a bit sad re parents evening and "levels"

[severnofnine]

a bit of an AIBU but I'm not brave enough to post there.

So DS1 I think is bright ( but so is everyone dc i guess). WE saw the teacher and he is " gaining levels as expected" and isnt it great that he achieving " what he should be" and "average".

I found the whole thing so sad. Lots of positives- always enthusiastic and works well independently. and lots of emphasis of - "isnt it great that he is gaining levels as expected".

He says school is "ok"- lots of spelling tests which he hates. he is quite quiet and very "well behaved" ( unlike his brothers), which is I think his teachers are finding him enthusiastic as he wouldnt dream of actually showing he was bored at school.

I'm not a pushy parent at all and am quite relaxed.
But even so I found the whole emphasis on average and gaining levels as we would hope etc kind of depressing.

and dont suggest private school as we really cant afford it :(

(DD is 5.5 and can say one thing "mummy" btw)

thought that might make average seem a bit better to OP is all :)

I don't think the OP is depressed by the level her child is at ,she is depressed by a system which reduces education to a system of levels.What she is depressed by ,if you read her posts, is the fact that the teacher seemed only able to assess her child in the context of "levels" rather than looking at the whole child.

I agree actually ,I want my child's education be be more than just reaching a set of levels.It's not teachers fault but it just seems to smack of the way the education system in this country has become about training for tests and hoops rather than about educating and expanding child's mind .

mrswooden, the BBC news website has just published a complaint of that kind.

I I must have a look,it is a bit of a bugbear of mine

Chandon, you are spot on.

My son was only covering a fraction of what others were covering in Y1. When he was looking at number bonds to 10 others were being extended to number bonds to 20 plus. His homework was different (much easier) and like your DC his 'words' (we don't get spellings) were less ambitious. I hadn't realised these were even formally tested. They were.

I would have liked to have been told this was happening. I wasn't. He was on a different pathway at 5 years old. Stupidly I assumed they were all doing similar. I didn't realise they were differentiating. What an idiot I was. A gap opened up and he got to level 2A by the end of Y2. He'd done brilliantly but now he's earmarked as being capable of a 3C at the end of Y3. In order to change things & others perception of him he'll need to make spectacular jumps forward. The truth is if I'd known what to do earlier and he'd ended Y2 at level 3C he'd be seen as an entirely different animal. An intellectually capable and permanently well above average child.

Cortina:

I think you've raised a very good point. I didn't understand 'the system' at school with DD1 and realised rather late how far behind she truly was and how little the school was putting into place to help. It wasn't a learning issue - she just didn't get the mechanics of reading longer words or subtraction, for example. What she desperately needed was practice, support and monitoring so points where she was struggling could be identified and supported - we've opted to do extra work at home and have learned a ton ourselves in the process.

The result is that DD2 has hugely benefitted because we are now so clued up.

I've had the opposite of self-fulfilling prophecies: for behaviour & academics, I can see DSs not typecast by teachers at all on their past form, the ability groups are changed around a lot in all subjects, and each teacher has treated DS2's behaviour problems as a fresh start. Eg, DS1 got 2/2b/2a in all KS2 SATs and was targeted to get all 5s in Y6 SATs.