A vent seeing as I can't show my real disappointment -school awards evening

[Teddypops]

DD is in Y7. All of her friends had an email about an award they were winning at school. The awards evening was this evening.

We had no email. She got no award.

She does quite well at school (generally grade 7 in the important stuff). But really doesn't put much effort into anything else other than her hair and make up.

She has no interest in sports or any hobbies despite us giving her every single opportunity. Nothing !!

I'm disappointed. But obviously I can't show it to her.

So i'm venting on here instead.

My dd was like this, got all A* at A level and is now at a prestigious university, it turns out she has adhd.

I've never encountered using the 9-1 system in KS3 either. DD's school is in fact reluctant (rightly IMO) to convey anything that suggests a Year 7 child is on target for a Grade X at GCSE.

However, a child getting 7s and 8s with no particular effort will not stand out in what sounds like a high achieving school.

OP is not actually disappointed about the actual award anyway. She's disappointed that her child isn't worthy of any particular adulation, unlike most of her primary school peers, when she believes that "her child" ought to be because that was her aspiration for her.

Unfortunately secondary schools tend to be large and the vast majority of the students won't particularly "stand out". That's not to say they can't achieve in their own way and relative to their own abilities.

yes a state school. The exam paper on my table is a tier 1 AQA maths paper so can only get a 5 max. So they aren’t sitting the full paper.

When we had the grading explained they told us that this is what schools do. So they aren’t getting 7/8/9 in KS3 and usually set goals so that they can see themselves claiming the grades over the years and improving. I was really confused on y7 and I asked the teacher to explain as she got a grade -4 as her target and had hit that target and I thought it was terrible but she said no, it’s GCSE level -4 so for a y7 that’s good (old GCSE C I believe). This year her target was a +4/-5. She got a 5 in a piece of English writing and her teacher said it was amazing. She’s in one of the top sets and no one was getting more than a 5+ in any of theirs grades. They grade the science the same and I believe use questions from GCSE
papers based on their topic areas.

I’m a teacher myself but primary but this approach makes sense to me. More than giving a 9-1 grade that’s not GCSE equivalent but just their Key stage. I remember getting As and Bs at KS3 and was disappointed in my 6 Cs at GCSE (I got As and Bs as well in 5 others).

When we had the grading explained they told us that this is what schools do.

perhaps in your LEA but certainly not “schools” per se

I can understand an able mathematician doing the foundation paper in KS3, but it won’t be happening across the board. In English Lit , they won’t have studied the texts, so they’re not going to do past papers, are they, for example.

Mine doesn't. She's 13 actually, but has never worn it. Several of her friends are the same.

I wouldn't worry about little awards. Which are nice, but colleges and employer's. Will not ask if you got award in year 7. So long as her Grades are good. She hopefully will do well in her G, C,S, E's. This is what really matters.
My son didn't win any awards in secondary school. At primary, he was good at football, but at secondary, he had to try out for the team, he didn't try out as, he didn't think he was good enough and didn't like being under pressure. His grades are good so I don't mind, this is what will help him get into college.

I won an award once at school in year 11 for German. I’m not sure it’s that common to get awards.

Oh at some school, a daft mentality of “everyone’s a winner” has developed. Meaning that awards mean bugger all to the pupils

Whereas you still recall yours

So happy with my children’s school.

No ridiculous attendance awards (I suppose because attendance is so good). And whilst there are awards for the soft skills and trying hard etc

they also reward pure and unadulterated academic and sporting achievements irrespective of whether the pupil is a “goodie”!

It's not that weird to ask the school the percentage, it's basically an FOI, literally what the freedom of information act was meant for and you're not supposed to infer the requesters intention either

No, this is not what the FOI was for 😂

in any event, given the op was actually present at the awards event, surely she has a vague idea of portion of award winners compared to school roll

@Kimchikitchen so what do you think FOI is for then?

It's literally so you can ask any question you like however ridiculous, unless the public body can apply one of the exemptions they have to answer the question, it's as simple as that

You have the right to ask to see recorded information held by public authorities.

the school won’t keep records of percentages of children that have won awards. So not recorded information

The op could spout off about the FOI

and the school could simply say - not something have recorded this year or indeed any year

@Kimchikitchen if that's the case they can decline to answer, doesn't make the question wrong. However it's likely they keep monitoring information or at least can provide assistance under advice and assist

Nope.

you are wrong

it has to be information they record

so you could ask about school roll for 1993 and if they say no - then you could input a FOI because the school will have recorded the information

Ok you are changing your point.

of course she can ask

of course the school can answer or decline

but FOI has bugger all relevance

I think they’ve used some past paper questions for science. For English they haven’t used past papers but have graded them as if they’re currently writing and reading at GCSE so the grades are actual GCSEs. They give them GCSE styled questions to answer. Obviously they’re not reading the set texts yet. But there’s other things that get examined not just reading.

Maybe it is our LA. Ofsted were in recently and headed them as good and it wasn’t mentioned in their report so that’s not an issue.

As for the awards. My eldest had received an award in y7/8/9. Hers are for attitude to learning and not necessarily academic. She is quite academic but there are other kids who get those awards as some are really high flyers. When she got one in y7 I was pleased as there’s 200/300 kids inn her year group (could even be more) and she is autistic but a rule follower. She’s not a teachers let type child but definitely conforms. I wasn’t expecting awards after y7 as I assumed they would share them out a bit more but 2 of the years were her tutor’s award for attitude and my DD seems to think they’re quite a difficult tutor group. From what I gather though it’s only a small % who get the awards. Quite a few of her friends got them in y7 but haven’t had any since.

As for make up. She’s 13 (14 next month) and doesn’t wear make up. She has make up, experimented a little when she was younger but has zero interest in make up at the moment and zero interest in doing her hair in anything other than a ponytail. But there are a lot of kids on her year group who do wear make up. Y7/8 it’s banned totally but she’s y9 and they’re allowed light make up.

Exactly this

@celticprincess I think that sounds like a very odd way of doing things, because so many children would be off the bottom of the scale.

Other than maths and English Language, there are no subjects I can think of where you'd be able to access (m)any of the questions in a GCSE paper in Year 7.
And even in maths and English, it must be only the higher ability students that are getting grades. What about the students that go on to get 2s and 3s at GCSE? They would be unlikely to be getting more than the very odd mark on GCSE questions in Year 7.

@celticprincess

Maybe it is our LA

It is. And I’d go so far as to say it’s the only LA.

What a way to start new secondary pupils off seeking a bit shit if they’re being graded as such

This! Many award winners seem to be the ones keen to say how good they are. What shines in a school setting won’t necessarily shine in a university setting or the real world.