Go4Schools Year 10 Grades

[kittykatmeme1]

Hi all, I am wondering if anyone could help me understand the grades on go4schools. I moved back from having lived in France for 10 years with my husband and two sons. My eldest son was raised in France and was 11 when we moved back to the UK to Suffolk. He has always been an A grade student when sitting tests but is getting really upset that when we go on go4schools it says he has 5 C's some of them C- and 1 A+, the rest are B's. He does not understand when he says there are many in his class who never get A's when sitting tests and formative assessments but yet they have A's and B's in their go4schools. The teachers did say that he did not have a history with them so they cannot put the target grade high yet but surely his actual grades should be higher and his OCF grades? I am completely confused and have told my son oh well just prove to them that you can get the grades by working hard and completing your GCSE's but he is gettting worried that he really is going to get C's in GCSE. I would not mind at all whatever he gets as long as he pursues a career of some sort and is happy! but for him it is extremely important as his dream is to become a lawyer and go to a good university. I have to say he has always got the A grades when sitting tests so can anyone let me know if the Go4school grades are realistic?! Thank you so much

I haven't heard of go4schools but these predictions are probably for school league tables. It is a government requirement that a pupil's progress is tracked from when they leave primary school aged 11 to when they finish their GCSEs in Y11. This data is used to work out how good the school is and a pupil's "vale added score". These grades are the minimum that a pupil is expected to obtain. So if he is doing better in class/does better in the final exams than this grade, he will end up with a value added score of more than 100% which is great for the school. Pupils who do worse than these predictions will end up with a score less than 100% which isn't great for the school (or for them either).
Pupils who have been to state primary schools in the UK called SATs and these numbers are entered into a computer programme which is what systems such as Go4schools use to work out predicted GCSE grades. This won't work very well for pupils who weren't educated in state primaries in the UK. As your ds was in the French system they will have estimated this grade so it will be less accurate.
Don't take too much notice of these predictions as the most important thing for your son is the marks (and grades) he is obtaining from his teachers in classwork and tests.
Hope that helps

Thank you so much for your kind reply. This will put his mind at ease some more. I have told him that what counts is the grades he gets in tests and coursework but it was worrying him that his teachers thought it was what he was capable of. I think you are right in that he was educated in France so it is more difficult for them to know his targets.

Thank you so much for the help :)

Katie x

Hi,
We use Go4schools at my children's high school. I have to say that frankly it is useless! I believe that it has been created as a tick-box exercise for the teachers to please the governors or whoever they are answerable to. We the parents, are an after-thought. A hindrance.
You would have thought that when all subjects show 'below target' then this would flag up a concern but no, when I speak to the teachers they say to ignore it and my son is in fact all ok... (Duh?). Also, it turns out that the data is invariably not up to date as teachers have not yet entered their marks for the term etc.
Answer me this, if the data is incorrect then what on earth are they trying to show?
For me / us it causes more stress and concern than having no information at all!

Hiddlydiddly, I could not agree more. It actually causes stress to the children and therefore to the parents. We also keep getting told to ignore the grades on go4schools and that he's doing really well but why have incorrect information on there?! It's so impersonal too and does not show anything about your child's personal progress or ethic at school. It could be anyone's! What ever happened to good old fashioned school reports?! Such a shame. When it says your child is coasting in a subject and that means not giving their full potential, you want to know why and how they have noted them as that but all it says is one word.. Coasting. I then ask my son who gets upset and stressed out saying but I always work hard in their class so I don't understand. On parents evening the teachers then contradict what they put by saying he works hard?! I think there are now so many pupils and they are becoming lost in a muddled system. It's sad. It would be so nice to see a school report detailing progress and showing correct grades! So frustrating!
Thank you all for your great replies. Xx rant over!