To worry that Y7 report implies DS can't even hope to reach an age appropriate target in PE or art.

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DS bought home an Autumn term progress report last night. I've never seen one before and am quite unfamiliar with the format.

The scores are all related to how well a child is performing in relation to what is expected for their age.

At the start of term DS was allocated a target of 'succeed plus' for every subject (including art, French, PE etc). He did well in his SATS FWIW, and I think that's the reason he was allocated the highest target. Obviously SATS performance isn't really an indicator of ability at sport, art, music etc., so it all seems a bit odd.

The report suggests he is working effectively towards his targets for everything except PE and art where he is far below what is expected for his age. In both these subjects not only is he working at the lowest level (classed as not yet approaching the beginning of an age appropriate level), but he has been reallocated an end of year target of 'well below' his age related expectation, so I guess he is struggling to an extent that they can't even see any hope of improvement?

I completely accept that few people are good at everything. But I'm concerned that the layout of this report implies that his target for these subjects is to remain well below what is expected of his age group.

I guess it's the PE that worries me. DS is not very good at sport, but he does try. He's a great golfer, skier and is motoring through a kayak and canoe qualification. However, he's never been fast or competitive enough to take part in team sports. I'm happy to accept he's not in the least talented at sports but should I be worried that he's not even been given a target of achieving a result typical of his age group? It makes it feel like he is judged as incapable of doing sport to any level?

In both art and PE he has been given the highest score that can be allocated for behaviour- implying that he is putting the effort in.

I don't want to be a tricky parent but I'm not sure if I should bring this up with his tutor? I also wonder if his PE teacher is implying that DS has some sort of inbuilt issue with sports- which may be the case, but maybe I should talk to the teacher about it?

Honestly think yourself lucky that it is PE and Art rather than Maths and English...
No child can be good at everything and the existence of targets beyond 'understand the need for exercise as part of a healthy life style' are unhelpful for PE.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much. My dd is very sporty and in fact does a competitive sport outside of school, in which she has won medals - yet her school report says that her performance in pe is weak...

Well he does have an in-built issue with sport - he isn't very fast or competitive! And he can't draw for toffee presumably. Does it matter? Does he have a burning desire to play for Arsenal, or portrait paint for a living?

Given that there are clearly kids who are very fast and very good at art for their age, for there to be an average for his age there must therefore be kids who are below average for their age. You've got one! Did you expect anything else?

As a pp said be glad it's not Maths or English.

Thanks for the posts. Yes I am pleased for him that he seems to be fine in terms of key academic subjects.

He wants desperately to be good at art. I don't think he's bad, but what would I know....

Sports wise, I completely accept he's not great. I guess it's just the assertion that his target is to remain well below his age expectation that seems quite defeatist...

I don't rate DS's PE teachers ability to organise a kids tea party tbh.

DS is the county schoolboys boxing champion for his age
He plays football competitively
Gymnastics 3 times a week
And runs long distance for the athletics club

His year 6 teacher called him a remarkable sportsman with exceptional talent.

PE teacher put him in the bottom set.....DS is MISERABLE

At this point in yr7, the PE won’t have yet got a grip on your DS’s skills in PE beyond the stuff done in school time. DS was competing at regional level in yr7 but at this point in the year his PE teacher didn’t really know that (280 kids in a year, teaching them once a week) not surprising after 9 lessons- not all with the same teacher. He was considered average at best. This actually meant he wasn’t great at football or hockey.

Anyway, I emailed the head of PE with the major successes (regional, national, County medals), so they did get to know what he could do.

He did an assessment on his GCSE taster course last week and got full marks. He was awarded a school award for academic excellence in PE at the year of Yr8. His reports no longer suggest he is average at PE.

I think if children excel at sports which are beyond the school curriculum, you need to help the school understand their talents.

So help him get better at art if he wants to be good at it. Get him art supplies and get him interested in youtube tutorials that explain simple aspects of drawing or craft/modelling, ones that 'click' with him, and let him and help him progress. There are thousands of ways to be good at art and a thousand ways to draw the same picture.

Gawd I don't even look at their art/music/drama scores. Not one of my children have an iota of talent in any of these areas and are counting down the days until they can drop them.

If you are creatively inclined i'm sure its brilliant but for my DC it is an utter waste of time are resources.

Concentrate on his academics...forget the rest

@tAAC I think I'd be querying 'why' with that PE teacher directly.

@queenoflouisiana, i'm waiting until his report comes out to see what it says. Planning on emailing them after that!

Honestly, i wouldn't worry about it.

My boys are both good students academically, but both are pretty rubbish at art, they both know it, and find the humour in it while doing their best. Neither will take art after KS3. I think they get it from me.

As for PE, autumn term is rugby, basketball, football, hockey ... a lot of eye/hand/ball coordination sports. Things may pick up next term. Encourage him to keep doing what he's doing activity-wise, enjoying the sports he does enjoy. Don't stress about the report card for PE. And a lot of children grow into themselves as they get bigger ... remind him of that. My 13 year old has certainly turned a corner with some of these sports!

