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Original poster

Ability range in top set year 7 (average secondary school)?

29 replies

trfed · 09/09/2022 08:39

What kind of ability range (in terms of Sats results) would you expect to see in the top set in year 7 in a average (sometimes slightly below average) secondary school?

OP posts:
Desert76 · 09/09/2022 08:54

It depends on the size of the school, surely, and whether they have “joint top” sets or all the sets descending by ability.

A school with 10 classes per year will probably be able to have a very high ability group all together, whereas in a school with 3 classes there is likely to be more of a range.

But at my DC’s school they have 3 mixed higher ability sets, 3 mixed “middle” and one for extra support (though not in Y7, they don’t set them straight away).

Fuuuuuckit · 09/09/2022 08:52

They don't set just on SATS results. It's likely that they did a really simple maths quiz on transition day which is used too. They'll generally be re-setted by half term anyway as they will likely present differently in class than in SATS.

There's a massive range of skills and abilities in higher sets initially. My last school had 14 maths groups across two halves of the year from really high ability to way below. Give it a few months for them to figure it out.

sheepdogdelight · 09/09/2022 08:47

Depends on many factors.

How big is the school? Is there just one top set, or multiple equal top sets? What is the schools setting policy? (Do they set for individual subjects or across a range). Does the school use SATs as its basis for setting? Or does it use something else?

Plumbear2 · 09/09/2022 08:46

That will differ greatly between schools. Even if they are the best in primary it doesn't mean they will be the best in high school. They are no longer the big fish in a little pond.