Do independent schools use national curriculum levels in their key stage three teaching

[twinsetandpearls]

I know many opt out of SATS but do they use levels as a way of monitoring and raising achievement or to inform planning. If you have a child in the independent or public sector are levels reported to you.

Not at key stage 3, no. They may use them internally, but I doubt it.

the school that my two go to uses the KS3 curriculum.

they use the normal levels to indicate progress etc.

not sure what they plan to do when the new KS3 curriculum comes in this sept

No, not at my dds independent scecondary.
They do the KS2 tests but not ks3.
Still get fab GCSE results though and don't waste most of year 9 teaching them to pass a test.

They do modular tests as they go along to inform progress. The first report I had on dd at the end of the last term was far more personal and informative as to her strengths and weaknessess than the stupid generic ones she got at Junior school. No one has mentioned levels to me since she joined the school and it's Bliss!

I teach in an independent school and we don't use NC levels or KS3 tests at all as far as I am aware. In many subjects we start the GCSE couse in Yr 9 so that we can take our time on the syllabus and include extension/enrichment material where appropriate. We do our own internal tests/exams regularly.

Thanks, I find levels a really useful way of raising achievement as it is a way of quantifiying progress and saying to get better you need to do this and this. IN the subject I teach the levels lin very clearly to future GCSE grades so it is a way of developing the skills they will need in key stage four.

Find it interesting the private/public sector may not use them.

I teach in the independent sector and use NC levels. We use a standard teaching scheme that provides levels, so it is no effort to record their levels.

Thanks so it seems there is mixed practice

my boys school doesn't - they set their own tests, and also start GCSE work in Y9. Do iGCSE in maths. It's very easy to see how the boys are doing, the reports are informative, and the staff tell you how they are progressing - also measure the boys progress against how they have been doing over the years, and against the year cohort - that info comes as graphs.

I do record levels in Science whenever I do a test (just because it is easy to do so). We don't report them to parents. I also teach geography and have no idea about NC levels for it. It's not my objective to get them to a level, just to give them a passion for the subject and develop a few key skills.

Thankyou, have had a very hard day today but the hard days getting fewer.