4a in year 4, 5a in year 5, now a "4 stroke 5"

[emkana]

at the beginning of year 6. He said this without knowing what she had been assessed as at the end of year 5, because dd changed classes and somehow that info didn't get to him. This is writing btw. What does this tell me? Over marked before, under marked now - or what?

A 5a at the end of the Y5 is extremely good. It's possible that the Y5 teacher has inflated the level. Or that she is really a level 5 currently, but hasn't demonstrated this to the teacher in her writing at school. Did you tell the teacher what her writing level at the end of Y5 was?

Yes I did, he just made a note of it.

Variation between teachers/piece of work assessed, I'd guess, with perhaps a tendency to overmark earlier and perhaps a bit more rigour now to discourage complacency.

Honestly, it really doesn't matter much - your DD is doing fine, isn't she?

I know bonsoir and I did consider not posting about it, but it just makes me wonder what the point of nc levels actually is when they are so all over the place and subjective.

The point of NC levels is just to indicate whether your child is on track (as most of them are) or whether they require some kind of help or intervention.

I take my DD's reports with a HUGE pinch of salt!

I suppose its possible that your child balled up in one test. I wouldn't worry as your child will be entered for the right paper in May. In class work the same child might be a 3a (when they have a heavy cold, have been talking too much and not done any work) and a 5a the following week when the (the child is feeling better, had a good night sleep and the naughty kid is off school)

Children make progress in spurts. Its unlikely that a child will go up an entire level every year.

It takes a while for a teacher to see enough evidence (ie enough pieces of writing) to accurately assess a child.

So what he is telling you is that based on the work he has seen so far, your DC is either a 4 or a 5. And he'll decide when he's seen some more :)

But yes it is very subjective, and all over the place. Absolutely.

They will be levelling based on work seen so far. Only half a term into the year so not enough work yet for a full judgement - there are a lot of boxes to tick and she may not have provided enough evidence yet to cover all of them. Doesn't mean her standard has fallen necessarily.

Yes I echo themumsnot, probably based on a few pieces of formal assessed work so far, so maybe lack of evidence at this stage. But doing well and nothing to worry about.