Different grades at different times of year confusing

[joanofkfc]

Hi all

I wonder if anyone can help me try to understand the grades my dd has been given so far in Y2.

A bit of backgroud is that at Easter her teacher predicted 3 x 1As for the end of Y1 and said she was doing well in all subjects. Teacher said that with regards to spelling she was pleased with DD as she was one of the ones who remembered what she had learnt and then put it into her writing. At year end DD got 2 x 1As and a 1B for maths when the reports were given out, which made sense as maths is not a strong point.

DD has gone into Y2 and I know this is the KS1 SATS year. However, she has come home with a report card with different grades on as follows:

Reading attainment B effort B
Writing attainment C effort B
Spellng attainment C effort B
Maths attainment C effort C
Presentation of work effort C

Firstly, I am trying to understand what the "effort" grades are telling me about dd?

Also, I would have expected her writing to have been a B given that she was given a 1A for this at the end of the year (as with reading) and am wondering how her speling has dropped down do a C as again I was expecting more following on from what was sad at the Easter parents evening.

I suppose from my point of view it was nice to see a few As at the end of year 1 which now seem to have slipped to a c (ie with writing) due to the different style of marking. Is it me or do they make this over complicated? Can we not just stick with the SATS style of marking all the time?

We have parents evening next week and I will discuss with teacher then, it seems I thought that DD was doing a lot better than she actually is. Should I be worried?

Thanks ever so much.

Joanie

The 1a/1bs etc you were given in year 1 were her National Curriculum levels (the stuff you hear about every year in the media and the same type of score she'll come out with at the end of her Y2 SATS). There's quite clear guidance about what a 1a/b/c is for these (although there can be a fair element of judgement in placing things like writing into a best fit category).

The Effort/Attainment grades are her teacher's opinion of how she's doing at this point in time. Different teachers have slightly different mental images of what a A/B/C looks like for this... effort - what it sounds like, is she trying as hard as she could? attainment - always a pain in the backside to give out I found - how's she doing academically in that subject? They're just judgements based on 6(? I've lost track how long half term was this time) weeks of knowing your child.

What I'd get from those is... she likes English, isn't quite as fond of Maths basically! Sounds (obv I don't know her) like she's got her head down and is getting on with the job in hand in English, but might not be AS focused in Maths... i.e... perfectly normal really (I tend to procrastinate slightly doing stuff I'm not as good at or fond of)!

Wouldn't worry too much about the lack of As (I know they're a nice pretty shiny letter) - when I used to have to give these sort of grades out (hated that task) I tended to give Bs to the kids who got on and did what they should be, Cs to the ones who were a little bit more distracted and I knew could do better with a bit of focus, and As to the ones who were really really going at the subject massively hard - but I'm a tight grader anyway and others aren't quite as tight as I am! I'd worry if she was getting straight As for effort and then a C in one because it would show a marked difference in attitude, but sometimes when you're giving these out, you do tend to just vary the letters a little bit because otherwise you're aware parents will just think "oh silly teacher's put Bs for everything - she mustn't have thought about this at all" type thoughts! I'd worry if she was getting Ds and Es for effort.

They'll give out the more formal National Curriculum style levels as the term goes on no doubt, these are just very quick snapshots so you get some idea of if they've settled and aren't mucking about in class really!

Did I mention how much I hated having to give these out again?!

Basically don't compare them with the NC ones. Don't worry - you get used to it all in time!