KS2 Level 6 Assessment

[Emsoboe]

Ok,

I had a thread here a few weeks ago 'Advice Please' which will give you a little background to my sons issues.

We are back at school tomorrow and I will be booking an appointment with his teacher as they have effectively told me there is nothing more they can teach him as he's reached 5A in maths, reading and writing. He is also working off his own back, at home, not school, on extending his science and history knowledge. At present he doesn't do this at school as they don't appear keen to allow him to work differently to the rest of the class- see my other thread.

I have recently read on other threads on here, that children can now be assessed at L6. What does a school need to do in order to achieve this? Where do they find the information? I am more than happy to support the school in extending my son, by providing work, external extension, or whatever they are happy with, but I want to work with them, rather than be the 'pushy' mum.

Thanks

Em

He's in Y5 by the way.

Of course they can be teaching him more. They need to link with the local sec school if they need specialist teacher advice. I know this is possible as my friends DS had work planned / sent this way.

Yes, he does self extend, in all areas really, as he does so much work off his own back. The frustration is that he is rarely allowed to do this at school, spending most of his time doing the work set for a group, which he finds easy, and often more of the same, with perhaps a little extension, when he's finished. Reading wise, he reads loads! I don't need to give him any input on reading, I haven't since Reception. He reads daily, and discusses his reading with me on a daily basis. Not to mention all the nags to buy books on his Amazon wishlist!

The level 6 thing is purely a tool for me to use to convince the school to try and do a little more with him (effectively allow him to self extend) during the school day. The current argument is always that he's reached the top levels necessary at primary school and they now don't know what to do with him. I don't really care about SATs, it just seems to be one of the few languages that the school seems to understand.

If you have concerns about the school not meeting his needs for the next year and nearly a half......

Is he saying he is bored?

Well, you could point her in the direction of the ARA 2011 document for KS2. This is a legal document laying out the statutory assessment requirements that schools are obliged to follow.

It states in paragraph 4.2:
Pupils working above or below the levels covered by the tests
QCDA has produced a suite of optional tasks covering levels above and below the test levels. The optional tasks provide additional evidence that can contribute to teachers? assessment of their pupils. Optional tasks for pupils working above or below the level of the tests are available at www.mycurriculum.com.

The tests cover levels 3-5, but a teacher assesssment is also required in Y6 with 50%/50% equal weighting. The above advice is to help teachers who may have children working at level 2 or level 6.

Later on in the document, in Reporting and using pupils? results,
where the document refers to submitting teacher assessment data, it also states:
Teacher assessment codes:

1?6 Curriculum level achieved (etc).

I would ask to see the Literacy and Numeracy coordinators - I cannot quite believe that they would repeat the claims of this teacher, that she 'cannot' teach him beyond 5a, and they will have to help her.

Thanks Feenie.

I will see the Numeracy co-ordinator this week for another reason, so will hopefully get a chance to book a time with her. She was one of the few teachers in the school who I felt really 'got' my son, and was not afraid to offer him challenge. Trouble is, that was in Y1! Teacher he has now was doing quite well, but I think has become exasperated with the very wide range of ability in the class and the particular pressure our school is under to improve SATs results. My son was having 1-2-1 time (at the suggestion of the LA) but this very quickly became 'group work' as there are a whole group targetted to reach level 5 who are perceived to need an extra push, so the 1-2-1 time was reassigned! As I stated in my other thread, my son won't help this as a 5A is his expected achievement level and has been all through school. Rumour has it he may get one of the better teachers (at differentiation) next year. Here's hoping!

Thanks for the info though, it's good to be able to go in armed with some info. I think I'd like to push them to seek support from the local secondary. My son will probably go to another secondary himself, but this shouldn't affect the help offered at this stage, should it?

There is no ceiling for teaching- they may not be in a position to assess him beyond Level 5 for SATs but as Level descriptors go they go right on to Lavel 8 ( I think) all easily accessible on the government websites. Just because he has reached the top level assessable for primary school SATs doesn't mean they can stop teaching him Year6 SAT levels are for school purposes to show the school is doing 'OK' - actual Levels should be constantly assessed on a regular basis to ensure each child is continuting to make progress , and they expect they should make two sub levels each year - but he is supposed to progress EVERY Year- not just to stop when he's got to where the primary school 'needs' hime to be. He is entitled to be taught to his own ability whatever that ability is, not to mention he has special educational needs as a result.
The school should have a SEN and G and T policy ask to see it. If you have no luck ask who the G and T or SEN governor is - he is entitled to an education just as any other child the school have a responsibility to provide that and you can complain if they aren't. There is plenty of work they can provide they just need to look for it. Sorry rant over - you need to scream and shout sometimes just to get what you are entitled to.

