Does anyone else think this is incredible?

[lucels9]

Having spent the afternoon at our local primary school I was amazed to see (in every class room) notices on the wall showing children's abilities listed in different columns under the heading of TARGETS. One notice for numeracy and one for literacy - actually showing the child's name and what level he was at!!!

Am I alone in being absolutely disgusted that our children should be subjected to this?

Can any teachers/education specialists out there justify this method to me?

I haven't noticed these in DDs school.

OMG that is disgusting and makes me feel all angry inside.

How to label a child in one easy step!

I don't think much of that.
We used to tell the individual children how they were doing but it wasn't public knowledge.

We have the Targets displayed for all too see but NOT the children's names!

how else can you ensure all children are making progress? you need to know what level they are.

children know who is clever and not clever even without it being on the wall so my point is it doesn't make any difference.

I need to know what level they are.
They need to know what level they are (after a certain age).
I don't think everyone else needs to know too.

Gawd, that seems a little too open...

My ds (y4) has a list of targets in front of his homework diary. And when he achieves it the teacher initials it. So it is only between him and the teacher.

At my boys' primary they keep detailed records of targets and progress, but the children are very rarely given 'levels' themselves. DS1 got a level for his KS1 SATs, but it was very much in an appendix to his report. Since then the only time he had a level was for his mock KS2 SATs.

There is research that suggests that if you give children 'marks' or 'levels', they just home in on that and compare with others, and don't look any further.

Instead their school give them 'next steps for improvement'.

To improve further I need to organise my work into paragraphs, or remember to use capital letters and full stops in every sentence, etc.

I agree outrageous - at my children's old school in Y2 they had a system of badges for learning times tables and they had a big chart on the door of the classroom showing who had achieved which badge - totally confidence destroying for my child who is innumerate and only of value to smug mummies who openly compared progress of their genius to others...

Needless to say when I complained I was given short shrift, was told it generated healthy competition etc. When I asked if there could be a similar system for reading then to encourage those whose strengths were not mathematical & was told it was too complicated

e are at another school now....

its not incredible its incredulous

Lucels what did they say, did you get a chance to ask them about it?

Tis very odd . Ofsted demand that pupils know what level they are working at and what their target is, but a numerical target means nothing unless the pupils know what they have to do to achieve it. I would have also thought an individual level and target sheet at the front of their books would have been better.

Although, I remember at primary school crowding round the test results that used to get pinned up in rank order!

DC school, at least in Y3, lists targets on the wall like OP suggests (qualitatively, like "Write sentences with adjectives" or whatever). With children's names under who can do what...

I've not sensed a problem with it. It's true what cazzybabs says, by Y3 the children have a pretty strong sense about who is strong academically & who isn't (and they still choose their friends from all other ability groups, anyway).

The children also do tests and get told the results (within each group that was set those problems) which sometimes means DS comes home and says "I got 3a, but Jack got 4c" (DS purses face, as if he's thinking, must beat Jack, must beat Jack, etc.) Some children do respond well to competition, ds is def. like that.

DD's Y1 class doesn't have the same wall listings (I think not, anyway), maybe it's a KS2 thing at our school.

My gut feeling from observation (so, very imho) is that most of the children who are weak academically either have bigger problems (at home, or SEN, especially unaddressed SEN, or they aren't really trying -- we have one of DS's very laid back mates visiting today, actually, I'm sure he could attain more academically if he wanted). Maybe it's wrong to list names against target achievement because it's demoralising to some of the low-achievers, but their main problems I think tend to be other stuff, anyway.

My Year 9 class (mostly boys) love having their current levels and targets displayed and use it as a sort of competition, applauding each other when they finally reach L4 (low ability group, most started Yr 8 at L1 and 2); I wouldn't do this for younger pupils though.

I teach age 11-14 and the pupils choose what level they would like as their target
(based on previous year and suggestion from me). This is displayed on the interactive whiteboard. Each time they achieve their target eg in a unit test or project, it shows as green, if they miss it, it shows blue. The vast majority of my pupils love seeing how many greens they have managed, and it seems to really motivate them. Lots of clapping from the class when X gets his first green of the year etc. Very motivating for Y who could have tried harder and his mates all got green! I agree that is it important that the pupils know how to improve from one level to the next.

TR - OP is right - it is incredible, she is incredulous

when i was at school you got a star to stick by your name on a huge wall chart for good work some kids had lots some kids didnt- boy did i wish i had lots of stars i felt sad everyday seeing the chart .......then my mum never one to conform found said stars for sale in wh smith never again was i the one with least stars