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.

There was a school trip at the Sea Life Centre when I last went. There was a shout to one of the children from a teacher-'Ulysses don't do that!'.

Hmmmm lucky op that is informed by school,we got no info re levels at all.Many schools just don't inform parents in order to make life easier for them.It's like getting blood out of a stone.Fat lot of good getting levels finally in year 6 when they've finished.That is all many parents get.

Also I echo the poster who had bright children so not bothered re levels only to get interested when her other child wasn't achieving as well.Tis all fine and dandy when you have nothing to worry about to boast about your lack of interest but it's a parents job to ensure all your dc are achieving as they should be,levels kind of help with this.

Really hate competitive relaxed parenting,it's as bad as the parents who innocently enquire about what it means when their dc get level 4/5 in the year 2 SATS.

There is far too little info out there for parents,MN is a great place to get info sooooo sorry YABU.

As I said "miss Teacher, please will you tell me what NC level Galadriel nis currently working at? Thank you"

If for whatever reason the teacher won't tell you, then ask the Head. If the school is following the rules, it should take at the most 2 clicks of a mouse to find out.

Oh, and school have a statutory obligation to tell you at the end of year 2 and year 6.

Would be kind of useful if you knew about the years in between,if they've made poor progress between 2 and 6 it's a bit late finding out as they leave.

Yabu

Ds is in year 1. The school have made no mention of nc levels ever and his report doesn't contain any.

Perhaps with your vast knowledge op, you could tell me whether all children in y1 are assessed and whether the school might just not tell parents the levels?

Another parent here who has never been given any indication of levels. My DS is in Y1 and the report just tells us if he is working significantly above, working above ,working at , or working below the national level for his age.

The only place I've ever seen levels discussed is on MN and it makes me desperate to know what his level/score is!

Last year I managed to decode his reception year report thanks to a table that a mumsnetter linked to. I discovered that all the comments on the report matched the comments on the table which were numbered up to 9.

Is there a similar table for decoding the comments on a year 1 report?

All schools should be recording termly assessment levels for all children and be able to tell any parent not only the level but the strengths and weaknesses of an individual child, and what they are going to do as a next step.

"What some parents really want is a breakdown relative to everyone else in the class. Wouldn't that be good for FB boasting?"

Not really.

You might just have sent your children to a school with a lot of thick pupils.

I didn't reveal this before because I was ashamed and thought it would 'out' me as thick and lazy. But reading the rest of these comments gives me courage. I am not alone.

AND I am a parent governor. I have been to the gov's initial training session where the emphasis is all on understanding the data, knowing how the children are doing etc so we can be a 'critical friend' to the HT etc.

I am seriously considering giving up because I can see what a responsible job it is and yet I struggle at every meeting to understand the grading, been though it has been explained, I have been on training etc.

I have 4 A levels and a first class degree. This suggests to me the problem isn't my brain but a system apparently designed to be opaque. The cynical part of me wonders whether this is a deliberate attempt to obscure just how badly so many of our children are doing.

There are children in my current school who are getting extra support who would have not been considered for it in other schools I've worked.

I feel that parents want to know more, which is great, but then find the extra information overwhelming and complain it is confusing. It IS confusing to someone who doesnt use it every day, just as if a mechanic tried to explain the working ability of every part of your car.

Im also amazed at the amount of parents on here who want to know exactly what '3a' means - you really want us to outline which of the level descriptors your child is meeting and what extent? Which ones are level 4 descriptors and which are 3? I am concerned that they will just find this even more meaningless - Johnny can use speech marks and vary his openers....is that good? Its not good or bad, it just describes what he can do and the level tells you how he relates to his peers.

Parents often say - but what does it MEAN? Basically, they mean average, above or below. GCSE reusults are meaningful in a different way - A C will mean they can/cant do the A level they want, get on the college course they want etc NC levels describe the child and the sub levels are a way of ensuring progress. If specific skills are attatched to a 3a, then you know how to get a child from a 'low level 3' to a 'high level 3'.

I am happy to sit down and explain how they work to any parent (and as many have said the information is very accessible and is no different to what teachers use) but then please dont tell us it is confusing and meaningless. Yes, it is. Thats why we dont include a copy of the NC levels 1-8 in our reports.

It was created and imposed as a system to turn children into sausages and fit through the machine. I hate the bloody levels and the spreadsheets and APP and would rather talk about the individuals and how to move them on in their own learning.

That's lovely Fallen but if teachers and schools further down the line are going to use said levels to set and teach to I'd actually like to know what they are,what progress through them should be and how my dc's fit into the national average.

And I'd like to have this info given regularly so I can support my child if needs be when he/she needs me to and not when it's too late.

Which is why they exist, because the previous system was seen as too informal and unable to be analysed.
So if you want to know, the information is everywhere, including detailed descriptions of what constitutes a 3b in writing and what skills you need for a 5b in data handling. But why are parents still confused?
As someone has already said if you know what the average for the year is, then you know if your child is above or below. Easy as ABC

We put levels and sublevels on every end of year report, if that's what you want then organise a group and tell the school. We've changed our reporting format several times due to parental input.
We've also run several curriculum evenings where the staff have outnumbered the audience.

Where is this info for parents with dc not in 2 or 6?I've not been given it from school but read loads from useful threads others have started on MN.Really don't get the need to sneer at such posters who start these threads.

I'm not sneering, I'm puzzled as to why the confusion has been going on for so many years without resolution.

The teacher has the information. The SLT has the information. The parents in our local schools have the information every end of year, and during the year if they request it.

Because many parents are new to the system and haven't been given the info.
I don't get why OFSTED don't make provision of info a priority.Having no info re these levels and progress doesn't help children or parents who want to support their dc.

"As I said "miss Teacher, please will you tell me what NC level Galadriel nis currently working at? Thank you"

If for whatever reason the teacher won't tell you, then ask the Head. If the school is following the rules, it should take at the most 2 clicks of a mouse to find out"

I honestly don't understand what's so hard about this!

If you get a report saying the child is progressing well or needs to work harder to reach expected levels, why would anyone need to know an actual level on untested years? It would just be an arbitrary grading decided by the teacher.

You have answered your own question. The confusion has gone on for so many years, because it is confusing.

Parents need to know how well their children are doing in order to address any problems at an early stage. We need a system of grading that's straightforward.

An ability to breakdown this system to identify how to improve chances of those on free school meals etc is not an ability you can reasonably demand from parents. That's not our role. That's for education policy makers. And maybe they ought to be asking themselves some pretty hard questions about why we continue to slide down the tables in world rankings, despite this lovely fancy new grading system which apparently provides much better data to analyse.

Key stage this that and the other will just not stick for me because it is jargon.

"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."

Yes. Absolutely.

Using google (and most of last night) I've decided that DD is doing well. I'm happy, she's happy. But I still don't understand why the grades on the actual report (the one with the write up) are different to the grades on the other piece of paper (the one just listing the subject header and grade).

Perhaps not all heads are approachable or happy with having to deal with little Jimmy in year 1's levels.

Perhaps many parents who won't have been in a school since they left know the etiquette or have the confidence to approach a teacher for info not handed out let alone the head .Perhaps they're not aware it's there and they're entitled to know it.

Sooooo MN is kind of useful,not exactly hurting anybody is it.