how easy/hard is it to receive a level 9 on EYFS?

[mrsshears]

I ask because my dd who has just turned 5 has been graded as 8's in everything apart from reading,linking sounds and letters and numbers as labels and for counting where she got 9's.
I'm surprised dd hasnt been given 9's in language for com and thinking,writing,calculating and shape,space and measurement as imo she reliably does all of the things needed for a 9 in these subjects.
therefore i have been wondering in reality how easy/hard is it to get a 9?
thanks in advance

"I find it odd that people do not expect parents to be interested in their child's assessments.

If the school goes to the trouble of telling you what level your child is achieving, why shouldn't a parent want to understand more about what that level means?"

Because, at 5, I am more concerned with whether my DD is happy at school and having fun. She is and appears to have learnt to read and write along the way. I couldn't give a stuff what her score is. I got far more meaningful information from talking to the teacher at the parent consultations and will get what I need to know from the written part of the report. The grades are, IMO, rather pointless.

I think it is important not to have the levels played down, regardless of how hard teachers work, so do other people. As a HV I would be expected to record what a child could do at a 2yr review acurately! I expect that my childs level is recorded acurately also at the end of reception. The planning for year 1 is done from this assessment and if the assessment from EYFS is below the childs actual ability then the work set will not be challenging enough and may result in repetition of things already achieved. I will be asking dd's teacher to justify the 7's as when I spoke to her earlier in the year to ask if we could support dd in maths she said no, she is doing really well! She is able to understand fractions of halves, quarters and thirds, tell time to the half hour and hour, write numbers to 20 and add/subtract etc. Knows and recognises which coin is which and that 10p = 10 x 1p pennies.

Dragon, imo the written part was so impersonal that my dd and her best friend got the exact same wording on their report bar 1 sentence!!

drgaonalley - I know it wont be on their cv! Like I said, it is nice to reminisce when they are older.

I know my child is happy. They got all 9s as I said, except for one 7, but they were bored all year, the teacher was constantly telling me how badly they behaved, although they are happy and popular and having fun and clearly achieving... The grades are pointless, but put it together with the behaviour and they are pointing to a situation where the child is not being challenged enough. The teacher denied it all year (Dont fret, I only raised it once or twice) and yet when they exit with scores like this it proves my point.

Incidentally, we do not get an end of year parent consultation. Just a sheet to feed back comments to the teacher about the report. I wonder why that is?! The report was a tick box exercise with a few words added on the end. The wording on the report is EXACTLY written as the profile is published on the national strategies website. They have occasionally added a he/she/dc name to 'personalise' it. I will not be giving feedback. DC is moving on to a new teacher and a new year with a group of friends who are lovely and I know they will continue to achieve well as their school is lovely and they are enthusiastic.

i think evidence has to be collected mainly from observations, and filled in mid waay through the summer term. dd is a late bloomer and literally just started to write legibly after a course of occupational therapy and this is alluded to in the personal comments at the end.

(nor will she bloomoin well write in school. looked in her book and it was full of zig zags when she is capable of writing quite a few words. she just likes zigzags. and there is nothing that can be done about that. a teacher can only use the evidence they see)

with the nine box as well, there are quite a few things in each box so a child may be doing a lot, but not say writing numbers to 20 and therefore can not be given a nine for that box or letters are not consistently formed... (can't think of any more off hand and have probably got those wrong.) (and my rear end is currently welded to this stool til i stagger to bed so I am not moving from here to check)

The problem with threads like these is other parents start comparing with the OP what level their DC reached.

I have 2 DSs who are below average at the end of every year.

I also have a DD who is well above average at every stage.

Of course we are all interested at what are DCs can acheive and we all like to have good feedback, but it really pisses me off when parents start questioning teachers abillity to assess their child when they really just want to brag that their DC is the cleverest in the class.

In my experience, DCs do much better and try harder when they have something to work towards or improve on. You are talking about the end of foundation stage ffs

I have a dd who chooses the smart board over nearly everything and that does not involve much writing... she chooses not to show what she can do in school. maaybe in year one she will be encouraged to do more, but the poor babe is still young and just wants to play.

captain croc. I had a similar experience with our teacher... was told she could now find one more to 10 when at home I was applying bandages to my chin after she had done one or two more or less to a hundred when playing smartboards and myself being a very thick pupil. told the teacher this. next parents evening she could find one more and one less to 10 aggghh.

maths achievement has slowed down this year as she has been too shattered to do more than reading at home whilst attending school. oh well, there is the big summer holidays coming up and all that lovely learning through play and child led activities.

I had no clue about these eyfs levels in reception tbh, they just gave a general report, you know, doing well, whatever. We did get the file though at the end of year 1, which contained the eyfs level thingys(for reception ), for the start or reception and at the end.

It was two tables with achieved levels crossed out I think, so maybe you will achieve clarity at the end of year 1 .

My dd is in year 2, maybe we will get her yr1 folder this year.

I'm not sure what she got tbh as I have lost the folder she had mostly 9's on exiting reception I think, probably some social and physical things were 7. Probably not writing as although she is very eloquent she is still spidery sometimes even now, I think she had a 9 in reading on entering reception, she is very good at reading and comprehension.

