AIBU to think school has screwed up?

[AuntLydiasSteelyArmPitHair]

Like a lot of people, the school reports have come through from my sons senior school. It isn't a proper report but rather a graded cycle assessment type thing that they release every quarter. So typically September is a brand new term so the report tends to say that all students are below target as they haven't started yet, but through the year they should move up towards their target at xmas, easter and this is reflected by the useless report.

The last report I had, I called school as I was so concerned that my son is below targets in a lot of subjects. He does not lack brains by far but I felt I needed to get them to explain how if each and every subject has his behaviour as excellent or very good, and then his effort as excellent or very good.....why are his actual grades below target (and in the red) ? surely if he is complying and putting in "excellent effort and behaviour" then his results should reflect that as he would be completing all the work?

They said its nothing to worry about. It will right itself by July. Now his report is exactly the same and he is horrified as they have listed Art as one of the lowest possible grades and he is incredibly talented, he never has a pen or pencil out of his hand! He genuinely cant see how its possible for him to have been worse now than at easter and neither can I. Parents evening is always excellent.

So what the fudge is going on? Are the school failing my son in some way as he is obviously (by their own admission) behaving, completing work and is in top sets. Can anybody help me to figure this out? School is now conveniently shut and this is going to eat away at me if I don't get some answers. For comparison, his SATs in his school were all in the top 5% of the school.

I suspect this is to do with the assessment used by the school (unlikely to be chosen by the teachers so don't blame them) by which targets are set based on current grades/scores. So child who is struggling or hasn't been trying gets a low score and a low target, they buck their ideas up/ have extra help and exceed their target. Clever conscientious child gets a high grade/ score which triggers an impossibly high target which they then fail to achieve. It happens in Primary and Secondary.

just tell her to ignore the targets that we know she's done Her very best. Do this - the system is crap (ex teacher here).

Another load of crap system that asjs teachers to give an arbitrary score every half term and then convert this into a bullshit average. Totally meaningless.

So the general consensus is that I shouldn't be too worried.

And yes, he has just completed year 9. He loves school and gets himself up every day and out the door early without any help from me. It is really affecting his self confidence that no matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to ever meet his targets. he asks what he can do better, I ask what he can do better and we are told not to worry.

WHY bloody send these reports out if they mean nothing?

I don't think they do mean nothing? I am not a fan of overly frequent data drops bcause they do produce meaningless apparent graphs!

However, for years now , stduents have been given target grades for GCSE and this is what these are... he has two years to get there! Imagnine how disincentivising it could be if a child reached all their targets in year 9.

I confused. Why send out a report in September if no body has done anything and everyone is below target.

What a waste of time.

There might be cause for concern or not, it’s just hard to tell from that report. He’s working hard. You say he’s in top sets. Parents evening was fine.

Something is wrong. Either the grades he has been given are a pile of crap (entirely possible), his target grades are a pile of crap for where he should be in Y9, he has been given the wrong report, or he is seriously underachieving in several subjects despite no concerns being flagged up by teachers.

Why is a top set kid maths foundation tier?

noble, I have only ever seen the term MEG used for GCSE targets but, yes, there shoudl eb an explanation from the school for that! If not on the report, on their website perhaps, or ina booklet?

or should be even ...

piggy really don’t think a kid with top 5% SATs grades in their school would have 5.5 targets for GCSE, and the OP said that the teachers said the targets should be met by the July. They must be end of year targets.

Why are schools so obsessed with data and yet so shite at it?

I've also only seen MEG for GCSE.

To me there are 2 possible takes:

1. They're GCSE MEGs (but that doesn't tally with maths and foundation tier) in whih case I'd expect them to be under in y9
2. It's a bullshit KS3 flightpath

My gut instinct is it's the 2nd set up. When done well KS3 assessment can be reasonable and clear.
Often too much is based on odd statistical wizardry by someone in an office. (See Noble's thread on flightpaths for more info)

If teachers are otherwise happy with your child then I would be inclined not to worry. I would absolutely keep an eye on the tier for Maths though.

If you want to get a better picture of how DC is doing, give it 4-6 weeks of Y10 and ask for a round robin from your child's head of year. If you explain why you'd like a bit of information then most staff are more than reasonable.

Schools are only obsessed with data because ofsted ask for it. No teacher actually likes doing it.

I don't necessarily agree that effort always translates to results but I definitely see your point about the report. Completely useless no wonder you're concerned.

agreed noble but it does depend on the school's intake profile !

We have a real data geek at our school. That's a double edged sword, I can tell you!

Aunt yes, I wouldn’t worry too much, my dd is year 9 too and her report is similar due to the high targets she has been set. She’s still working at the top of her class apart from PE and Music which she hates. Her maths wasn’t great despite being told at parents evening that she should consider A level maths when the time comes .