Year 5 Maths Assessment

[OlafPie]

My son has just done a year 5 maths assessment prior to having the Parents Consultation. The way the school works (not sure if all state Primaries are the same) is that they either are in red (working below expected level), yellow (working towards expected level), green (working at expected level) or blue (exceeding expected level).
The cut off from yellow to green is 95. My son scored 97 but was put in the yellow so they know to keep an eye on him and if he needs a little help then it will be flagged, whereas if they gave him green he would slip through the net a little. So in that way it's good, but also he's extremely despondent that he's in yellow, despite me telling him grade wise he should be in green.
I can't find from Google (and didn't think to ask at the time) what the maximum score is. Does anyone know please? It was an NFER paper if that makes any difference. Also, the teacher explained that the maths paper they did covered the whole of year 5 and therefore quite a lot of maths was in the paper that they haven't yet covered. Why do they get assessed on work they haven't even covered? Just trying to help understand a few things as I'm a bit confused by it all. Thank you.

Was it perhaps a standardised score OP? That’s how it works at our primary in Yr 5. The school / teacher could tell you, I would just ask.

If it was a standardised score then the ‘average’ (working at expectations) would be 100 which sounds about right based on your son’s mark.

At our primaries, if they score 100 that’s about average, 110+ is pretty good, 120+ means the child might suit a grammar school (we’re in Kent) and the top score (full marks, essentially) is 142. Hope this helps, but I’d just email the teacher and ask.

I expect it's just a standard test for children that simulates a SATs test but at
a Year 5 level. The test was probably out of 50-80 marks and then they have been issued with a calculated scaled score. 100 means "at expectations" so they fell slightly short.

If he's feeling slightly disappointed with himself then I can highly suggest buying one or two Year 5 maths workbooks and working through them over the summer. It doesn't have to be intense or anything, just some casual work here and there on the drizzly days!

Do you want any particular recommendations?

Our school uses a different test provider but the 'colour' in the year end report is based on more than just the last test.