Level 6 maths - what next?

[Puffinlover]

My DS is in year six and has always loved maths and is very good at it. His year group have been doing lots of SATS practice this year and his teacher told me he is comfortably achieving level 6 in maths. Having looked online it seems that this level is an average 15 year old. I was wondering what is your experience of high school maths if he's already done a lot of what they will cover? Do schools typically offer further maths type qualifications that he can do alongside gcse? He's my oldest and I'm new to all this!

Dd is the same. Her whole top set are doing level 6 maths papers which suggests it's not that unusual to reach level 6 at this stage!

Have you chosen his secondary school? If so, did you talk to them about G and T and what they do? Can you ring them to ask?

My DD got a level 6 in Yr6 SATS, and was working on some level 7 work with her teacher.

She then went to a big comprehensive, and hasn't really done any new material in year 7. She's in the top set, and all of her set got level 6 at primary, but they haven't moved on to level 7 work. Her friend from primary school, with similar ability, went to a private school, and is now working at level 8.

However, her year 7 teacher seems to be giving her and another girl some challenge questions to do when they have finished the work the others are doing, so she doesn't seem too bored. There is so much for them to cope with going up to secondary, with new friendships and new independence, it doesn't worry me too much that she is not as challenged in maths as she could be.

Level 6 may be average for a 15 year old but it's also fairly normal for a bright 12 year old. Maths isn't just about learning the same thing to a higher standard, there will be new content. Your child will be learning circle theorems, transformations of trigonometric functions and quite possibly set theory. At 12, level six means mastering the basics. At fifteen, it means having a weak grasp of a much wider knowledge base.

My dds also doing level 6

Nothing to add. I'm just showboating because I'm so damn PLEASED

Congrats Muddha! I realise that my last post came across as snippy. I just meant that an average 15 year old and an excelling 10 year old may both have the same level, but they will get very different questions correct on a test and have very different strengths and coverage. The level alone it's not a good indicator of mathematical ability or knowledge.

My dd is also working at level 6 maths and English, I'm actually looking forward to her going to high school as I feel they will be able to give her the appropriate work ( primary school have struggled ), at the moment she's just one of 2 children in her year working at level 6 ( very small school and small year intake ), chances are when she starts high school there will be quite a few others working at the same level. At high school they will be split into higher and lower groups so they will be with others with a high ability, the teachers are capable of teaching up to GCSE level so there should be no problem with them having appropriate work to suit their ability.

Bog comp, though it had Outstanding Rating before. DD (now y8) has been stretched & challenged, they set for math. She's doing lots of probability, some algebra and factorising, multiplying 2 decimals (so like 1.78 x 3.24), lots of mental math.
I'm told the new GCSE is so tough that it will stretch high ability kids plenty, so further math GCSE won't be offered at her school.

Some great points here and I feel reassured. I didn't ask these type of questions at the open evenings, didn't really occur to me as it was so early in the year and didn't know much about the SATS and levels then. But a good suggestion speak to them when we find out for sure where he's going. Nervous about looming offer day. The school we have put as first choice is a large school so I expect there will be plenty others similar ability to work with. He is at quite a big primary now and there are 3 or 4 of them taking level 6 maths and I think similar doing the English level 6. He is also doing that but teacher seems less confident he will get it.

I was the same puffin, I didn't ask questions when we looked around the school, at the time we didn't know she was sitting level 6 SAT's or what level 6 was. As soon as we find out she has a place I will be talking to the school and asking questions.

I think it is harder to get level 6 in English - certainly in dd's year there are far fewer sitting level 6 in English.

Dd got level 6 in primary

She then went to high school and spent most of yr7 repeating work she'd covered in yr5 and complaining bitterly
Yr 8 she is starting to cover some new stuff

They won't be doing GCSE until yr11 so i'm not desperate that she is pushed on quickly but I do worry that she will totally turn off maths

There are 18 children attending the level 6 class this year at my DC school (out of 90 in the year group).

The level 6 paper is fairly recent and there are still primary schools which don't enter any kids for it, even though they could. So secondary schools haven't had much chance to adapt their SOW, and have to deal with a mish-mash of bright kids who have done level 6 work and potentially brighter kids who haven't.

We're also just getting info about the new GCSE and the KS3 curriculum has also changed. Then levels are going so we won't have any kids coming in 'on a level 6', and we don't know what they will come in with. It's a mess, so no wonder kids aren't being properly catered for.

18years, I think that is my worry and reason for posting. I will def speak to the school for reassurance. He's been so enjoying all the new things he's learnt this year it would be such a shame to have a year learning nothing new. Giraffe, will the new ks3 curriculum and new gcse be in place this sept when he moves to high school?