As for how hard it is to get a 9, god knows, I'm pretty sure dd had a 9 for the maths on leaving reception, she is not a maths whizz though, just average I would say.

She is and was very good at reading though, could read fluently and understand everything when she entered reception, maybe because of September birthday, for the want of a few days she would be in the year above.

My dd scored full marks on everything for EYFS. I know it doesn't mean anything as I am a teacher and I also have older children. 2 out of 3 who have been classified as gifted and talented. Not sure why to be honest - clever but not so far out there.

Dd3 (now Y2) was on full marks in YR. Doesn't actually mean much, and she was certainly far below where dd1 was at her age, back when YR kids could do reading writing and rithmetic.

Would point out how well new system works, but no 1 stayed well above average even at grammar. No 4 is as clever, but far less ready for life as she has not been encouraged/pushed. Standards have declined hugely in 10 years imo as a parent and teacher. I now have Y 1 kids who can't put on their socks after PE!!

Levels don't always mean much.

Parents may be interested in completing the consultation for the new EYFS curriculum and profile (or just looking at proposed changes for 2012)
www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1747&external=no&menu=1

Always surprised on these kind of threads just how many parents know the EYFS/NC curriculum of so many other children, or sometimes all of them, in their DC's class; I know where my children are and that is what is important.

This thread interests me as my fifth child has just completed foundation and I have never even heard of theses 7 8 9 levels??? How odd.
Ds is pretty average for writing and maths but a very talented reader and has been an issue for his teacher as she had to find appropriate books for him as he progressed . On his report it said he has 'achieved all his eyfs???' levels for reading but as I dint know what they are this means nothing to us? Cab anyone enlighten me? Would this equate to a number?

Why are you concerned. As 6/7 is average getting mostly 8's and one 9 is fantastic. My dd only got one nine and 6/7/and 8's and I was thrilled.

As a KS1 leader, this thread puts shivers down my spine. EYFS scores are notoriously inaccurate as predictions for achievement in KS1/2. However, the national computer programme sees these 9s translate to high level 3s at the end of Y2.

Whilst I know this is possible for some children, my experience with our transient population (particularly with over-assessed EYFS scores of newcomers) often means that we show no progress in Y1.

I would treat the EYFS scores with a certain amount of detachment, and certainly wouldn't be boasting about them, because you don't know what's going to happen in the next 2 years.

ok Buster that sounds good - none of our schools distribute the results- maybe that's why

I've just had reports for my DTDs, who are coming to the end of reception. There are no EYFS scored on, but there are lots of positive words like "bubbly", "enthusiastic", "interested", "confident" and "engaged". I know which I'd rather have.

Goblin - you should be given results - according to the DFE:

'Headteachers of maintained schools are responsible for sending to parents of all children in the Reception Year and above a written report on their child?s achievements at least once during the school year. The information which must be included in the annual report to parents is set out in Schedule 1 of the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 (and the 2008 amendments to the Regulations). These reports must include:

teacher assessment results at the end of the EYFS and Key Stage 1
National Curriculum test results and teacher assessment results at the end of Key Stages 2 and 3
the results of any public examinations taken.'

And EvilTwins!

Our school doesn't automatically provide these either. I had to ask.

Didn't know that! Maybe we'll get something at the end of term. I really don't care though - being told that my lovely girls are bubbly, enthusiastic, engaged, interested and confident is worth far more!

That's lovely ET! All those things will help them learn loads, not 9s on EYFS scores!

Buster that is really interesting stuff! As a HV I spend time reassuring parents that even if a child is advanced by 1 year at 2 it means nothing! My own child was 1 year ahead at her 2 yrs review and now is also 1 year ahead in year R. When do they slow down???

Clearly there are a lot of women out there intent of dying of a stress related stroke. Perhaps, whilst pretending it is only a matter of interest, you should all quiz your children on their inability to get their true talents across to their teacher - why on earth haven't they been writing stories and solving equations under their teacher's nose for a year; don't they realise what a rat race life is? Or just go in and tell the teacher she is not following fair, national standards and in any other school your child would have received a 9 for everything. And please can you look through your child's schoolwork with the teacher and point out where the teacher has gone wrong in her assessments? Or perhaps just bring in all the amazing stuff your child has done at home to prove how hopeless the school is at getting her to do what she is capable of. No chance of a place at a good university if your child's teachers are underestimating her already, at age 5. And no chance of your child ever proving their worth by themselves.

I see your point rabbitstew,
I am 38 years old and I don't know about my blood pressure, but I do know
I have two stomach ulcers, often bleeding ones, they are stress and DC educational years induced
At what point do you stop and say(including me) x is doing really well
and stop obsessing?

It is a shame though that these reports which are a necessary tool for the year 1 teacher's are often so very inaccurate. My dd scored low on the social and emotional development yet her year 1 teacher could see no problem. She scored high on the lieracy side and lower on the numeracy side and in actual fact it probably should have been the other way round.
In fact when I saw her new teacher on parent's evening she said it sounded like they were describing another child.