Cringing at myself, but I think the teacher got it wrong...

[Orangeba]

We have parent teacher evenings coming up for DS8. The teacher is lovely, very respected with lots of experience. I really like her and have always had nice chats with her.

We got an early report and I think she has underscored him in his strongest subject. Every year he has been marked as working ahead and from what I've seen he can do the three star level work for year 6. Do I raise it? I'm totally cringing at myself but I think she's undermarked him.or do I just leave it and trust his skills will shine through?

If it's a core subject which is likely to be split by ability, maybe I would mention it to make sure he's in the correct ability group. Otherwise, I don't think it's particularly important.

Why do you assume she’s underscored him? I’d absolutely ask her about what’s going on there but not in a ‘you’ve done this wrong’ sort of way. It may be an error on her part, or he may have performed differently to previous years and there may be something that you or her can do it help with this.

Of course say something! That's the point of these things. I'd say 'I saw the mark for X and I'm a bit surprised as he always has done well on that subject. What do you think is happening there?' Hopefully she will be able to back up her mark with evidence, or say why she thinks he is starting to fall behind his usual standard.

I’d be asking whether something has changed. If you respect her opinion it may be that he’s choosing not to do as well as he can due to friendships/peer pressure etc. the approach I would take is not to question her judgement, but to find out why his level seems to have dropped.

sometimes other kids catch up and someone who was streets aheasd is not any more

sometimes teachers make mistakes

sometimes they take the scores from particular exercises and your DS might not have been performing so well that day

Have a chat with the teacher - they don't mind as long as you ask for an explanation as to why they have dropped, rather than tell them there has been a mistake

As a teacher … in your situation I would say….

in previous years DS has always been graded at working at Greater Depth. He hasn’t this year. Do you think he is fully focused / work has become harder so he is now leveling out? I only ask as I want to ensure there are no barriers to learning and we are supporting him as much as possible.

I often find through the lower years alot of children are ‘working above / greater depth’ but by year 5 to be working above it is alot harder.
A child would have to be significantly thriving and able to be working above .

Lastly, it’s rare for children to be working above after just one term !!! Maybe by the end of spring he will be .

Thanks for the replies - it's really helped me clarify my thinking. I suspect DS needs to be more careful/ slow in the subject. He grasps concepts very quickly but can race in an effort to show his talent.

I feel awful asking but I think you are right it's about making sure we are sending him the right messages at home for how to approach the subject.

We were always told by teachers that pretty much everyone was marked as "working below" at this point of the year, because they simply haven't covered enough to grade them as anything else. Doesn't mean that the work they have done hasn't been of a really good standard.

But, this something that I'd expect the teacher to explain, and certainly worth an ask (maybe not in a "have you undermarked him" sort of way, but a "his mark is low; what can he do to improve" way) if it's not raised.

I don't think it's wrong to raise a concern. But in a way to find out why the child who has been always ahead is not doing as well as used to be, rather than imply that the teacher got it wrong.
Maybe she has got it wrong, or the dc isn't showing what he is capable yet to the teacher.

That's exactly the kind of thing you DO raise at parents evening meeting with teacher. (Not framed as an accusation " Your scoring of my genius is wrongity wrong!")

.. Ask why he hasn't done as well as he used to and what advice she can offer.

I'd query it. Are the scores based on in-school tests?

Sometimes we work at a higher level at home but schools occasionally spring GL tests upon kids without warning to establish where they're naturally at. When they forewarn about the tests there is a tendency for parents to prep the children which is misleading.

The school said the scores were based on observation and test results. I know they did a lot of assessments this HT.

I have a similar issue. One of my children was scoring amazingly in one of his subjects at the end of last year but since secondary is scoring very averagely. I plan to raise it at parents evening.

I would imagine he is very capable when he's working one-to-one with an adult as we 'prompt' them through it all. In a test environment he will perform differently when you remove the prompts/support. Sometimes they misread the question. Sometimes it's careless mistakes from rushing. I find DS always performs better on tests if he's made aware and preps beforehand. Sudden tests with no prep can give a very average score.

Unless it's affecting which set he's being placed in, I wouldn't worry too much. It's not an exact science in the way they observe and score the children.