Only 3 kids on 1c in Y1?

[emy72]

I am a bit concerned as we had a consultation evening last night and the teacher said they had assessed our DD1 at level 1c and she is only 1 of 3 in her class, whilst everyone else is still on "working towards". This was mentioned in the context of having to find a way to progress the rest of the class whilst catering for these 3 children.

I thought that 1c was the average start of Y1. This concerns me for lots of reasons....is this normal in a class or has the Foundation teacher done a really bad job? Would you be worried?

In the school I work at, lots of students have scored Level 1 in their KS1 SATs (Y2 at Primary), which is below average, but end up bang-on target by the time they come to us in Y5.

Children develop at different paces and some year groups are way ahead, others way behind.

But if the national average for beg of y1 is 1c shouldn't you have some children below and some above?

Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

The national average from the start of Year 1 isn't 1c - the Early Years profile and the NC are two different assessment systems, and many Y1 children aren't ready at this stage to be assessed using the NC and still need continuous provision.

ok thanks Feenie for clarifying that....

ps would you say it's normal then to have only 3 kids at this stage of Y1 on 1c and nobody above and so many below? (class of 30).

No I would say it's more normal for all 30 to be working towards level 1 with none on 1C

What mrz said!

emy72 my DD2 left reception on a 1c, and was put into the top literacy group in YR1 and quite soon stretched, along with a couple of others; so I am assuming like you that all the rest didn't do as well as these few, and it is a real mixed-ability year.

Oh, forgot to say, well done littleemy72!

oh ok thanks, I feel a bit more reassured now....!!!

Where can you find out about these levels? How would find out what working towards level 1 consists of?

No it's not unusual to have children working towards level 1 so early in Y1, it certainly doesn't indicate poor teaching in Reception.