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.

We are on child no 5, having got the other 4 through the entire school system and out the other end, and I have no idea what any of this means

I am aware, through my own observations, that DD must be somewhere towards the bottom of the class as she still can't read and can just about write her name, while a number of her peers can write in sentences and read proper books. But that's it. We've had no levels from school and no indication officially of how she is doing compared to how she should be doing. After 4 very bright kids I'm finding this one a bit of a mystery.

But why should parents automatically understand it? We didn't grow up with it and until your child starts school you have no experience of it. It's like me expecting you to understand the intricacies of accounting because I use it every day

Not knowing about accountancy doesn't affect me or my children, I became very versed in ASDs because it did. Is knowing what the levels are and signify important to parents?
Should we just put AA /A /BA and an effort grade?

"But why should parents automatically understand it? We didn't grow up with it and until your child starts school you have no experience of it. It's like me expecting you to understand the intricacies of accounting because I use it every day"
They shouldn't understand it automatically. But it is information that can be obtained on the first page that comes up if you google "SATS levels explained". So not exactly obscure.

A long and illustrious Civil Service career has left me with a serious talent for reading upside down.

Look Mrs Teacher, the grades that the kids are expected to achieve change every year for them. You can't expect parents to remember which grade their child was on for every subject and know what they should be achieving at all times. Parents have a lot to think about!!!
Also, teachers use such stupid jargon all the time. It is about time they learned to speak in plain English just like everyone else in the public sector.
I know it sounds like I hate teachers but I don't, they just piss me off a lot.
By the way, I'm about to start ITT.

DD is at a private school and we don't get any of the NC numbers. Instead we got told their percentage averaged over the year, the year average and the highest mark achieved in the year (96% - dd's marks are no where near that gulp). Thus its easy to see how she's performing in relation to her peers and on her own account. Simple.

All the 1as and 2cs would irritate me beyond belief and I can understand parents getting confused.

Sabriel Have you considered dyslexia?

Here, here Migsy - all this governement-speak gone crazy. Teachers spout it - parents repeat it. We've shyed away as a society from calling a spade a spade. 'Tarquin is struggling to keep up in class' we all understand - this fact is not obvious in the comment 'Tarquin is working towards level x'

It would be much easier all round if we could just give our honest professional judgement on a child's achievements or lack of them. My old school reports were much easier to understand, but then if a child was described as lazy or disruptive or rude, the parents often saw that as a fault that the child needed to correct rather than a matter for complaint to the head.
So now very few reports have criticism in them, however constructive.

AA/A/AB???

What do I deduce from that? If my child got an A I would be proud - but are you telling me that is average??

What on earth is wrong with very good/ good/ average/needs help/ needs a lot of help. Then a grade for effort. I think this is very important because you need to know if a child is trying hard but just not getting it, or if child isn't making any effort at all. These different scenarios potentially highlight very different problems.

It's easy to find the information up to year 6, but if you can find what the expected levels are at yearn8 I'd be delighted

Boonslayer.... the reason for this is that languages,music,history,geography r.e. etc, are not studied as individual subjects ,as such, until they reach secondary, so, to all intents and purposes , they are leaning from scratch. Hence level 3 is deemed good straight in, but if your child was a 5a maths on leaving primary, level 6 isn't such a big leap.

Oh dear..I seem to have missed that there were quite a few messages after yours. I really should look at what page number I'm on

I think school stuff seems to genuinely baffle some people. The amount of intelligent people I know who have fucked up their child's primary school application by being completely clueless about a very straight forward process.

At my kids secondary school they have effort and attainment grades,as well as NC grades., 1 is really good ,above and beyond what is expected, always hands in homework ,always has the right equipment etc
2 is level expected, and USUALLY hands in homework etc, 3 is below expectations etc and 4....Well, have they actually been attending?!!! (my words, lol). So if you are getting 1:1 or 1:2 or 2:1 you are doing really well and behaviour is exemplary 2:2 bog-standard with scope for improvement, anything under that is not really acceptable.

In one school I worked in, you weren't allowed to award a NC level lower than the previous report. Even if said child was regressing/not doing the work etc. For Y7s, we had to get their Y6 reports from primary school to check the levels.

Lack of criticism, even if constructive, is frequently not allowed in schools anymore. Fustrating for the teachers and, I imagine, for the parents too.

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]

It always puzzles me that the levels weren't set to correlate with the school year your DC was in. So if you were Level 4 at the end of Year 4, you'd be content. That would betoo easy transparent and save a lot of bewilderment.

As an aside, FallenCa, I think you may have sussed my fellings re LevelAngst elsewhere on the boards. [wunk]