in thinking the end of term reporting is utter bollocks...

[RichTeas]

It seems to me that all these levels 1c,1b,1a...5a and codes NS SS GS and ES (am assuming these are standard across English state schools) only serve to confuse parents on how well their child is doing. All born out of a paranoia to compare relative achievement between students and to muddy the waters should a parent expect good results. What's wrong with A B C D F grading or percentages or marks? Too easy to understand, too easy to compare children, too easy to monitor trends. I understand how the system works (measuring "progress") it just seems a vastly inferior system to the past. Hopefully Mr Gove has this in his sights too.

Because then you can't see progress.

How do you measure progress with A B C D E F grading or percentages?

First time I have heard of this methid of grading progress.

GCSE's are coming back, wonder if they'll be graded A,B,C,C,D,E,F etc

DDs primary (private) didn't use those measures and we really had little clue how she was doing. 'A B C' or a percentage can be meaningless. Does 80% mean very good or easy test?

Now at secondary there's levels for each subject - actual, target, expected; they also report average level and/or exam percentage for some subjects. I think its much better - maybe not 'easy' (as in you might need to think about it for, ooh, a minute or so) but really not difficult to understand.

Levels are being scrapped in primary, I understand. Not sure what they are replacing them with. Given that levels are a national indicator, I would have thought that they would be a better way of comparing children than a percentage. Unless you mean percentiles, like when they weigh babies?

I like to see how progress is being made. Ds is year 3 and his reports have been very detailed and included pointers on what he has to do to achieve the next level, it has helped us know which levels to address. When I was at school the reports had percentages and your class position in tests. I was quite often top so my mum assumed I was doing well, the fact is it was a low achieving school, effort wise I was putting in next to nothing and nobody was really any the wiser. I think it is much better now.

not sure what age group you are talking about.
Ds is at primary his were all marked on (can't remember the exact letters but had a code at the bottom)
Excellent, Above average, national average, below average and needs support (can't quite remember what they phrased them as but that was the gist). The gave the levels but did an explanation of what they were (i.e. what was average/expected).

Seemed clear to me.

they also gave a detailed written report of how they were working and what they needed to aim for next year.

Thanks for the good comments. Am re-thinking my original opinion. Assessment and reporting is maybe more complex than I assumed.