School displaying DD's attainment levels on the wall

[Erinsboroughrocks]

DD is in y6 and working towards her SATs. The teacher has a chart on the wall with each child's name listed. Next to each name is a colour for each subject. Green is working above, orange is working at and red is working below. All the children know what the colours mean. DD doesn't like having this up and I feel a bit uneasy about it. WIBU to ask them to take it down (or instead put up a board of colour coded teacher observations in the staffroom 😉)?

they do vary on the individuals capabilities and are proportionate to what they’re capable of.

but don't you think that's awful? I hate that system so much. That means we are not pushing the pupils at all! If you set a mediocre target for a child, and he reaches it, then he gets a pat on the back and the message is that's it's ok to be mediocre. That's dreadful!
Who cares if by doing that we are closing doors for him, who cares if we are not encouraging him to do better?

Most of the kids are capable of so much, why do we restrict them. When one of my kids announce their results, I always ask them the results of the top of the class. Effort is good, but let's be realistic, plus some schools have much higher standards than others.

And to reply to the comments about young adults at university, who are old enough to go travelling round the world, get a job, start a family, be independent. No I don't think parents holding their hands are a positive thing at all. You are always there for them, but there's a time when they need to grow up!

And there's the issue ^.

Not EVERY child who fails to meet a target is being lazy.

Targets are set on all sorts of data. A child is good cognitive skills will have a high target.
Students with literacy issues won't be able to communicate their knowledge to reach that target. Often they are putting in more effort than other students just to write what they did.

Yet they are classed as lazy, demotivated and not trying hard enough.

Soon enough they will give up if their best effort is never deemed good enough.

And my ds tatgets were always lower than everyone else's - but he was always bottom of the list. Even when he made 2 points progress and everyone else made 1 - he was still bottom because his grade was lowest.

The only way he could EVER get off the bottom spot was by making 5 points progress. Expected progress a year was 3 points.

Are you seriously suggesting most children who are already behind are going to be able to make almost twice the rate of expected progress if they "just put the effort in"

why does everyone talk about 'uni' as though that is the only destination for school leavers?
I don't see how shaming and humiliating children that are not academic and are certainly not going to 'uni' could be considered a valid teaching tool tbh.

Giving the message that hitting your (low) target is good enough is not helpful. (for the moment) exams don't have "targets", entrance exams don't have "targets", getting a job is not about hitting your target.

No one is saying you should humiliate or discourage your own child, the support at home is also extremely important.Whilst I do think that with the right amount of effort every kid has the ability to get top results in all the topics, I also strongly believe there's more to life than school. I don't expect my own kids to be amazing everywhere, I don't want them to spend their life studying when they can do sport, music and all their extra activities.
You make choices, but be realistic, a low or medium level in any subject is low or medium, nothing to be smug about.

Yes, sometimes you need to work harder than others to achieve the same, that's life, and it's true for everybody in different fields. I don't agree either with our system allowing our children to go through even when they are far below. Other countries make them repeat years to help them out, so they have a chance to catch up. Better than spending their entire summer on homework to catch up and have a chance in their new year group.

DullAndOld
Uni is still a coushy place, if you want to prepare the kids to the real world it's o much harder. There's only one person getting an internship or a job, unless you work in the family business.

“Whilst I do think that with the right amount of effort every kid has the ability to get top results in all the topics,“

Gosh. I suspect your definition of “every kid” might differ from mine!

If every kid could get top marks in every topic with hard work, then the work set is not challenging enough for many of the children.

OP well done. You are a

Possibly every kid at NLC............?

Jesus Llangollen- I'm glad you're not my mum !

exactly Bertrand. Oddly that was my old school

then the work set is not challenging enough for many of the children.

that I am not disagreeing with, the level of our exams and education in this country is dreadful.

It might sound like my kids are top of their class, they are not btw, we are quite casual about school, but we are not pretending that they are amazingly academic when they are not. If you want excuses for kids not achieving at school, you will always find them. There are enough examples from bright people from any background to prove that they are just this, excuses. At least be honest.

O was told by a relative who is a teacher that at their school is projected grades are calculated by a formula using their previous attainment, but also postcode and parents' occupations

If you set a mediocre target for a child, and he reaches it, then he gets a pat on the back and the message is that's it's ok to be mediocre.

Define "mediocre". You set a target that is attainable for that child but stretching; he works hard, hits the target, he rightly gets a pat on the back, then you hit the next stretching target.

The alternative is setting a target that is so far above the child's level that he's put off trying at all because he sees it as impossible. How is that better?

When one of my kids announce their results, I always ask them the results of the top of the class.

