Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Flight paths never change?

32 replies

sahbear · 25/07/2019 08:21

We recently received DS1s Y7 report. The flight paths he has been assigned are so unambitious.
Tutor says they are based largely on KS2 results, gender, and birth month. He is a summer born boy who found the literacy Sats hard (dyspraxia). This means that his flightpath for all subjects apart from maths and ICT are on a predicted gcse grade of 3-5.
However he is thriving at secondary school. Test results etc put him much higher, but the school says his flightpath cannot change (even in ks4) although it is great he is exceeding it.
It just doesn't make sense to me. Is this normal (or it just our school). His flightpath seems to appear on assessment sheets and other everyday pieces of paper at school, as well as the report, but just doesn't reflect what he is capable of.

OP posts:
TeenTimesTwo · 25/07/2019 09:47

munema I would say yes they were wrong. As you said 'soul destroying', or possibly the other way around, limiting.

munemema · 25/07/2019 09:39

Was my DS's school wrong to make him aware of his targets then? We didn't get flight paths graphs sent home, but the targets were based on the same data and he was very aware all the way through of how far he was away from them.

TeenTimesTwo · 25/07/2019 09:36

The flightpath is what the average child coming in with his SATs would be expected to achieve.
The school would be better off keeping that to themselves, and just telling you where they think he is headed based on his actual performance.
Provided you don't think he is actually being limited by his flightpath then fine to ignore I think.

Original poster
sahbear · 25/07/2019 09:24

OK. DS says 'flightpath don't matter', which is presumably what school have told him. I guess I should take the same approach.
You are right @munemema, it is better to have the confidence boost of exceeding his flightpath than the other way round.
It just doesn't seem a student centred approach. It's not of him now, but it can never change....

OP posts:
CuckooCuckooClock · 25/07/2019 08:39

Flight paths are bullshit and schools aren’t supposed to be using them. Try not to take it too seriously.

WilsonandNoodles · 25/07/2019 08:39

I've never taught in a school that made initial predictions off anything but KS2 results. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that they are taking birth month into account.
A 5 is a good grade but if you think your DS is capable he shouldn't be restricted but a lot of GCSE subjects don't have split level papers so it shouldn't be a problem. Don't worry too much at this point. It looks good for the school to have students over achieving I'm terms of their progress so they won't hold him back if he's capable but won't want to change predictions and then underachieve.

munemema · 25/07/2019 08:33

We had the opposite. Ds1's was borderline 4/5 for yr 6 SATS (when they still did that) and the primary intensively coached him to get him over the line for the benefit of their league table position.

That meant all his targets were too high for him and on paper he made no progress for the first two years.

Absolutely soul destroying, be careful what you wsh for. His GCSE results were fine for him but he went through the entire 5 years feeling he was letting the school down because he couldnt meet the targets the govt had set for them.

Swipe left for the next trending thread