Levels & goals KS1

[NorhamGardens]

When DC's level in Y2 is assessed I've noticed they look for indications the criteria have been met for moving for from a level 2C to a 2B for example.

Question is what if a 2C in reading is actually a level 3 for example, can ability that exceeds the criteria for the next jump ever be missed?

If you are being assessed for the next 'stage' can a surge in ability be ever overlooked?

Teachers know all the indicators for the levels and they are always looking for progression so I don't think it would be overlooked.

Usually planning is not just one sublevel ahead, sometimes a success criteria might be more than one sublevel ahead if its relevent to the children and their ability.

Why would you think a 2C should actually be a level 3?

Teachers are trained to look for the stages at each level. there is a lot of criteria to meet before a stage can be increased.

It may be that a child doesnt meet one or more of the criteria, so an average is recorded for the level.

Hi just to say I believe a real surge in ability is possible. If I am honest I think one of mine is probably a couple of levels above their official school reading level. I've looked at guidelines & say they comfortably meet all criteria as far as I can tell for a higher level. V hard to be truly objective of course. DC is seen as one of the quiet middle.

Teacher seems v good this year but busy in a class of 30. I flagged to teacher and they agreed DC had improved & promoted a level. The system feels like a reading conveyor belt however where those that have started ahead are largely going to stay ahead. 2as becoming 3s ahead of 2Cs. Perhaps it doesn't matter as long as they learn?

NG, it does seem important in yr2, but trust me when I say that by YR5 you have different concerns and issues! Will post again when I can, the toddler is pestering me for alphablocks on the iplayer.....

lovecheese. Your experience and anybody else's would be really helpful.

I would love for someone with some knowledge to enlighten me as to what it is important for us as parents to do to help our children with their education in those later years.

I could easily be one of those parents that pushes to get high levels now with it not transferring to the later years and realise I've missed what is important.

So what sort of things can we relax on and what should we encourage. Of course I also want my kids to have fun to!!!!

Thanks in advance. Poppet :)

I would be interested too!

Right, here goes then, Lovecheese's guide to what to focus on (And what to relax about):

1.Writing. I have put this above reading because this more than any other element of the literacy shebang will separate the wheat from the chaff come secondary school - DH is a secondary head and says that children come to him in yr7 supposedly at a Level 5 for literacy, but when the score is broken down they may well be a level 5 for reading and speaking and listening, but actually a low level 4 for writing - the upshot of this is that the child will not then be placed in a top set in yr7. So, relax about the reading levels a bit and try to focus your DCs mind on being a good writer. Now, I know this is easier said than done but the thing that is making good writers of my own DCs (Yr5 and yr2) is, I think, the exposure to a huge variety of books, magazines, even newspapers out of school, and still being read TO. A good reader - and I dont mean measured against school reading schemes - will (hopefully) become a good writer because of the constant exposure to words. And without stating the bleeding obvious, have a supply of workbooks if that is your childs thing (It is my DD2's),paper, sparkly pencils and pens, notebooks etc and encourage all you can to write.

1. Reading. comprehension, comprehension, comprehension. Absolutely crucial. When my DD1 was in yr1 her and another child had a (good-natured) competition going on regarding their school reading levels. I knew that my DD was one of the best in the year and I admit now I got a bit caught up too in the race to finish the reading scheme. However, in yr3 the competition seemed to decline and the kids who were staying ahead were the ones who - so a teacher told me - had really good comprehension skills. How do you teach good comprehension? the key thing for my DD was inference, being able to draw information out of the text without it actually being written in black and white; this is a vital skill and for us was only learnt with lots of practice, testing their knowledge of what they had read and asking them to prove it; Also being able to provide a synopsis of a book, another key element which again is practice. Of course a child needs to read with fluency and expression too, but IME the comprehension and synopsis are the key things to work on.

1. Numeracy. Easy, times tables and quick mental recall. It is no good for a DC to be able to count to god knows what in a chosen number, they have to know their times tables forwards, backwards, randomly and the division facts that go with them. DD1 would count away and we naively thought well that's that x table sorted then, but come yr3 it was becoming obvious that she was getting behind because she did not know them thoroughly. I am afraid I don't have any magic solutions to help with learning times tables overnight, again it's just lots of practice, and if you have more than one DC make it into a bit of a competition - DD2 is good at them because she has heard us testing DD1 and wants to compete (for the chocolate).

There you go. Someone else may come along and blow my advice out of the water and offer totally conflicting advice, but the things I have talked about are what I believe to be important. Good luck.

Poppet and InkyStamp - any use??

very helpful lovecheese!

lovecheese, that's all very interesting stuff, a lot of very useful information.
Quick question:
dd is in year 2 and at parent's eve (back at beg nov) we were told she was doing very well. However, we weren't told anything about levels.
Should we be interested in the levels thing or is it really only of use to the teacher?

The only statutory requirement for reporting of levels is at the end of Y2 and Y6. However, the levels exist to give parents an idea of comparison - 2b is the expected level of a child at the end of Year 2, so to know where your child is in comparison to that gives you some clue of how they are doing.

I would ask if you are concerned at the next parents' evening - and if you're not, just wait for the report. Any decent school/teacher will happily tell you if you ask.

sorry lovecheese. Very rude of me not to respond.

Very useful indeed.

I really like your suggestions especially about being read to. My goal s this holiday is to sit down in the afternoons whilst DS is asleep and read TO my kids.

One thing I have noticed is that my kids are asking many more questions now they are at a stimulating school. I have to make sure I work with them so that they can give each other the space and time to talk and listen. It can get quite noisy in the car or else where.

Maths seems to make sense. My DD needs practise practise practise to remember her rapid recall, bonds / tables etc. I thought I was being a bit fussy but if its going to help then we'll keep going. She's happy to do things at the moment so that's big advantage.

Thanks gain.

I know our teacher gave us levels at parents evening. She indicated that DD should achieve 2b with some tipping towards 2a. Considering she has missed 6 months of year 1 and to be honest the first 6 months of her year 1 was pretty crappy she's actually fitting into school here really well. I think that DD has a few holes in her knowledge so often any extra I do gives her a little bit of confidence, I still find it amazing how much stuff she / the children actually learn. One of the areas that needs work is her writing. For 6 months she wrote in sentences once per week: "On the weekend" but there has been a massive difference over the past 8 weeks here in the UK :o.

Thanks again for posting back.... Merry Xmas :)