Year 7 targets.

Thank you scary teacher I am not confused any more! When I go to parents evening in a few weeks I will feel more confident and slightly less thick when I am talking to the teachers.

It is expected that most students will achieve a L6/7 at the end of KS3 (year 9). The levels that they come in with in year 7 from primary (i.e. a 5 in maths perhaps) do not equate with the secondary school levels, and I would normally expect them at secondary to be a level or two lower than the KS2 level. My ds had 5s across the board from his KS2 SATs, but as a secondary school teacher I think his level is actually only now creeping towards a 5, and he is not hitting that in History or Geography, as he is not motivated. He is year 7.

If your friends' child came into KS3 with a level 5 from KS2, then I would hope that she is a secure 4/5 by the end of year 7, unless she is very bright, in which case she might be a high 5/low 6 by the end of that year, but I would balk at giving a year 7 a 6, as they don't always grasp the concepts necessary for that level at year 7.

Either your friend is reading the end of KS3 projection as suggested above, or the school doesn't really know how the levels work. Level 8 is a good GCSE level, so I would be surprised if she is at level 7 already, and worried about the pressure this places on her.

seeker my 2 were given targets of level 7s when they were in year 7, but the target printed on the report was actually the target they are expected to achieve at the end of ks3 ie yr9 iyswim. So maybe your friend is just confused?

To give you an idea - in the past 5 years only 3 children at my sons' high-performing primary school achieved level 6 maths at the end of year 6. I think it would be fair to say that even these exceptionally bright children would struggle to reach level 7 at the end of year 7.

Can't see any advantage of hitting level 7 so early - she will be bored from now onwards IMO. My DS is in the top set for everything and no-one at his school is aiming for all level 7. Do all the schools use the same levels ? Only wondering as DS is excellent at science and his lowest test mark this year is 93% ( normally gets 99 or 100%) and his target is 7-.
I think they should get rid of these levels it would end a heck of a lot of confusion for us parents!

Targets have to stretch pupils but be realistic and achievable too. So she has to be working at a top L6 at least if she is being told to aim for a L7.

Is the target based on just the teacher's opinion or some sort of test? I know ds's were based on MIDYIS testing.

Level 7 at the end of year 7 is way to high imho. My Year 8 son has targets of high level 6's to level 7's for this year. He did get level 7 in some essays last year and is very clever. Level 7 is expected st the end of year 9 i thought, I would query it with the school if I were her.

Level 7 is v high. It is what an able 14year old is looking at and end of KS3 (i.e. Year 9 SATs) and roughly equates to a c/d at GCSE.
If the dd is up to it ,she is clearly v able indeed.

Have just been looking at ds's targets for yr 8 funnily enough. Almost all 7s and 8s for end of yr 8, 9s for yr9.

Sorry can't remember what the yr 7 targets were.