Do you know how sets are determined at your school?

DS's school have mixed sets across all year groups!

I’m a secondary teacher of a core subject and in our school, subjects with untiered entry (i.e. no Foundation or Higher- just one exam for all) are taught as mixed ability, and we like to shuffle the groups about every year until GCSE where the class is pretty much fixed unless there’s a severe behaviour issue. We use SATs and any other Year 7 baseline tests to work out opportunities for intervention and TA support. We do assessments throughout the year and end of year exams to track progress and identify gaps.

They may not have done the same exam so a 'high' mark may not mean he is one of the best in the year, just one of the best at that level.

Lots of mini tests and assessments

getting one of the highest marks in the exams in the whole year and excellent feedback from that years teacher about how their work is beyond expected for their class throughout the year.

If they're doing this well, why would you want to move them? They might not gel as well with the teacher in another set.

Setting does not determine final outcome. I've known kids outperform those 4 sets higher.

In some schools the sets are tied to another subject. For example, I teach geography but we are in a timetable block with English so as a core subjec they get to decide the setting and we have to put up with it. It has been with other subjects too. Every school does it differently but if your child excells in one subject it might be that subject doesn't get the deciding vote on the setting.

You seem very bothered by the setting. Let your child deal with it.

@SecondaryBefuddled well no he doesn't actually but even if your child has compared scores with their friends they are surely not friends with the whole year group to know it was one of the best scores in the year.

Either way you snapping at randoms on the Internet isn't helping you find out why your child is in the set they are in. The only way you can do this is talk to someone at the school.

Subjects can be paired so a great grade in science and a lower grade in English means you won't be moved up if they are paired. Some lessons do end of unit tests with a move once a term depending on those results.

Setting can be done for social reasons too, keeping friends together / not moving a more vulnerable child up if they have no friends in that group. To keep students apart if there have been friendship issues or bullying. To keep an even sex split instead of being boy or girl heavy. It could be to build confidence, being top of a lower group that goes at a slower pace is better for many than being bottom of a faster paced group.

Sometimes the more able and nurture groups will be set specifically with the others as mixed ability.

The form tutor or head of year won't know. Ask the subject leader.

Why don't you ask the form tutor or head of year for the reasoning? How do you know their result was one of the highest in the year? I havent got a clue where DS sits amongst his peers in terms of exam results and neither should I as it doesn't actually matter.

It can also be affected by the actual process of writing timetables.

Your friend who is a teacher is probably not the person responsible for building the timetable - it may be that moving set for that one subject completely messes up all of the other subject settings and your DC would be inappropriately placed in classes where they would struggle or be bored witless.

Ours were not just setted for attainment but also effort and input needed. So even if a child was achieving well in their set and not moving to a different one it might be because they are finally settled and are with a teacher in a class that is targeted approppriately for their needs- which allowed them to improve their grade. Or other sets have more students and they would struggle with less attention or a more independent study style of teaching, or they are chatty and disruptive so better suited to a teacher with better behaviour management.
Our top sets were often given to NQTs as they are the easiest students to teach.

My son was usually in set 1 for everything and moved to set 2 for maths in year 9 the pace was calmer, there was less pressure (the teacher was less scary and intense) and he learnt more, got better grades and was more confident than he had been since he moved to secondary school he stayed in set 2 until he left school with an A.
It's a shame when top sets are seen as a prize for good grades, like its a bad thing to be in a lower set- kids have different support needs and in a school with 5 or 6 sets, the difference in attainment between 1 and 2 or 4 and 5 is often tiny and there will be significant overlap in attainment. The highest performing kids in set 2 will do better than the some of set 1, the sets are still appropriate.

Some schools set by subject, as a pp has said other schools set in groups eg maths and science together, some schools still stream - that is that overall ability dictates what set you are in for everything.

Your school should have a curriculum statement on their website which covers what they do and how they do it.

Also some subjects are set together. e.g. Your maths set may determine your science set. This can happen for timetabling purposes if the whole year group / band doesn't have the same subjects at the same time.

In addition to the criteria described by pp numbers are a consideration, as top sets tend to be the biggest. We generally can’t seat more than 32 in our classrooms and having more than this would be an unreasonable marking load, especially for an essay-based subject.

It would be perfectly fine to contact the form tutor or head of year and ask them to look into it.

Can your dd ask? My dd was consistently getting one of the top scores in set 2 maths so asked her teacher about moving to set 1. Her teacher agreed that her work was consistently set 1 standard and she moved up. She knew logically that she had every chance of getting too grades in set 2 but she's very competitive and confident in maths so wanted to move even though she really liked the set 2 teacher.

There won't be a set formula like weighting and dates. I'm just a parent but assessments seemed to happen when the topic finished or every half term ish and they are looking for consistency over time.

Does your dd lack confidence despite her high achievement ? Some kids do better being top of the lower set than bottom of the higher set.

If you’re asking what weighting is given to topic tests over longer assessments you might be thinking about it being a bit more of a science than it is.

Assessments plus teacher judgement is a normal method where teacher judgement is more holistic.

Our school sets extensively and early on. It's done on end of year exam score, consistency of work and tests throughout the year, and general work ethic. So as a PP said, if you do badly on the end of year exam, you can still stay in a top set on the basis of a good attitude and general consistent high performance.

It is an overall judgement based on a range of information which will include assessment data but also takes into account gender balance, relationships (both positive and negative) etc etc.

I did once work in a school where the head of Maths would rank every child in the year after the half-termly assessment and change the sets accordingly every. half. term. Frankly it was a bloody nightmare.

DS’ school set for maths, English and triple science at the start of y10. The pupils are in the same set for all of those subjects, and the set they’re in is only based on their maths performance. I find it incredibly odd. DS is in the bottom set (academic independent school) and apparently is on track to get two 9s for english. Not that I think he will, but that’s another story.