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Original poster

School not giving any context around exam scores.

37 replies

PenceyPrep · 22/06/2022 21:08

DD is in Year 7 and has just taken a set of year-end exams. She has been coming home with exam results, but in most cases, this is just a standalone number, eg. "75%", with no indication of what this means.

I really don't feel the need to know how every other child did, but it would be good to have something to contextualise it.

Kids are told not to discuss their results to other pupils, and when they have asked for the class average, they have been told they are not supposed to be given this anymore.

Is this normal?

OP posts:
HighRopes · 22/06/2022 22:22

Dd is at an independent school
that used to give out top and average marks, but stopped as the young people (and, I suspect the parents) were getting unhealthily competitive over them. I am happy to trust the school to tell me how she is doing via reports and parents evenings (and I know I’d I have any concerns I will get a quick and comprehensive response to an email), and I’m not that bothered about KS3 exam results. For me, they are about learning how to revise, exam technique etc.

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 22/06/2022 22:14

Thanks @QueenMabby and @ToadiesCouzin , it's really useful to get a feel for what happens in other schools.

What I am picking up is that other schools have systems for this. It seems to just be down to teacher choice in ours. So, the science teacher has agreed that it's meaningless to give no context and is going to give them a median (but hasn't yet). Another subject has given some sort of pseudo GCSE grade boundaries - e.g. over 65% is a 7, over 80% is an 8 etc. Another has given out the top score, and another has said anything over 75% is very good. Most nothing though.

I'm starting to think I'm too much of a systems person to cope with this school much longer.

OP posts:
ToadiesCouzin · 22/06/2022 22:04

Do they not also give some indication of whether they're on track or not? They should be able to say whether each student is above/below/on track, compared to how they should be doing. We don't give levels at KS3 anymore.

QueenMabby · 22/06/2022 22:03

As it's an independent school I'd definitely push on it.

Dd is year 8. Also independent. We get a percentage score and the children are given grade boundaries so they can see if they are an A*, A, B etc. dd says it goes down to E!! Grade boundaries are different for each subject so I presume they grade on a bell curve like external exams. I'm not certain though.

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 22/06/2022 21:54

That's an interesting idea WimpoleHat. Suspect it might flummox them a bit though...

OP posts:
WimpoleHat · 22/06/2022 21:43

Thinking about it, when out school does those CAT standardised tests, those scores are all based on a normal distribution( they explain the scoring and actually implicitly give you the SD. Is MIDYIS the same? If so, you could ask for it “in a similar format”? I can’t see how it looks nosey that way; you’re not asking for any other child’s individual results, just a bit of wider context.

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 22/06/2022 21:27

Thank you everyone, it's good to know that it's not just me being nosey.

I'm on the fence re whether to contact school and ask for more info. I suppose we may get something more in the end-of-year report, but I've not been impressed with their communication so far, so I'm not holding my breath. Also reports come out on the last day of term, so if the info isn't useful, it's too late to do anything about it.

WWYD?

@noblegiraffe would your colleagues roll their eyes at a parent who pushed for this info?

It's an independent school if that makes any difference.

OP posts:
BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 22/06/2022 21:20

Surely they at least need to know what bracket they fall into (eg 5% of the class scored 80% or higher, 25% of the class scored 70-79%).

noblegiraffe · 22/06/2022 21:18

No, this is balls. When I give test scores back I also give the class average and the top mark, so they know how they compare to the group (I don't give out the lowest score as that's not fair on the pupil who got it).

Utterly meaningless otherwise.

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 22/06/2022 21:16

Oh Wimpole, you are a hat after my own heart. I would love a nice mean and SD (or perhaps median and SE). We can dream...

Yes, I'm sure it is to protect kids who are struggling.

I know they do MIDYIS at the start of Year 7, so they should be able to say whether kids are achieving their potential too. No hope of that though...

OP posts:
WimpoleHat · 22/06/2022 21:11

My DD is usually told the average. (Really, you need the standard deviation as well to make sense of it, but that’s never been forthcoming; the most we’ve ever had is a mean and a range (lowest-highest). I suppose it’s hard for the kids at the bottom and that’s why they are reluctant to publish this?

failing40s · 22/06/2022 21:10

Our school does this. It's meaningless without a benchmark of some kind. I do email them and ask whether I should be reassured or concerned about DC's marks.