Year 7 grades

That's funny Blanketdog! Yes my da was very disappointed with his level 3 and so I'm not sure how to approach it.

Ds got a Grade 4 in his English this year - he normally gets a grade 7 or above. I asked him why he thinks he got that mark, because it was clear he wasn't very happy with it. He was asked to write about someone he really admired - he said that he doesn't really admire anyone, so he couldn't answer the question!!!!!

Also ( sorry to go on) if he level 3 was low in the year I'd want to be contacting school to see what went wrong and how we can help him. I sound like a pushy parent. I'm not but English was the one thing he excelled in at primary and is his lowest mark.

I ask DS 12, for his test mark then work it out as a %. Also ask what other classmates got in his set , as he seems to know. Gives me as good an idea as anything as to how he's doing in the scheme of things at this stage. Bit more meaningful than 'target' numbers which are just best guesswork.

And yes I would find it useful to get results for the year. If lots of children were getting 6/7 in English and he got a 3 I'd be concerned. But if his score was fairly average that's more ok. He was a high level 5 in English in sats so should be achieving and the school he's at tends to fall down on English results hence my worry.

Interesting thread as I'm confused too. I get the target grades. But I wanted to know how current grades related as my son had a range of 3-7 on current report. He tells me that 7 meant he got an a in the exam. But he got a 3 in English and he's good at English. Does that mean he had a bad exam. Or that the teaching wasn't good? Or he's not on target? I have no idea.

We get info on what the rest of the year group has achieved - number of children achieving each grade - so you can vaguely place your dc and I do want to know where they are in comparison to their peers.

Yep. If any school says 'we are using GCSE grades to measure our students' progress at KS3' or makes any reference to 'flight paths', what they're actually saying is 'we're making up some numbers'. There's no accuracy behind any of it, you can't compare between subjects or teachers and you certainly can't compare between schools.
Look at behaviour and effort grades. If she sits any tests in class, look at what she brings home, is she doing well? Better than the class average? If she did really well at KS2, then is she in top sets for setted subjects? Talk to her teachers at parents' evening. Ignore the numbers.

this system is so utterly stupid

There is no system. Schools are making it up as they go along. There was a system but it was binned and we were told we weren't allowed to use it any more and we weren't given anything to replace it with.

But we don't know what 'performing at 8/9' looks like, even for Y11 who have already sat the exams, let alone what it looks like 5 years earlier.

ahh - I know this worry, my DD is just finishing year 9 and will be the second cohort to take full GCSEs' on the new system. DD's school has this year graded science on the 1-9 method (as they've started GCSE programme) but all others are on the A-F grading. I've wondered and pondered about it all but as it turns out DD has had a tough term with various issues and bereavement and to be honest I'm just thankful that the school is lovely and caring. I'm sure that I would have felt differently if it was exam year but I suppose what I'm saying is yes, do understand new system, yes fret but actually schools come through in different ways - best wishes to you and yours

No, in my school we have to say what we think they will get for GCSE in 5 years time compared to their FFT target grade. That's nonsense, of course, but at least I know that middle ability kids tend towards middle grades at GCSE so saying that they're going to get a 5 or 6 isn't totally plucking numbers out of thin air.

Trying to work backwards from that and saying 'well that kid's going to get maybe a 5 or a 6 at GCSE so that means they're currently working at a....' They've reduced the number of grades at the lower end so there isn't any direct equivalence. Probably more than a 1 because that's below expected KS2 level. A 2 or a 3 possibly? A 4 is a C equivalent which is an old level 7 which would be very high. A 2/3 is probably a safe bet for a wide range of kids. Not totally failing but probably not headed for a grade 9. Unless they're a late bloomer.
That's as accurate as you're going to get.

My kids know what the top score was in tests because the teacher will say what it was. By the time reports come, there's no surprise really. I know their strong subjects, which teachers are strict on marking etc They seem to have tests every 4-6 weeks.

Thank Michael Gove.

Schools aren't even supposed to be using GCSE grades for KS3, it's bonkers. Levels were scrapped so they've just grabbed the first thing that looked like levels to replace them without even thinking if it made any sense.

We set for maths so I've got a better idea of how these kids will progress than ones in a mixed ability group (middle set -> middle grades, top set -> 7,8,9, so at least I've got a ballpark).
If in my Y7 group I had two kids, one with a target of a 5 and one with a target of a 6, I've got to say whether they are making good progress towards their target. Chances are, if they're in a middle group, I'll put them both down as good progress because they're both headed in that direction. If their test scores were switched around, they'd still both be good progress. I can't tell the difference between a kid who's heading for a 5 and one who's heading for a 6. I couldn't even do it with Y11 just gone.

There are no meaningful national levels for KS3 though. No standardised tests. No national expectation or average.

I think having a know average score for year 7s would be useful - not necessarily her actual year but an expected avaerge

DD school send out a table of average ( in old money 4C for Year 6 etc)

I've not had reports yet - youbwill report back if/when they get them

But she might be around the top I'm a year of very low ability pupils, or around the bottom in a year of very able pupils. It is meaningless.

How did she do last year? Was she above or below 100, which is supposed to be national standard for an 11 yo. That will tell you how she is doing compared with all 11 yos in England.
Then you need to look how she is progressing to her targets this year, if indeed any have been issued.

No, I'm afraid it's worse than the made-up bollocks of last year. Last year she sat externally marked national exams. Those results are solid gold standard compared to what she's getting this year.

This year her targets are set based on the results of those exams, based on the best guesses of how a company thinks those exams are going to pan out, when in reality no one, not even the exam boards will know until the first lot have been marked.

And her 'working at' grades will have been entered in a couple of seconds by a teacher who has rolled a biased dice. A teacher in the next class has a differently weighted dice. It's totally subjective.