To wonder why so many intelligent parents...

[FallenCaryatid]

Are still completely confused about reporting levels.
They've been around for years, they are searchable on an enormous number of websites, your older KS2 children are using them as targets, schools have curriculum evenings about them, many schools glue the levels into books as success criteria for children to use to self-assess and yet every year it's the same kerfuffle of parents wondering if a 3a is better than a 3c and is it OK for little Jocasta who is in Y1 to be a 3a for maths.
Every...year.

Fallen - there's a mistake on that (otherwise useful) chart

I'm not befuddled at all, my DDs are just smartypants.

Am not bothered about the scrapping of levels except in that nothing seems be planned to replace them. I hate anything that makes more work for teachers, because 1) my mum used to be one and 2) my children have had fabulous teachers since starting school pretty much across the board.

Drat. Mid-word strikeout does not work.

na, na na na, na na...they dont get it from you then pointy

I admit to being confused. My eldest dd is 7 Y2 and I'm from Scotland, so from the beginning of her school career I was flummoxed. Reception year confused me (surely it should be primary one ) and Scottish qualifications/exams were/are different.

I had to get my friend to explain to me wont mention dd1's excellent results though (but I really want to ) coz I'm a but fick!

Well, DS is finishing Yr 1 and school has never mentioned anything about levels. I guess they will be on his report, but that was due to come home tonight but has failed to materialise... So I can't do any stealth boasting about his grades, cos I haven't a clue, but I would like to find a couple of very clear and simple websites to understand what the levels are really like, not just the bland Govt explanation.

Ooh, just seen I could be accused of a very subtle stealth boast about my own intelligence in my post just now... Honestly, it wasn't!

"my dds school seem very cloack and dagger about the whole nc level thing, so they certainly never explain them to parents and most certainly never enter or entertain any discussion about them"

Now this is something else I don't understand. Surely the answer to this problem is to say to the teacher at parents' evening, pencil poised "What NC Level is little Peregrine working at? And what his his target for the end of the year?"

Our school only reports levels in y2 & y6 & sometimes verbally at parent's evenings. tbh, I get pretty at "my child only made X levels progress" threads on MN because I don't believe the assessments can be that accurate, or that children are robots who all progress at same rate. So I am glad our school holds the info back!

dammit why isn't anyone asking me what dd1's SATS results were?!

On the contrary, troll - they regularly try to be toooooooo clever. Just like me...

I haven't let them on MN yet (don't think MN is ready for the likes of them yet) but I'm sure they would master the lovely passive aggressive strikeout in no time.

I am extremely intelligent. I find this whole system of grading needlessly obscure. I don't understand it. It is annoying. I think it is a barrier to parents engaging in the system. Why on earth can't we just say 'this is what the average 7 year old should be achieving. Your child is below/in line with/above that expectation. Then I would know to be pleased or worried without having to wrap my head around again what the fuck 2a or 3a means.

For those who work in schools and think it all terribly easy, well whoopie doop for you. I have a full time job and I am a single parent, I don't have the time or inclination to engage with this. Please just tell me if my daughter is doing ok or not in language that I don't need to go to a website to decode.

I think (in fact, from experience, I know I would) I would have more faith in the levels/what they mean wrt whereabouts my child is if the teacher demonstrating he/she knew the first thing about my child as an individual.

I am forever told that now they are at school the teachers know them best, understand how they learn, know how to get them fulfilling potential etc. and then they systematically fail to do so (actually dc2 has had a great teacher this year, who has really got the measure of her)

I would far rather have a report without crappy levels on it, but with some pertinent remarks about my child, than the cut and paste job + levels that I do get.

I don't understand them but then I'm probably a bit thick and so obviously don't
deserve to have them explained to me.

but i did seeker and she never told me, I came away feeling very pfb about it all. so darent ask ever again.

Our kids start school and we don't understand any of the strange new words which label what they are doing there. All we know is that they leave school semi-literate and pig-ignorant, with lower levels of achievement than so many other countries.The constant changes in education have not improved anything.

I have no idea about levels. But I am equally likely to be found asking about 13 year old ds1's p levels as ds3's NC ones. I don't think asking about p levels can be stealth boasting can it?

Hate it hate it...what was wrong with % in exams and A/B/C? It is confusing because kids are supposed to be at a certain level, except in some things like languages which they are just starting so they have much lower levels etc....its crap!

Most teachers I know think levels are bollocks too. They were never designed to have these a b c sublevels, they were supposed to indicate progress at the end of a key stage. I treat them with the contempt they deserve and mostly make them up.

Well I am clearly thick. I have a year 5 son, my mother is his headteacher and yet I STILL can't remember what the hell it all means and which is the top and bottom of the level and where he should be blah blah blah.

As long as he progresses that's enough for me. I know he is working to the best of his ability. Whatever that level equates to.

I just smile at parents evening and carry on....

Just the opening post confused me. but I'll assume this is English education related and walk on by.....

Spero's "needlessly obscure" sums it up I think. It's almost as if the schools are doing some sort of complicated fadango as a distraction exercise. Read with your children every day, teach them their times tables early on, encourage kindness and boldness and you won't go far wrong. Honest. The levels mean nothing in the long run.

Seriously, it's all a fandango.

We have come from a different country and quite frankly I haven't worked out the level thing, nor seen the need to know. Our kids skipped an ac year coming here, so I "expect" them to be in lower half as they don't have the same ac background. I know which areas my eldest needs to work on, and where he sits comfortably - by talking to the teacher... but how that translates to levels... no idea.

My Dd has been through heaps of changes with schools, so again don't really care about levels, more her social adjustment. she has never had a school report (yr2) as we had to home ed and then she changed schools 2 times.

But, that aside, I wouldn't post the q on mn, so not sure if the "stupid" psrents are the ones who don't understand levels or post about it.

I promise, it's not always stealth boasting, sometimes it really is confusion.

See I thought I got it, but when DDs report came in it was gushing about her reading, she got 'rare full marks' in some test, and HT made a lovely comment about reading 'her first book' (that put DD on a complete high) but the English grade seems to be lower than the other grades, so I am completely . Plus the only time the teacher is available to talk is a day I'm not around.

Drive myself in circles with google last night trying to work it out. I really thought I didn't care about grades etc (DD is only 7), but I'm hating the fact I don't understand it.

(Luckily NDN is a trainee teacher so I am going to ask her today - her kids are older so hopefully she won't think I'm boasting)