AIBU to not understand the numbers on my DD's school report?

[UndertheCedartree]

I'm so confused!

My DD is in Y7. She started the school a term late so this was her first report/parents evening. I asked some questions about the grading but honestly I left more confused.

On her report there are numbers from 1+ up to 4. There is a number for a target and then a number from her latest assessment.

First of all I'm so confused where they get the targets from. They told me they are from data they get from her Primary school but lots of the subjects they didn't do at Primary school or not much anyway. I asked if 4 is the highest (like an A) and I was told a 4 is where they should be at the end of Y7 then a 5 is for the end of Y8. So does that mean my DD is really behind if she isn't close to 4s? And if so I don't get it as she was only a little behind in Maths at Primary. And why are her teachers so happy with her if she is doing so badly! 😂 It's all such a mystery! What happened to ABC! It's all about data now, but I just can't get my head around it.

So if they set her target as say 2 and she then scores a 3 on her last assessment they will say she is 'exceeding' and all is fantastic but actually it is a whole point away from where she should be at the end of Y7 so surely eventually it means she'll be way behind in Y11 and fail all her exams?

There are no comments!

the targets will be used to ascertain her ‘progress’ at the end of year 11 and whether the school has got her to where she ‘should’ be. The calculation as pp have said comes from knowing in previous years that x% with these sats got 5 at gcse history and 4 in gcse English, y% got 6 and 6 etc

hopefully her school will be flexible with the targets they give her and move these into the background - what this doesn’t do, as you say, is account for additional non sats skills, changes in attitude, ability or motivation. She needs to be encouraged (by you) to set her own goals and targets and figure out how to meet them with teacher support. Don’t let them say she’s exceeding because she’s achieving a 2/4. It’s artificially capping her expectations esp in y7

I can't remember if anyone has said this but the reason they use the SAT scores (and usually their own CAT scores) is because of Progress 8. Schools are measured by how much value added between year 7 and the end of year 11.

So they have to try and show a positive progress 8 score - that a child has done at least as well but preferably better than the end of year 6 / beginning of year 7 scores would predict.

So again it's supposed to be a measure of the education being provided rather than actually being given as flight paths or targets for the children.

I believe they just base them on SATs scores. My DD didn't do any CATs tests when she started anyway.

It seems from others that these numbers are used as targets for the children and 'flight paths' in very many schools.