Teachers! Why do schools do this?

[ButteredRadish]

School report. Year 5. SEN but at mainstream Primary. Report summary included wonderful, kind words full of praise and appreciation. Not a negative word to be said! Lovely. Brought a tear to my eye, actually. Then we get to the end of year ‘scoring’ section.

Maths: WTS = Working Towards the Age Related Expectation (So in other words “Your kid is behind….”)
Writing: WTS = Working Towards the Age Related Expectation
Reading: GDS = Working at a Higher Level within the Age Related Expectation for Reading

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not overly surprised that my child is behind in Maths & Writing but ‘ahead’ in reading. My child has SEN as I’ve said, so it’s somewhat to be expected. But do all schools use this ‘That kid’s behind, that one is ahead’ system?

I’m not actually complaining or being precious about them informing me my child is behind(!) I’m just shocked that they ‘score’ primary children on their report card. I mean, fair enough behind the scenes; Just seems a bit competitive to be issuing ‘scores’ on how clever your kid is. We’ve got all that fun & games to come with exams etc in high school.
Didn’t they stop the whole Top of the Class thing decades ago?! (I know it’s not quite the same!)

I can totally see some parents feeling like shit that their child didn’t get ‘GDS’ on all three. There’s already two mums not-so-subtly bragging about their year 2 DCs getting 3 x ‘GDS’, on the parents’ group and a playground mum I speak to whose DC is in that year, is heartbroken that her daughter got ‘WTS’ on all three. She wasn’t expecting it on any of them so the bragging is not helping her at all. Could they not include it a little more diplomatically within the Report Summary to avoid braggy mums, or is that asking too much?! Is this ‘scoring’ necessary for another reason?
Would be interested to hear from any teachers about why this is done? Thanks!

I didn't realise it was something they were required to do, so that's good to know.

Don't show your child the report - its for the parents benefit not the child, especially at that age. You can tell her the bits that she needs to know - which will vary from child to child.

I'd interpret those in the same way you have. But "working towards" is something your school have invented to help differentiate between the "almost theres" and "still a long way offs".
There won't be that differentiation in the SATs.

"Working towards the expected standard" is language directly taken from the statutory KS2 teacher assessment frameworks.

That's not true though, many other countries test a lot more. In my country they test constantly and every single test counts towards their grade average, which needs to be 5 or above to pass the subject that year.

Exactly that - I think the lack of proper testing and evaluation is detrimental to the children here. I also come from the country where every child has to be ready every single day for a 'surprise' marked test or questioning from the teacher from the past material. Here they are just having fun at junior primary (my son is in year 5). Kids spend all their time at home gaming or on Tik-tok, and the homework is 10 minutes once a week. Because of that it really took us a lot of effort to prepare our son for the 11+ exams - how you can do that without the growing resentment from the child, if the whole message from the school is that you don't have to do anything, just enjoy life? The school provides 0 support or understanding. It's just there to make kids happy, not to prepare them for real life. And they are lost and shocked when they turn 18 with no life plan and actually find out that life is hard.

To be honest, I couldn't care less about SATs. He's Year 5 in September so still a way to go for him anyway.

Like I said in my first comment, I was expecting below in everything so I'm actually pleasantly surprised and pleased that he's progressed better than I thought.

He's happy and trying his best which is all I'm bothered about.

Well, I trust you’ve enjoyed the secondary school experience where they are tested to death. The “education” this country offers is awful.

Why do people continue to repeat this? It’s completely untrue.

I really missed the old (early 2000's) style levels. IIRC Gove messed it up. The old style explained how far behind or ahead they were. New style was either working towards or achieving. Achieving meant nothing to me as they might be at the bottom end of it or two levels up. It added a whole new level of stress and anxiety for me when my kids were at primary.

The thing is, that some parents want to know X info and others want to know Y. Some will say they’re not interested in where their DC fits with the rest of the cohort or where they are in relation to upcoming assessments….but other people are.

The report received shows BOTH the progress the individual child has made from their own starting point AND where they fit in terms of achievement compared to expected levels. And yes, the report is for parents. It’s not intended for children. Parents should read it first and then decide if it’s appropriate to share some or all of it…but know it’s not targeted at the children.

People complain if they aren’t told where their child fits…and then later results are a big surprise. It’s a reason why government requires that this info is shared. But some people won’t like it.

I suspect the thing that’s upset OP isn’t the reporting itself, but the fact that other parents have shared and made it all into a competition…or that’s how Op feels, PLUS the fact that DC felt sad, but that was because OP chose to show info not intended for DC. In itself, there’s nothing wrong with the reporting.

Focus on all the positives of effort and progress. Each DC can only be themselves. It’s right that where they fit is shared, because at various points that info really is important, but as a parent you. An glance at that and forget it if that’s what you want. It would be wrong for the info not to be shared by schools….and it’s naive to imagine that there isn’t a need for a system that establishes expected levels and children are graded within that.

I'd prefer more 'levels' than just the the 3. In some schools it's incredibly difficult to get anything other than 'at expected level' unless they really are doing exceptionally well or badly, so the report doesn't say much.

In an ideal world I'd be very clear with language, but people wouldn't like that, so for example:

Behind enough that it's a significant concern
Well below average
Struggling
Average
Doing well
Doing extremely well
Exceptionally gifted.

People would only like that if their children fell into anything above average. 😂

My son's school has greater depth, expected standard, working towards and working below. I like the extra one, it bridges the gap between expected and working below.

Nah, my children are behind in some areas, and I'd very much like to know just how behind they are.

Mine is behind in all areas. He is most behind with writing and maths by quite some way, his writing is definitely nowhere near end of Year 4 standards.

Education researchers and GTC agree. Apparently we're second to the US.

I think what they mean is official centralised tests (KS1, KS2, GCSE, A levels), not day to day tests used for assessment of progress that are common in Europe.

Ours is very clear, if you are in year 5 for example and are working towards a subject, it tells you what year group they are performing at. It works very well.

I have a child who is working towards all expectations, of course I am still proud of him, he does his best, why would I not be happy with seeing how he is achieving and what we can do to help?

And can you imagine if exceptionally gifted landed in the lap of a bragger mum, never hear the end of it!

Yeah it likely refers to external exams taken by all children in the cohort, other countries don't have so many of those because they have far more frequent testing instead.

Ours doesn't say what year group. I'm glad in one way since my son's handwriting would probably be something like Year 1 or Year 2 at best and he's finishing Year 4.

Just knowing he's working below standards in that area is enough for me.

I do think it helps to know for moving up to high school what age range a students writing is at. This can assist them in deciding if a laptop would be beneficial for any longer pieces of writing.