Levels

[Kardashianw]

Do majority of schools get children all at a certain level except the ones who are above achievers.
For eg at the end of year 2 do the teachers get majority of children at 2b or 2a or whatever the child is capable of?

I would say (as a Y2 teacher), that many of my class will get a level 2 by the end of the year but couldn't be too much more precise than that. I teach in a very deprived area so our levels are lower than others might have, but we generally have a handful of level 3s (rarely for writing, more often in reading/maths/science and S+L), a few 2as, a good number of 2b and 2cs and then the rest at a level 1 or still working on the FSP, especially those who have only recently started speaking English.

At a different school with a very different catchment, the teacher might have over half level threes, so it's difficult to generalise. The expectation now is that every child should be able to acheive a 2b.

Thank you. I was just wondering at how much children are pushed. Ds is hood reader and can achieve 2a but teacher is going slow and predicted him 2b not sure ifi should push her to push him.
Maths he is predicted 2b Im happy with that as end of year 1 he was 1c.
Writing is where he struggles and she has predicted him 2c. He is summer born baby so my opinion he's doing good and on parr with children who are winter born babies.
It's a really good school an not in deprived area.

If you think he could get 2a without too much pushing, then there's no harm in asking the teacher exactly what he'd needs to do to get there.

Tbh, (and I hope you dont think im rude for saying,) if I was in the same position as you & was going to do some extra work with my dc, I'd want to focus on the area he was weakest on & try & bring that level up. If he is a strong reader there's a chance that he might do better than the teacher is predicting anyway (ds went up 2 sub levels in the last term of yr 2 in one section). Of course theres nothing wrong with him getting a 2c in writing & like you said he is one of the younger ones in the year, but it might stand him in better sted for ks2 if he was at the expected level in all three subject areas. Maybe you could ask the teacher which she'd recommend doing if you were to do a bit of work with him at home?

There is always another possibility, you could consider combining the two by getting him to write a bit about books he's read, (why he liked it, his favourite bit, how the main character was feeling at certain point in the story, explain what happened in his own words etc, etc,) or reading half a story with him & asking him to write his own version of what happens next.

You know your own dc & whether he's likely to do/benefit from something like that, my own ds would never voluntarily do work out of school, while my dd loves to!

joyn thank you so much. That's such a good idea about writing because I struggle on how to get his writing better and what we could write about. I like the idea of reading then writing about what has happened and good and bad points about the book. It is hard and he does come up with excellent ideas but putting it to paper I struggle with him.

Any more suggestions? I'd be really happy if he got more than what he was predicted.

I agree with Joyn, concentrate on improving his writing; a higher level at writing is harder to achieve than other subjects.

There is lots you can do. My own ds wasn't on track to meet the grade the school had predicted him at the end of ks1 in writing, (and he actually went up 2 sub levels between the Easter & end of the year). As I'm not a teacher or anything, so I'm afraid I'm not an expert on the actual things they have to demonstrate in class to hit a 2b. It'll probably be things like using 'wow' (descriptive,) words & compound (and) sentences, but without this list I'm at a loss as to what exactly to recommend (sorry - Ive been trying to get hold of this list for 2 years, but can't find it anywhere).

With reading it's all about understanding & empathy etc, but writing is a bit more complicated. My ds is working just above 3b level & dd is aiming for 1b this term, so I'm not really an expert of what comes in between. What I can say is that the most obvious starting point is to look at any areas of grammar he struggles with (eg does he always use full stops, does he use commas & question marks etc). Then there's the need to show understanding of a text & also of the audience they are writing for (that might come later?)

On a more general level the types of things you could look at & get ds to write about are things like;

Book reviews
What happens next/create your own ending
Favourite character and why
What was the story about (in your own words)
What was the most important event in the story & why?
What would you do/how would you feel if x happen to you?
who was your favourite character & why?
Best bit of story & why?
How was x feeling when y happened?