Independent Schools - Sharing of Standardised Test Results

[Wibbs]

My son is at a prep school, where they sit CAT4 tests and GL Assessment's Progress in Maths and English exams each year.

With the exception of Y5 CAT4 scores it is the policy of the school to not share the results with parents. Is this normal?

Practice varies.

Some do (those who see themselves as working with you to get the best for your DC).

Some don't (IME those with more authoritarian 'take it or leave' heads)

Dc sat pips and cats while at prep school. We had a meeting in y3,5 and 7 to review progress which included some of this data especially in relation to choice of senior school. Other than that we didn't discuss these results.

Out of 3 different prep schools we used, 1 shared the data automatically, 1 did so on request and 1 didn't at all. No "normal" in our experience, though the 1 who didn't share it was a 4-18 school.

Ours do, on request.
We trust them to interpret them anyway.

My experience is that schools say that these tests are for their reference but will share results if asked. I don't see how they can decline to really - they are our children

I've never been given any. I wouldn't expect to really.

Funnily enough I requested my DD's last week and was told that they 'don't share' but they do go on references for potential new schools. I assume it is because at our prep school the potential for some parents to get overly anxious about the scores without accepting the results being interpreted correctly by experienced teachers is quite high.

Usually not, but will on request.

CATs can be very worrying for parents, especially if below average, and without knowing fully what they mean could be damaging. Equally, very high CATs can encourage parents to put extreme pressure on children, which is often not helpful.

But, most schools will if you ask them.

Incas tests were shared in prep. Midyis results were not shared in secondary.

Dd is in a different system. Her cats tests were shared but only because they were very spiky & the school had her assessed by an ed psych & the results were shared as part of that assessment.

Ours were not shared but we saw them as part of a reference when he changed schools at year 9.

DSs school only shares them in year 4 upwards, I had to ask (tell them that under the data protection act they had to show me) them in year 3.

My DS1 were very inconsistent between year 4 and year 5 and so I wanted to compare with year 3 before we made the decision to sit 11+.

DDs' shares MidYIS Chances graphs in Year 10, from data generated in Y7.

At a previous two schools I worked in, we never shared MidYIS data, which I disagreed with. I would not have wanted to broadcast it to parents, but for some students, it would have been useful. We used it mostly to inform teaching and then to calculate added value at GCSE.

My current school does Cat4, and I don't think we share the data (I am new to the school). Missing MidYIS :(.