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Original poster

Year 7 Streaming

29 replies

Cbeazley01 · 04/11/2018 17:32

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone can provide us with some advice to help resolve a very difficult situation.

We live in West Kent and our son passed the Kent 11 plus in Sept 2017.

His score was not high enough for the super selective schools and we did not think the local grammar.

However, we all liked one non-selective school but were in a dilemma as he deserved the opportunity of going to grammar school. After a very impressive Headmaster's talk on an open evening encouraging grammar kids to join them and after reviewing their GCSE results and being informed that they have a grammar stream (although they call it something else) and my son's primary teacher advising us that he would definitely be in the grammar stream we decided to take the plunge and go non selective with the goal of him being in the grammar set.

Our son has settled into his new secondary school really well and making lots of friends.

We did have some initial concerns after only 4 weeks when our son advised us that they his allocated reading band was 3.6 - 5.4 and he thought the book was really easy and not challenging at all (he was reading 25 pages in 20 mins). So I contacted the school to express my concerns and we were advised that the library and english dept had notice some discrepancies on his levels but will reassess before Christmas. We were happy with their response.

He came home two weeks ago to say that he had not made the grammar stream, which we reluctantly accepted. Last week he came home saying he go 90% in a reading test, 95% in Biology and 100% in a History test and he does not feel challenged.

We subsequently arranged to see his Head of Year who advised us that as had came from an Independent school and not done the SAT's test they have no record of his previous academic achievements and therefore cannot be compared to other pupils.

They had been sent his CAT scores (above average) and reading age of 15.06 plus he passed the Local Authority 11 plus.

I have arranged to see the Head but any help or advice would be appreciated.

OP posts:
PotteryLady · 04/11/2018 19:15

Have you the option to send to the local Grammar School? He may not get moved until next year.

Original poster
Cbeazley01 · 04/11/2018 19:07

He did his first AR reading test and scored 90% (I am not sure if this is a good or bad score?)

OP posts:
Original poster
Cbeazley01 · 04/11/2018 19:06

Thank you for your reply.

Our main issue is that he was excluded from streaming as they had no previous data for him, when in fact that had his CAT scores but they chose to ignore them (and he passed the 11+).

I have been advised to take along as much evidence as possible to prove his grades.

OP posts:
MaisyPops · 04/11/2018 18:52

It sounds to me like the school do some internal baselines and take it from there.

With regards to the reading book, it sounds like he is doing Accelerated Reader. The reading range is generated by a test the children do. The lower end are books that students will be comfy with and the upper end is challenging them and getting them confident in a range of texts at that level (e.g. you might have a student who'll read A particular book series that's out of their range but struggle with different genres in their range). Even Accelerated Reader say it's not an exact science.
Book selection is up to the student doing Accelerated Reader (so if he isn't feeling challenged by the boosk then he needs to be picking different books). What I would say is that a child ploughing through at speed but getting a lower reading range is either a child who isn't paying attention and rushed the test/rushing reading or a child who is quick to decode and so skim reads words without actually thinking about the plot and ideas in the book.

Ultimately a child can do well in a top group or a top/middle group (some of my middle students have left with A/A*/8/9 whilst some in set 1 got Bs).
It might be he's clicked with those topics and next topic he doesn't. Equally, you don't know what the rest of the cohort is like.

I think the mistake you made (If I can say this) is getting drawn into the primary teacher saying he'll get into the grammar stream. They can't possibly say that. If your reasons for choosing the school were speculation from a teacher in a different school then you may have been misguided.

I think you need to go into the meeting with an idea of what you want to achieve:
Is it a reason why your DC isn't in the grammar stream?
Is it a move into that stream? (More tricky to push for as schools are always being bombarded with why my child should be in top set requests)
Is it questions about levels of challenge in class?