Independent schools and NC levels. Do you function without them?

[conistonoldwoman]

Just curious to know what percentage of independents actually subscribe to levels.
Do your parents ask for them or do you have the confidence to assess and manage your pupils' progress using your own systems?

Not a teacher, but a parent (with a semi-professional interest in education).

DD is at independent primary (yr4) and they do put NC levels on annual reports, but also test and give results for NVR etc, including comparisons with the school cohort and national averages.

DS is in yr8 at independent secondary, and they have never given us NC levels (not sure if they use them internally) but we get assessment grades for attainment and effort (eg A* 1 etc) for each subject every term, which gives a good idea of what GCSE grade to expect if DC carries on making progress at the same level. Much more helpful than NC levels, IMO.

DS at independent prep. No reference made to NC levels and I don't think that the school uses them internally. Ds is in an independent school partly because we want to avoid the NC

I have no idea if DC's schools use them or not...certainly they have never been passed along to us, except at the end of year six.

DD at independent school which uses PIPs testing in pre-prep and early juniors and then CAT scores after that.

My DDs junior school did give levels in yrs 4 (or maybe 5) to 6 - not before IIRC. (They more or less followed the NC plus extra stuff). They did CAT scores end of yr4 and 5 too, but those are a measure of inherent ability not attainment so not the same thing at all. CAT tells you how bright your kid is, not whether they are learning effectively. But I'm sure you all get detailed reports which cover that aspect whether they give NC levels or not.

Thank you for the replies.
It seems a shame that some independents felt pressured into jumping on the NC band wagon.
Like you say, vixatis, parents choose to go private to avoid the everchanging fashions dictated from on high.
Independent schools should stick to what they know works best but also have the freedom to cherry pick new ideas or ways of teaching the traditional skills.

DD and ds are an independent prep.

The only time I had a report which contained levels was in reception and I complained about it becasue it was gobblidigook and bore no reflection to dd's abilities eg she can count to 20 and add up nubers to 10. She had done this and more in nursery but the whatever it was stepping stones reposrting level then (think its changed now) only went that far.

I too partyly went indy to avoid SATS and NC.

meant to say the levels only went that far for foundation stage.

I am a teacher and I think the NC levels, at least those in my subject anyway, are a load of rubbish.

What is your subject KK?
Do you teach in state or private?

We track levels on end-of-topic tests, and report levels to parents at the end of year. We, the pupils, and their parents, are not obsessive about them.

I think they take the spirit out of learning.

I think they take the spirit out of learning.

My judgement exactly!

DS is at an indie school which I think ranks pupils a bit brutally., too.. but no NC levels offered.

I teach French and have only ever worked in state schools.

The NC levels are very artificial and result in children having to put certain verb tenses in pieces of work just to show that they know them (often they don't, they have just learnt some in the first person as a phrase) even when using that tense is irrelevant to the actual task set.

If someone in real life asked you what you watched on telly last night, a sensible answer might go into a lot of detail in the past tense about what happened, and maybe the future tenses to say when it is next on. You would not then decide to say what you used to like watching when you were ten years old, or what you would have preferred to watch instead. But this is now actually rewarded by the levels system.

It's nothing to do with actually understanding what someone is saying to you and being able to give a confident answer.

DD is at a prep school and we are never given NC levels, and they don't do SAT tests. They assess every half term but these results are not given to us unless we ask for them directly - but not related to NC levels.

I'm with KatandKit to a certain extent (also state school teacher). The descriptors of various 'assessment foci' are pretty subjective IMHO. What's one teacher's 'insight' might be another's 'understanding' and so on.

Littlemiss, re your comment about NC levels in Reception; All schools including independent schools are bound by law to teach and report on the EYFS if they provide an EYFS setting. So whilst they can avoid all the rest of the NC and ignore SATs, they have no choice but to adhere to the EYFS. So basically, schools don't have a choice in this matter.

We got the EYFS stuff but no reference to NC further on. They are given a grade for attainment and one for effort. We have been told verbally at PEs how they rank against national average though.

EYC levels yes - as someone said, they don't have any choice.

For the rest, they take little notice of the NC at all - reports are purely words (no grades) until Y4, then grades for effort and for achievement, and marks and class position for internal exams. They also get weekly effort grades (just told to them at school) and monthly-ish reports which include an effort grade.

No, and nor do the other independents nearby. The only reason I know the exists is from the very detailed posting on mumsnet, and still don't really know what they denote.

Michaela..do you work/have DC at an independent?