Year 7 predicted grades - trying to understand huge difference from primary

[Justtryingtounderstand]

Hi everyone

I had a quick question which I wondered if anyone could help with - just for more info really as I will obviously chat to the school.

My DC has ADHD and other SEN including anxiety. Is now in a small school that specialises in DC with EHCP ( but one that the DC there can all access mainstream Ed).

DC is very happy there and happy going to school for the first time ever which is obviously my main priority ( after a pretty awful time at primary). He isn’t however interested in learning at all and will always always do the bare minimum.

At primary he has always been meeting expectations ( GD for maths until last year) apart from writing where he was ‘just below’. He had extra time available as an adjustment in SATs and got 110 in maths and 108 in reading but was below for writing (94).

We’ve just received his first term report and the school don’t have him tracking for any GCSEs bar one, just in track for functional.

What I’m trying to understand I guess is how this correlates with what we’ve been told through primary? In one sense I reached a position a long time ago where I don’t really mind where DC ends up as long as that’s meeting his potential. It just it seems a really big change in expectations/predictions ( to be clear I never thought he would be a high achiever but I guess I did think he would at least take GCSEs and maybe get a C pass in some?). It would be really helpful to understand if this does seem just totally normal.

To be clear Im happy to work with the school whatever - I suppose he’s so hard to read and I’ve been told so many different things over th years about him depending on the teacher. He also has a tendency due to low self confidence to lean into the whole ‘im
useless’ as he likes the attention he gets ( and this is where the new school has already made huge progress and his mental
health is my main priority.)

It sounds as though they don't have high enough expectations for him and I would asking the question as to why, if I were you. With those maths and reading scores, GCSEs are definitely accessible for him. In fact, a greater depth score of 110 in maths means that he already has the knowledge and skills to have a decent shot at getting a 4 on a set of GCSE foundation papers now.

Just to note: the 94 won't be for writing as there is no writing SAT - it will be for grammar, punctuation and spelling. He will have a grade for writing too but it won't be numerical.

There is no reason at all with those scores he shouldn't do GCSEs.

Thanks both - this was my underlying concern . I will have a chat with the school and try and figure out what’s going on - could be that maybe he needs some different adjustments.

Yes sorry the SAT was for grammar, his given grade for writing was ‘just below’.

He was also out of class a lot so missed quite big chunks of the syllabus so guess this may also be playing a part

I'd just speak to the school. Like pp say, he can definitely access GCSEs, but the school tracking system might be different? It would be strange to track for GCSE from y7, it's something schools are advised against doing (even though lots do?)

Is he in a mainstream school OP? State or private?

I agree with others at this point school should be going with an approach of “he will do GCSEs” but obviously open to change if needed as he gets older.

Why has he been out of class a lot? If that’s for therapy then school should be planning it so he misses minimal lesson time, especially in key subjects. Ds is in mainstream with full 1-1 but one of the reasons he dropped Spanish was to give time in the timetable for him to do the extra therapies needed without a knock on on the rest of the curriculum

I'd be interested in how they set their predictions and/or targets. It sounds like they're set using a "working at" level.

That could mean he's currently working at a non pass/foundation level and these will be revised later, or that they have low expectations of him given what they're currently seeing.

If they were using FFT to generate a target (which uses SATS + gender + date of birth) I'd expect no lower than 4s or 5s with those SATS.

It’s a private small specialist school. Mainly kids with EHCP but who are able to access mainstream Ed.

Sorry the out of class was in primary as we had a nightmare at mainstream primary tbh. He was out of class for most of year 5 just wandering the corridor or sitting in a room and then for some chunks of year 6. His EHCP wasn’t really followed as as long as he wasn’t disturbing other kids they didn’t do any of the stuff to help him access Ed ( he had a 1:1 for lessons in his ehcp but was actually utilised for other kids in the class - so he was left to draw alot of the time as opposed to bullet pointing his work for him so he could access it).

I will chat to the school - I just wanted to check I wasn’t totally off the mark thinking it was a bit of a change from primary.

That does seem strange my ds in yr8 also got 110 in maths in SATS and his maths target is a 7.

@SunsetGirl - His primary didn’t share his SATs with his new school so they don’t have those. I’ve just sent them through. I didn’t appreciate the importance.

The report reads as ‘tracking’ to - so I think it’s forward looking?