This does sound like a bit of a cop out by the school - DD is predicted 5B across the board by the end of Yr5 along with 2 others, their teachers are very on the ball and have already told us parents what they are doing in terms of getting them level6 work when they are ready for it. This is in a very ordinary state middle school (yr 5 through 8). I suppose having the Yr 7 and 8s present onsite does help with this, be interesting to see what happens when we go two tier next year!

Had this issue with my daughter. She is on the gifted and talented register (although it doesn't do anything) and has got level 5A in her SATs since year 4 (she is in year 7 now) and the headmaster at her school said he would have liked her to have took level 6 as her scores were 99% in each subject. But apparently, children are not allowed at primary to take level 6 as "no-one would get the level" and the level 6 was withdrawn. My daughter was not really pushed at primary and said they couldn't find anything else to give her except for year 7 maths. Instead, she was ending up helping children in lower classes to read and do maths! I wasn't very happy about this obviously. SHE IS NOT A TEACHER! And i told the school this but they seem to just laugh it off. But daughter is very quiet and didn't really say anything about it until she had nearly finished year 6! She is doing well at the moment anyway and has jumped from the level 5A to 7B in all subjects apart from p.e so am very proud.

Thank goodness for teacher assessment.
DS got a 6 in his Maths SATs Teacher grade.
I gather that the exam grade was over 95% - as were four others in his class of 30.

Teachers assessment will by its nature be more flexible
and when they get to the big cohorts of secondary, they all get pushed.

my DD has just finished year 4 in a state primary and has been given a level six in both english and maths
this was measured predominately through teacher assesment but they let her have a go at the year six sats paper, telling her they expected her to find it hard and not to worry if it was too tricky as she hadn't been taught alot of what was on the paper but she really enjoyed it

schools can and should do extension work -she goes to the year above for maths and english 4 times a week and has been doing this since year 1 (not sure what they will do with her in year 6 though?) and she has one on one time 1 afternoon a week

the school also has very good links with the local high school and she goes once every half term for a maths workshop

-this is a state school with nursery-yr6, 2 form entry, in an inner city area so can't be the only one that provides this levelof support -surely?

I can imagine your frustration. Ps, I'm surprised I've not read any ' don't worry about it- as long as he's happy' posts!

It sounds ridiculous really when they just say they can't do much more, but then where it's only 1 teacher with 30 kids with varying ability, it's quite hard.

I schooled abroad and if parents/teachers thought a child was advanced, they could actually skip the class. My brother actually went to secondary school from year 4! As long as you pass the entrance exams, you could move. Even within the school,,you could get a double promotion.

I sometimes wish that could happen here. I wonder about the age thing. You could have a 7 year old as mature as a 10 year old and vice versa. So really should it be one size fits all?

Anyway, I'm sure there's a good reason for that but I guess more provision should be made for kids like your ds. Saying there's nothing they can do with him further in my opinion is not good enough.

Hope things get better this new session.

Level 6 external assessments will be available from this year.

I, too, have a DS in Y6 in similar circumstances, and this will help enormously. School have already informed me that they intend to enter my son for L6 papers and he will be given homework over the coming year to support this. Until now, all we've had is dummed down homework that all the class is doing - son completes in 5 mins, under duress, because he can't be bothered to do such simple work (although this is an important lesson in life!).

My DD didn't have a choice in doing a higher sats paper. She has been on the gifted and talented register (not that it does anything) since year 1 or 2 and gained level 4 in year 2 sats and level 5a from year 3 onwards. Apparently our local education authority will not allow children to take a higher level paper although headteacher says DD would easily do it. She is now at high school and on entering year 7 gained level 7 on all subjects assessed. Tried to get her into a local private school on a bursary as i am a lone parent and was told she could take the test but probably would not be accepted as priority is given to children already at private schools! Talk about snobby? They asked what school she was already at and as soon as i said the name (not that it is rough or anything!) the bursar told me about the priority thing. My DD was not really challenged at her primary school. She was always expected to help lower ability children with reading and maths once she had finished her own work. I wasn't happy with this so complained and was told that i should be proud and lucky! I am but that didn't help DD. Now in high school she is top set for all subjects (year 8) like last year but hasn't found any of the work difficult. She has gained a gcse maths A* in a test but there never has been any sort of well done or congratulations from school as i think they just expect it from her. All she got was a certificate although she is not really bothered and wouldn't say anything because she is so quiet. She gets extra homework and that is about it and i always feel she is being punished for being good!