Seriously? How depressing. If my child comes in and announces he's got 80%, my first reaction is to congratulate him, not to say "That's not good enough, X got 85%". Equally, if it's a subject he struggles with and he manages to improve his marks, I'm really not going to rain on his parade by demanding to know why he didn't get the highest mark in the class.

we are not pretending that they are amazingly academic when they are not.

I don't think that's the issue here. I keep asking the likes of Llangollen how refusing to put a list of children's marks in order on the classroom wall equates to telling them they're amazing, and I never get an answer.

It doesn’t equate to telling them that they’re amazing.
What it is though is a further attempt to shelter them from the realities of a competitive world.

Quotes:

I fail to see how children benefit from being told they are doing amazingly when they are not.

Too many chidren are wrapped in cotton wool and believe that they’re amazing when they’re barely average

We’re quite literally breeding these snowflakes

we are not pretending that they are amazingly academic when they are not.

One of the biggest disappointments for children going into secondary school is when they realise that they’re average, ( of below) when their parents have made them believe that they’re amazing.

Younger generations are infected with this malaise and many are snowflakes whether you agree with the description or not... They have been cushioned from criticism, and conditioned during their schooling to see life’s ups and downs as possible mental illness

Refusing to put marks in a league table list on the wall doesn't equate to telling children that they're amazing, nor does it make them snowflakes or cushioned from criticism. It simply means that the teacher has the sense to treat each child as an individual and deal with any criticisms and problems directly with that child rather than publicly labelling them as not coming up to scratch.

All absolutely true and very well-intentioned by the teachers. It’s just that the education system is then turning out young people who are woefully unprepared for the realities of life and the competitive workplace.

Gosh. I suspect your definition of “every kid” might differ from mine!

Mine too!

I don't agree either with our system allowing our children to go through even when they are far below. Other countries make them repeat years to help them out, so they have a chance to catch up.

Are you aware of the vast range of abilities within mainstream schools? Children can and do enter the year below them and 're-do' a year if it is deemed to be beneficial to them.

Well if a child is only amazing because they're top of class I'll just yell to give up then shall I?

Or shall I continue to think he is amazing and tell him how well he's doing despite possibly only heading for 2/3 GCSE passes?

So what makes him amazing?
18 months ago he was suicidal. He couldn't attend school because he couldn't manage and he was "expected to put in more effort to achieve better and reach targets".

Except he cannot spell and cannot hear or see sounds and patterns in words. His spelling age has never been above that of an 8yo despite being year 9 Now and despite constant input. He has knowledge and absorbs information like a sponge. He can verbally tell you about all sorts of complex science but cannot even begin to write it up because even simple scientific words such as chemical and electrical are beyond his ability to spell. A laptop is only useful to an extent when it can read what word he's trying to write.

He struggles with communication and social interaction. He has many reflexes retained from newborn and hyper reflexive reflexes. If he uses some muscles then it causes others to spasm.

You know why he's amazing? Because despite all this he doesn't complain. He turns up and tries his dammed hardest to be the best he can.

The one thing that does set him back is being shown he's bottom of the class despite his efforts to overcome his difficulties.

He's already very self aware - he doesn't need it published - especially as it gives the not so nice kids another stick to beat him with.

I really wish we all got to live in the nice simple world where effort = amazing achievement and all you ever wanted in a plate.

However ...... back in reality .....

O was told by a relative who is a teacher that at their school is projected grades are calculated by a formula using their previous attainment, but also postcode and parents' occupations

Wow! Has she told Ofsted? They are going to be fucking livid!

Or do you think she or you might have misunderstood the old Contextual Value Added (CVA) score schools used to get? Which has now been abolished anyway.

“Are you aware of the vast range of abilities within mainstream schools? Children can and do enter the year below them and 're-do' a year if it is deemed to be beneficial to them.”

Just as a point of information, this is vanishingly unusual in state schools.......

@hazeyjane much as I wish that were true, in UK state schools, it just isn't. If it were, my DS would be repeating a year like a shot.

What it is though is a further attempt to shelter them from the realities of a competitive world

Do you know that there is a place for everybody and everyone has something to give? We can't all be brain surgeons! The people who clean the streets add more to the community than an high flying banker sitting in a warm offfice, where would we be without music or theatre? What about cleaned or cooks? Schools can't open without them doing their jobs!

What about lol the voluntary workers who keep the system going?

Seriously you need a head wobble otherwise these small humans will feel like complete failures if they don't earn 6 figures

quite honestly my childs grades are nobody elses business
The reason they are up is , in my opinion , so that other parents can see them and push their child harder
well done for getting them removed OP

There are several children with EHCPs who have gone back a year in ds's school, sorry I assumed that this would be a possibility for children in such a position in other schools as well.