I actually wonder if part is they are being kinder to him - he’s a child that needs a tricky balance of encouragement but also high expectations. He had an amazing TA for his last half term of year 5 for example ( who had adhd himself) - who was fun but made it clear he had high expectations. Difference in DC was remarkable and he basically caught up alot of year 5 in 6 weeks and was very motivated. He doesn’t really have any self motivation at all ( all very difficult for me to come to terms with as I was very different as is my younger child!)

At this stage they should be considering GCSE as an option, but I can also understand why if a child doesn't have much motivation and they're out of class a lot then they might not have the information from class. I'd be very reluctant to set aside what I see in class in favour of SATs scores when reporting pupil progress.

A conversation with the relevant staff is probably a good route forward. Most colleagues I've worked with would welcome the conversation.

The cynic in me is wondering if they have assessed low at this point to be able to make big claims about pupil progress over the years

I trust the school so don’t think they are assessing low as a ploy. I was intending to ask for a chat just in a ‘id just like to understand as it’s quite a shift’ way which I will do.

Sorry I should add he isn’t out of class a lot at his current school - that was primary. He is definitely leaning into the ‘I’m a bit hopeless’ narrative and has found the transition to even this high school a bit challenging.

Sirzy
Assessing low on internal tests won't make a difference for progress. There's no incentive to do that because their progress is judged from his KS2 SATs marks.
If anything assessing low means he's likely to track low and have a big gap between what he achieves at Year 11 and what he 'should' have got.

Predicting GCSE grades in Y7 is generally fairly stupid because they're 5 years away, however if they're suggesting that he won't get any GCSEs I'd be wondering what those predictions are based on.

Usually mainstream secondaries use SATs data but CATs can also be used. If the school didn't have access to his SATs data, did he sit CATs when he joined? The first thing I would be asking is how they calculated their predictions.

I agree talk to school.

I'd also look when you have his ehcp AR about putting maths gcse and any others as an outcome. Then they have to aim for him to take them even if others on the school don't.

If the school isn't academically right for him you may also have to look at change of placement.

@noblegiraffe - he did sit some tests. He didn’t have his usual adjustments and did really badly in those tests as he told me himself. I think this is also the teacher’s assessment though ( and they may be correct!).

I guess my worry is if they have too low expectations of him then he maybe won’t be supported/pushed a bit to achieve what he maybe could?

Thanks everyone - I will chat to the school and see what they say.

@itsgettingweird - that’s a good idea re considering what goes into his ehcp ( again unfortunately his primary didn’t actually complete the review last year so we still have the outcomes from year 5 in there which isn’t helpful).

I probably should have been more into this stuff at transition - I was just so exhausted from everything that went on at primary and kind of so relieved he’d actually managed to transition to high school I let things go a bit.

I would be questioning if they had his results from primary school. Also what percentage of children at his school take GCSEs and how many teachers in each subject are experienced in teaching up to gcse standard, as opposed to functional skills. It may be that this school is perfect for his well being, but not for his academic side. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just hard to get the balance right.

The majority of pupils at the school do take GCSEs with a small number taking functional ( or a mix).

Agree it is hard to get the balance right and I do need to remember this! At primary he was self harming, extremely low self esteem, very aggressive to me ant home with constant meltdowns etc. He would not have coped at a mainstream secondary and quite likely would have been excluded ( he isn’t violent or aggressive at school but wouldn’t have managed in a more zero tolerance environment). I can see in just one term he is happier in himself at this school.

Has he completed CAT tests in his new school?

If it is on the basis of written tests he might have refused to do one - can't give a mark for work not completed. ds2 went from Level 5 in science at mainstream primary to Level 2 on his first assessment at special school for instance. This was because any question on biology (development in particular) caused him anxiety at that stage so he either gave stupid answers or refused to answer. I would clarify with school what they based their assessment on and at what level they intend to teach him at. We were worried that they would teach at lower level because of this assessmment but luckily they did understand that the anxiety was masking his academic ability (anyone who talked to him at that stage would know he actually had a very good aptitude for science just didn't like the thought of ever having been a baby and not in control)

Thanks @OneInEight - I do think this is at least some of it. He gets extreme anxiety around any kind of tests and sort of gives up. In primary he sat them in a separate room, but I know here he was in the room with others which increases his anxiety. He told me he hadn’t finished any of the tests.

I get that!

My son had an ehcp and when they are finally settled and enjoying school it's such a relief!