I wouldn't concern myself if he's got other avenues to enjoy sports. My DS hated (and still does) team sports like football and rugby but excelled at shooting/ archery and rowing outside school. Every year his PE teacher would moan at me about what a pity it was that DS refused to play rugby since he had the build for it, how concerned he was that DS wouldn't participate etc. It culminated in me telling him that I had told DS to do the minimum to pass the class and I wouldn't be pushing him to participate in any team sports.

DS also had poor grades for Art, Drama and Design, yet was the top in his foundation degree in technical drawing and CAD, with the second highest score for his oral presentation and exam for his course. This from the child who was the bane of his teachers for those subjects because he wouldn't actively participate in them because the way they were taught didn't work for him.

DD is going to be poor at PE, can't be helped, it's a physical issue. We just make sure that she's active in other ways, and I just don't pay any heed to the school. She's not planning to go into that field and I would rather that she enjoyed being active or her health rather than for some target.

Whilst exercise is important for everyone, I don't think that not being "good" at P.E ever did anyone any harm. I was appalling and always came last at everything, but now I do things I enjoy like Pilates. He can still participate in team activities without them being physically active if that's what you're worried about. As for art, I don't think it really matters, some people are naturally better at it than others. Again, I wasn't very good at it, but did well in DT and always liked making stuff. As PP said, it might have been more of a concern if he was poor at things which will always come into everyday life like maths and English, but being poor at P.E and art doesn't matter, he can still enjoy those activities without having to be good at them

@reflectionsofparadise DS asked him why he was in the bottom group and told him he didn't like it. The other kids in that group don't enjoy PE, DS says they don't even try, don't run around just walk and can't be bothered. His teacher said they needed people like DS to get the team going ffs. DS says they can't have a decent game as nobody is bothered

I will email after the reports are out!

art is a little beyond me but as a few people have mentioned it's only been one term of P.E - if, like many schools, they rotate through different sports on a term/half-term basis then there may a unit coming up that better suits his skills.
from your post he seems better suited to solo sports so mabye get in contact with the school to see what sports they're doing/will do - P.E is such a broad category with a lot of skills, even kids who excel in some areas may struggle in others.
Schools often follow sports seasons so it may be they're doing team sports like football/rugby etc but he'll get more of a chance to succeed in spring/summer terms as they shift to more individual things like tennis/atheltics

PE should simply be participated/not participated anyway. It should not be a graded class unless they were to switch to basing the grade on tests over theory and rules.

@tAAC I would email, just to keep them updated. The school were surprised at DS’s achievements, but are now very keen to support him.

We also ignore the art, music, design bits of the report- not his forte at all! His options form came home last week and he’s delighted that the end of art is in sight (and planning his options around PE and history).

"I guess it's just the assertion that his target is to remain well below his age expectation that seems quite defeatist..."

But wouldn't it be even more demoralising if they gave him the highest target and he then had to think of himself as failing his targets every year?

He is old enough to understand what targets are and what they can and cannot do. Explain it to him. Make it clear that there is nothing to stop him from setting a personal target that is different. If he wants to get better at art then he can work on it.

At Secondary in my experience the PE report tends to be based on whether your child is in a team
Dd hates the main girls sport at her school and despite being repeatedly asked she won’t join the team. She is in 2 othe rteams at school (having actually started one of them) and at the last sports day she won virtually every race she was in, beating the start players from THE SPORT. However, her effort is apparently average, as is her ability!

Don't worry about the PE thing at all. It's really just one very specific way of looking at sport and exercise.

I was so bad, I was put in remedial PE when we lived for a while in a country that had such a thing. So I wrote myself off as crap, but as an adult discovered I had some slightly more obscure physical talents - I'm a really strong hiker and climber - and it totally changed my perception.

PE at school just doesn't matter.

There are boys whom I was at school with who hated team sports, one of whom used to arrange music lessons then to avoid this. By all accounts so was a great uncle of mine, who ended up playing in the Open Golf Championship on three occasions.

I wouldn't worry about the PE one at all, as others have suggested.

I agree with QueenofLouisiana, one of our DS's was competing at national level in his sport (rowing) and also played rugby with a club team that won the county championship. He was in set 3 out of 4 for PE just because he lacked the nimbleness to excel at football.

It's all about bloody football in some schools. Such a shame as I hoped the Olympics would have changed that attitude.

So he just doesn’t choose PE or Art as GCSE options - as you rightly point out the SATS/GCSE flightpath grades are meaningless (at least your school do change them) and he can still enjoy his sports (the kayaking etc) and keep fit, and be creative however he likes.

Wait! People actually look at the PE bit of the report!? No, surely not... OP your child will never be a brain surgeon because they were a bit sub-par at sport. You should start to manage his expectations now.

I doubt the PE teachers are taking this grading exercise as seriously as you are. They are observing a large number of students taking part in a limited number of physical activities for short periods of time. I don't think it's possible to grade accurately or meaningfully in such circumstances. Clearly they don't know your DS and his abilities very well.

There was a time my own DS couldn't do PE because of health issues and, although he was spending every PE session in the library, he still got a PE grading with some helpful observations about his progress as if he was taking part.

So please don't let the grade your DS has been given get you down and continue to encourage him to take part in physical activities he enjoys, even if they are not the sort that are beloved by PE teachers.