KS3 - KS4 Flight Paths

Same year group here and never heard of flight paths. Progressing well and handing in homework so not worried. Predicted grades are just that and no matter what school tell you her "flight plan" is as long as your daughter is enjoying school and working hard I wouldn't worry.

Apologies for slight thread hijack...

Thanks noble and Cat for clarifying. I've a DD in year 9 about to choose GCSEs soon, so am interested in this.

But Cat what do you mean by "grammar schools and similar will be hammered on progress"? Won't grammar kids still be making progress from old money level 5s and 6s to new GCSE 7s, 8s and 9s? Please explain?

In old money-if your DC attained a level 5 at Primary KS2 then expected progress (3 levels) would result in a B. Exceeeding would be 4lp resulting in an A. Now (for English and Maths in 2017, anyone (in current y11) who attained a 5 at ks2 must now get 5 levels (so attaining an 8). I know 5 + 5 is not 8 BUT the new GCSE boundaries don't really map logically. Nobody knows any grade boundaries (except they will be in line with national figures proportion wise). These will be calculated AFTER the whole cohort has been marked. The higher attaining pupils (e.g grammar schools and similar)will be hammered on progress. So,in short,no school has any idea of flightpath (and English is not a linear subject in any case). Can't speak for any other subjects....
Working in M and S looking VERY attractive!
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That should have said 'expected grades at KS4' in the first paragraph.

If she got the expected levels at KS2 (4b if she's Y8) then she would be expected to get expected levels at KS3 (Cs in old money, however they've raised the pass grade so more kids will fail). If she got above that, she should do better than a C at GCSE, if she got below that, she'd be more likely to fail.

That's a rough explanation of expected progress over 5 years at secondary school. Obviously a lot can happen in that time.

What actually happens is that KS2 results are added together, calculations are done and predictions are made for GCSE results down to fine grades. These predictions change each year based on how each Y11 cohort actually do that year. But these targets are what the school are measured against and should not be shared with parents as they are only accurate averaged out across a large number of students.

My school did something similar, it has been pointed out that a parent who is told that their child is making good progress is going to be pretty pissed off come GCSE time when they find out that their child is making good progress towards a fail grade at GCSE.

The problem is that schools don't want to issue GCSE targets to KS3 kids because a) the targets are a bunch of arse and b) even if giving GCSE target grades for GCSE exams that have never been sat before wasn't stupid, giving GCSE target grades to KS3 kids who have not even started the GCSE course and are years away from GCSE is stupid.

But since levels were scrapped, schools have no other targets and no other way of measuring progress.

You can ask the school what GCSE levels they are expecting your DD to achieve, but actually you'll already have an idea of that from her KS2 results which are what will have been used to generate the targets that the school are hiding from you.

I would email the school. We have just had a similarly cryptic report come through with no mention of flightpaths (despite the school making a big deal out of them at parents' evening). The assistant headteacher has written me a very lengthy response to explain why flightpaths weren't included (but the independent learner level was, which we'd never heard mentioned before). I get the impression the goalposts were moving about reports up until the last second and there was no time for them to reflect properly on what they were sending out and whether anyone would be able to make sense of it.

Only way for them to know that you're concerned is to let them know.

I think every school is different, so it will depend on the school.

Is it definitely not on one of the pieces of paper in the report, there can be a separate 'guide' sometimes.

It would be nice to know what flight path she's on, it's great to know she's progressing well for example, but if she's progressing well against an entry flight path that's obviously actually a bit of a concern, compared to a Secure flight path.