Sorry, a levels question - what does this mean?

[paddingtonbear1]

I spoke to dd's teacher yesterday (dd is 8, in yr 4). She said dd's levels were a 'middle 2' for writing and a 'low 3' for reading. Not quite sure what this means? dd has always struggled at school - she's on SA and has various interventions, and also has 1-1 with a tutor on Saturday mornings. In some ways I'm not too concerned about her actual levels, so long as she's making progress, but it would be useful to know if she's making up any ground at all. (She was level 1 at the end of KS1).

2b is the national expectation for the end of Y2, but you are right, she's made progress since then, to go from 1c to 2b is progress, albeit slow.

Not slow progress!

She's making good progress, is a bit behind in writing, and is where she should be for reading.

End of Y4 national expectation is a 3b. Levels are fairly meaningless if you are dealing with a child with additional needs, it is the progress she makes against her past achievements that count, rather than matching her against others in her year.

Hi paddingtonbear1:

First off if you haven't located these pages - Mumsnet has some pages on NC Levels on the Pearson Learning pages:

General info NC Levels www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/national-curriculum-levels

What the NC Levels mean: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/what-national-curriculum-levels-mean

Progress through NC Levels: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/progress-through-national-curriculum-levels

I think your own post has answered your question. At the end of Y2 your DD was Level 1. There are 3 sub-levels (c = low, b = medium, a = high) per NC Level. So presuming your DD was a level 1b that means

She's gone from 1b-ish to 1a, to 2c and to NC Level 2b now for writing.
The national expectation seems to be around 2 sub-levels a year for KS 2
(so that seems nearly on track - possibly a little slow, but there's still some time left in Y4 to make that 4th sub-level).

She's gone from 1b-ish to 1a, to 2c, to 2b, to 2a, to 3c for reading in 2 years.
So that's fantastic progress - approximately 5 sub-levels of improvement.

I think given all the givens, and it sounds like there are some issues, she's doing really well. You have to start from where you are. I'm sure you'd love her to be working to a 3b (the expected level end of Y4) in all subject areas (reading, writing, maths, science) but she's truly not far off. And I can assure you that there are many children in my DD1's Y4 class without 'SA' (I'm not sure whether that's SEN or just intervention to support struggling student) who are performing at or below this level.

Whatever your doing does seem to be working. I'd tell your DD that you're really proud of her. She's making good steady progress and is knocking on the door of working to what the 'expected' level should be.

And remember you have the summer to help as well. Try to build in time to keep building on and using those reading, writing and maths skills. You don't have to be indoors all day working hard - but try and ensure there's at least 10 - 20 minutes reading (great after bath in the evening), try encouraging writing (postcards, scrapbooks, writing diary, etc...) and try encouraging practice on maths (either continuing with the tutor you are using or maybe join something like Mathsfactor summer camp on-line club - it's not advertised yet, but will appear here toward July www.themathsfactor.com/. Use that 6 week break to keep learning going. That extra time (30 - 45 minutes a day - mornings/ evenings) cummulatively can make a real difference.

Hang in there!

The expectation is that a child makes one full level progress between Y2 and Y4 so your child is making above expected progress paddingtonbear

Thank you so much everyone, this is really helpful. PastSellByDate - no I hadn't located those pages - thanks :)
dd changed schools in the last term of yr 1, and we've been much happier with her current school. Her old school was very academic and tended to leave behind those dc with any difficulties. dd had glue ear on and off - which can't have helped - and had grommets in yr 2. She's also behind in maths (I don't have her level for that), but dh has been helping her there. I think she's at expected level for science. She does try hard when we can get her focussed - understandably she is sometimes reluctant and would rather play! She has a fab imagination and her teacher says she has all the ideas, it's just that her writing and spelling lets her down at the moment.

Hi paddingtonbear1:

My advice is hang in there. It really does look (as others have posted) that your DD is making stead progress. I think given the ear problems, it is no small wonder that your DD has struggled a bit, but you really are catching up fast.

Absolutely agree that what you do to support learning at home has to be fun, but you can play clever. Don't underestimate the power of parental cunning with improving writing:

Get her to send postcards when you go places or go on holiday. Have her send them to favourite teachers, friends, Aunties/ Uncles, Grandma/ Grandpa, etc... Let her start out not writing much, just steadily encourage a bit more writing each card. Oh, by the way, would you tell Aunti X that I say she'd love the shops here!

If she gets children's magazines and is interested in competitions - enter the old-fashioned way by letter sent by snail mail! Don't just send in the competition answer. Have her say something about the magazine/ character/ tv show/ etc...

Have her write something more than her name in birthday cards - or better yet make them.

Letter to Father Christmas - essential every year!

Send thank you cards for all presents/ treats. Old fashioned - but grandma's eat this stuff up!

Keep a diary (or try Diary of a Wimpy kid, which includes lots of writing as well as reading). With our DDs we've gone to a nice stationary shop and had them chose a notebook and pen of their own. They loved the treat and have done all sorts of writing/ doodling in their notebooks.

Encourage handwriting practice - both my DDs are into playing with their cursive handwriting. Once your DD is onto joined up writing - really encourage her to develop her style by practicing different ways of writing the same letter or word.

Be very old-fashioned and encourage your DD to write out spelling words as practice. My DDs claim to hate this, but actually get into writing words with different coloured pens and swirls and other fancy additions. In return for writing out spellings, I usually get a treat (no time for baking here, but if you do have the time even better). So they have a nice snack and calmly write out words at a very relaxed pace, whilst we also discuss their day or I do a few chores.

We found geometric colouring books (just type in geometric colouring books on amazon) and crayola twistable coloured pencils really helped fine motor skills for DD1 (a leftie who really struggled).

I really believe in the value of practice. Don't overdo it of course, but the odd 5-10 minutes here or there a few times over the week cummulatively does seem to make a difference.

HTH

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDEQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tgfl.org.uk%2Ftgfl%2Fcustom%2Ffiles_uploaded%2Fuploaded_resources%2F3000%2FTracking-Progress-grid.doc&ei=D91kT6C6OqGw0QWQ9byPCA&usg=AFQjCNE2UsSm5rOegLBiHTRD8u9sR6sOxQ&sig2=0x2o5OD4bnUdaS1wwy3JjQ

Thank you mrz that link is useful. PastSellByDate, I like the look of those colouring books - I might even have a go myself! Fortunately dd doesn't mind writing sometimes - she likes making up stories and jotting them down in little notebooks. Her tutor sometimes gives her word searches which she seems to be getting into!