The new KS3 curriculum should be in place, but it's pretty much the same mathswise. Secondary schools aren't supposed to be using levels at KS3 any more, but nothing has been brought into replace them. What is being taught should be fine, how it is being assessed may vary wildly from school to school. I have no idea whether my school will be using levels in September.

The new GCSE officially starts first teaching in September, to current Y9, although many schools have started already. The effects of this, I think, will cause adjustments to the curriculum for years to come, as necessary changes filter down to Y7. The amount of maths lessons may increase, and schools that offer extra GCSEs to top sets will be monitoring whether they will still be able to teach these alongside the increased content at GCSE. My school currently does further maths with set 1 and set 2. I expect that this will be dropped down the line at least for set 2. Hopefully things will have settled down by the time your DS reaches Y10 though!

My DS (Y6) is an average state primary and 18/45 children are in the L6 Maths group. I am sure I read somewhere the school get extra money for children achieving L6 in SATS?

i'd say get her some gcse workbooks or such to work through at home to keep her interested and challenged - if it comes to it that she's worked through all gcse level stuff and is doing well on the mock papers and has covered the extension stuff i would personally privately enter her to do the exam and bank the grade as soon as she's ready and happy to do it. if she still wants to keep pushing forward at home let her look at the next level up.

i wouldn't rely on school to keep her interested and extending especially when moving from primary to secondary.

Level 6 maths at KS2 shows your child is working at a level that may equate to GSCE work (15 year old) but it would not yet gain them an A-C grade at GCSE as KS3 level 6 is different to KS2 level 6 iyswim

I don't think my dc's year 6 teacher ever remembered that I used to teach maths at secondary school (before seeing the light and changing career) when she enthusiastically told me and other parents of Level 6 maths grade achievers that they were "already at GCSE level".

Year 7 at secondary school is a settling in year when kids have to adjust to a whole new way of school life and embrace subjects they haven't tackled in such a pure form before and there's plenty of assessments done and the formation of sets for key subjects such as maths. There's a lot to learn outside of curriculum so many schools justify covering the basics of KS2 Level 4 all over again to get a true measure of the kids abilities outside of a SATS test year environment.

Time will tell how the new curriculum is handled by various secondary schools and how the feed in from primary supports it.

We are extremely lucky to be in an area that offers year 6 Level 6 achievers free extra weekly tuition at a secondary school in maths/literacy and they get the chance to start covering KS3 curriculum work which would normally be covered part way through Year 7. This undoubtedly stopped any boredom/stagnation creeping in for my dc when year 6 teaching inevitably became all about ensuring that as many as possible reached Level 4 for KS2 SATS results. It is a brilliant idea to keep the Level 6 kids engaged and learning.

I like what I thought Catontherun was saying (but didn't). ... anyway, imho, Yr7 is plenty challenging enough, it's nice if they have at least one subject to go a bit slack while dealing with everything else that's new & difficult. They don't disengage ime, they are glad to have one thing where they can soundly trounce almost everyone else while they deal with insecurities in so many other areas.

Ds1 got level 6 in year 6, level 7 in year 7 and he's doing level 8 now that he's in year 8

This is going to depend on your secondary. DS, and another classmate, have been in a level 6 extension group for some time, and are covering level 6/7 work.

When I looked at secondaries, some said that they treated all year 7s the same, as they didn't trust primary levelling! Others sais ds would be set straight into an extension group.

Waiting to hear, obviously, but guess which is top of our list?

Ds (y6) was at L6 in September (hot housed for 11+). He is doing a mixture of L6 and L7 now (lots of algebra, probability,ratio etc). If he doesn't make it into a superselective and goes to a comp I (and he) will be most unimpressed if he has a year of L6 maths.

Yes, apparently it's harder to get level 6 in English, dd is working at a higher level in English than she is in maths but we are still unsure if she will sit the level 6 english, also they don't have to sit as many papers for English this year as writing will be marked from work they have done during the year, I think they only have to sit reading comp and grammar ?

l6 writing has been teacher assessed since 2013 at least.

L6 reading requires maturity of thought and more world experience than most 11 year olds have had time to get.

Maths only needs an ability at maths.

This is what I was told why the reading l6 % rounds to zero but maths is a bigger % every year.

Endler32 - yep - not sure which English level 6 papers dd is doing - her school is giving all level 6 English and maths pupils an hour's extra tuition in each per week from now till SATs... Not sure how I feel about it. She is keen but I don't want her to feel under too much pressure. Sorry for derailing thread!