (maybe through Head of Year or her Form Tutor) and make it clear that your DD is struggling with the pressure. Maybe her teachers in those subjects could be made aware in particular as they can not push her as hard and reassure her. If I'm aware that a student is getting stressed by underachieving through no fault of their own, I will always over-emphasise the positives and try to be as reassuring as I can. Sometimes I tell them that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, occasionally with very kids I know really well I will tell them that I struggled with Maths at school and that no-one's good at everything. It's a safe bet your DD's class teachers hate the targets as much as you do and will be sympathetic!

So she has made 2 levels a year. What is their problem? Obviously the school is not outstanding for its pastoral care! I do think another meeting is worthwhile and you have the evidence that she has made good progress. I think there is no good reason for her to be badgered into making 4 levels of progress. As the new curriculum is introduced, there may be gaps in her learning so you might like to find out if she needs to learn some extra topics in line with the new curriculum. Maybe this is what they are referring to.

Targets can move in line with progress !! Setting challenging but achievable targets is fair. If a child learns quickly, a target can be moved. Learning can be accelerated. Why would they not do this to suit an individual who needs this approach? They would not expect 4 levels of progress of a very low achieving child.