grades - can someone please explain how it works?

[ivykaty44]

When I go to parents eve the teachers sit and look at my dd's marks and give me oh she is at level 5 a or level 5 c and we want her to be at level 6 or she is above what we expect at level 4

Can anyone help as to what this means in % as I am never really sure of these levels and often resort to asking the teaching - is she doing ok in this subject could she do better and get answered in numbers and letters.

If I knew dd was getting 70% I would know where we where or if she was getting 50% then more work was needed - but I struggle to fathom this system?

They aren't very helpful at all and the school should have some mechanism of explaining progress as at this age that's what is important

Have a look back at year 6 SATS results

A 4c at end of year 6 should equate to 4a at the end of year 7
4a at end of yr6 should move on to a 5b end of year 7

However this is just a guide, especially with it being an academy and you really could do with speaking to the school -head of year would be your best contact

Thank you.
This is a nightmare and all new to me.
How would ine approach and word this without looking thick. Any help would be most grateful. Xx

Sounding thick . X

You don't sound thick at all!

It is very confusing and it's not even a published scheme anymore so the levels mean nothing

I would just email head of year, or ring and leave a message, saying that you'd like to discuss your child's progress and attainment in terms of age related expectations

If they are set for core subjects it would be useful to know which set they are in out of how many sets

If your child is in set 4 of 5 it's a fairly clear indicator of their position -although again it's not a diffinitive marker as it depends on the ability of the year group

Thank you.
I've just recently had her parents evening and they said she was doing well out of the tests that she had recently she got the highest in science 5b and her English was a 5b maths is her weakest subject so only got a 4a. Nothing about sets or anything. Just that they are trying to get her to a 6 in the science and English. As for her maths she did score more than a 4 some 5&6 but as a whole to level her out if I heard correct could only mark her as a 4a. It's so frustrating as I was getting around this way of scoring.

Schools using levels really annoy me

They were not designed to assess individual pieces of work

4a is by no means a disaster and if she is getting some 5s and 6s it's probably just 1 or 2 topics she's finding more challenging -it would be helpful to know which topics they are

English and science are good scores for the real world (mumsnet is full of higher ability children)

Sorry what do you mean mumsnet is full of higher ability children?

Not sure if I've missed something. X

It was a joke but in the past when people asked about levels you would get lots of people saying that their children were level 7 across the board in yr7

Highly unlikely as those children would need to be in the top 0.05% of the whole country

I was just giving you a heads up incase some one came along saying anything negative

Ohhhh bless you. sorry derrrr 😨 told you I'm thick.
Thank you so much for your time and help all so new to me and what with moving to a different county it's different. So just trying to get my head around it all. Xx

I do have one last question when did it all change my friends sob goes to grammar school and they still use the whole level scoring. X

It changed 2014/15 but the current yr7 was delayed for 1 year so this is their first year without levels

The problem is national levels were removed but not replaced with anything so schools were left to sort it out themselves

Primary schools seem to have been much more proactive in this respect

Oh right okay.
Thank you so much. X

Hang on a minute. NC levels have now gone. Be careful your child's school is not using the new GCSE grades which are no longer A-G but 9-1 (with 9 being the equivalent of the top half only of A).

Can I ask why be careful what does this mean. If it is?.

Oooo I hate not being in the know.

With your dd's school using a mixture of letters a numbers it sounds like they are still using the old NC levels

Some schools are using the new GCSE grades which are numbers 1-9 but do not include any letters
That might be what your friend's school is using -so don't compare your children's numbers, they aren't comparable and may be misleading

Oh right thank you again. X

Apart from telling you about the curriculum will the whole scoring/level system information be on there?. X

I only ask as I can not see it on there. X

Do you mean the school website using my psychic powers

Unlikely to be on in any detail

Oh gosh thought I'd put that! Sorry. Yes I do. X

Hi I wrote this to my daughters science teacher.what do you think?
Her reply is below.

Is my daughter where she should be for her age ability etc... could she do better and what are her predications for the end of year 7-8 and if possible year 9. Of course it's how she performs on the day. But if we had an idea of where she will or could be that would be great. other than that is she in target.

Currently your daughter is working at a secure level 5 which means she is making the necessary progress. We are still using the old national curriculum levels because they have not been replaced except for developing, secure or extending, which are not very informative. She is currently my top student in both the classes I teach and she is doing very well and is above average in her age ability currently compared to her peers. She has an excellent attitude to learning and is a pleasure to teach.

Still awaiting on replies from others.