Do I have a right to ask about my child's progress?

[JellyBelly10]

My DS is in Year 1 at an infant school whose policy is to only ever give qualitative feedback (and almost exclusively only ever the good news) about children's progress. In other words despite the fact that the school is regularly assessing children's progress against the national standards and plotting their outcomes right up until they do their KS1 SATs..parents are never given any facts and figures about their children's progress. The school seems to tell everyone the good news, leaving parents with no real idea of how their children are doing. By the time the children get the results of their KS1 SATs the final grade is the first time the school actually gives you any measurable information. Many parents have been shocked by the reality of what their children acheived because they had always been led to believe they were doing fine. And maybe they were doing fine in the context of what the school expected of that child, but at the end of their time in Infants they are measured against national standards and unfortunately many come out lower than their parents had been led to expect.
My son is in Y1 and I suspect not doing particularly well compared to some of his peers but the school would never tell me this. I try to support his learning at home but don't really know what to do as don't know how far behind he is. I realise that there are some children who are realy struggling so by comparison he may not seem that much of a concern to the school...but I'm not interested in how he acheives compared to his specific cohort, I want to ensure he reaches his full potential and is not left way behind in terms of the national standards. So next week is his Parents' Evening. Do I ahve the right to ask what the outcome of his end of Reception assessments were, what they have "scored" him as etc? I know that the school would never offer this nformation willingly but just wondered if anyone knew whether I had a right to ask. I am actually pretty familiar with the sort of data you find on RaiseOnline and understand the KS1 points systems etc so it's not as though I wouldn't understand what they were telling me. Does anyone else's school do anything differently?

If you google 'Assessment and Reporting Arrangements KS1 you will find a [very dry] book which gives details of all the things that schools need to do with regard to assessment and informing both the Local Authurity and parents of childresn progress.
Section 3.6 states "A copy of the EYFS profile summary scores reported to the
local authority must also be provided to parents or persons with parental responsibility if
requested. Providers should avoid reporting raw scores without providing an explanation
of what they mean."

If you ask, they must tell you.

If you wished you could also download the Foundation Stage Handbook and have a read around the theory and the practice.

As you are familiar with RoL etc you will probably know that in general the 'average' child scores 6 points overall in the profile - 78 points overall and goes on to achieve the average 2b at the end of Y2.

I wonder if you get to see any drawings / writing /books at open evening? The only other thought is to ask what you could usefully do at home.

Good luck

I have been to a school with this policy, and agree it can be very dangerous.

They should never give you data comparing your child with other children in the class - but they should be able to give you data like his current NC levels and predicted NC levels.

I have just come back from a yr1 parents' evening and asked about NC levels. I was told it was too early in the year to have enough evidence gathered but that her current attainment was broadly in line with a (xxx) in the teacher's opinion. She said they do not formally share levels with parents until the end of KS1 ie end of Yr2, however they are always happy to discuss current levels if the parent asks. If this is generally the case then it appears that it is worth asking if you'd like to know.

We did last year get a copy of the foundation stage report with scores out of 9 in 13 sections.

It's interesting how things are different in differenct schools. Or perhaps between primary and secondary. I went to parents' evening for my children last week, and was given no levels, simply a reference to where they were achieving compared to "where we would want them to be" which I took to mean national average, but I suppose could mean their own in year target. I will get the level in the end of year report in July.

I teach in a secondary school and we report a NC level or GCSE/AS/A2 grade every half term!