How does your school report achievement in KS1?

[gabsid]

I have started a thread yesterday but didn't get too much response, maybe it was a bit long.

I would like to know how your school reports achievement, e.g. levels in annual reports, are there more reports, or do you not know how your DC are achieving at all, like me?

Ours doesn't give levels in reports, and teachers will not tell you whether your child is achieving below average or above.

This has always irritated me a bit, but after having had concerns about DS's maths I felt patronised and kept in the dark, and when speaking to the Head last week she told me it was school policy - to keep parents in the dark?

So, how does your school do it?

The only thing I know is what level she is reading at because she brings that home, know nothing about any other subject.
At parents evening in march I was given a slip of paper which had a couple of targets on it but they were just like practice subtraction, write longer sentences.
All I was told was that she was working well and there are no issues.
No idea of levels at all.

Yes, similar to our school.

During KS1 at parents evening they would tell you where your child was in relation to 'expected level for that age' but not an actual level. There were clues if you could be bothered to follow through though such as the DC had learning objectives in their reading diaries (but I wasn't going to try to extrapolate to NC levels).

School reports at end of year one were lovely cut n paste compositions. At the end of KS1 we got DS's SATS levels on one side of A4 and the other side had a table of the class performance v national averages.

This is is something I've thought about a lot ... because I always feel I never have any idea how my DC are doing, but don't know what I expect the school to tell me iyswim.

At parents' evening it is the norm to say "what" your child can do and what their targets are, and also their NC level. TBH I still find the levels meaningless - all they tell you is where your child is in comparison to national standards, but I do have an inkling of that anyway.

The thing I found most useful (that DD's school has started showing to parents' at parents evening) was a grid of all the "skills" that they need to get level 1,2 etc and how many of these your DC has achieved.

redsky I started googling 'I can statements' for maths when I had a feeling that DS was behind which was very useful and I felt I could support him.

But the school told me he was fine when I felt he was falling more and more behind because 'he wasn't interested in maths'.

Reports were always very descriptive and as much as I tried I couldn't read between the lines.

"the DC had learning objectives in their reading diaries"

The teachers have never written anything in my child's reading diary apart from the title of the book and the date.

Hi gabsid

All data recorded on your DS is gathered at tax payers expense. As his legal guardian under the Freedom of Information Act you are fully entitled to see his individual data.

I'd e-mail the Head asking to be informed what NC Levels your DS is performing at in maths and literacy and what was achieved on KS1 SATs and reported to the LEA.

Don't make the letter threating but make it clearly your are formally requesting this data.

Hopefully the rest will take care of itself. If this is refused next stop LEA and local councillor. It is ridiculous for tax payers to be funding the collection of this data and for this data to be withheld from the very people it relates to.

PastSellByDate - thanks, I know I am entitled to the information, but you express it well!

I started off just being slightly irritated in Reception (but everything went well for DS I thought) to very annoyed when I had a concern in Y2 and the school was not open and honest with me.

As DS is in Y2 now, they will give levels at the end of this term and then he leaves to go to Junior School.

However, DD starts at the school in 2013 and I will ask for some more assessment detail from the beginning, whatever their policy.

housework they used to have a sheet in the back with a literacy, numeracy and 'behaviour' objective. eg use question marks correctly and consistently, 5 times table, sit quietly at carpet time.

After the ks1 sat's are scored and the information put onto the Sims school computer there is an option to print out individual pages for each child showing their scores, we do this and the teacher gives them out with end of year report. It's ridiculous that schools don't tell parents . I'd ask for my childs print out at the beginning of July results have to b into dfes for 4th July so they can't say they haven't done them.

It's ridiculous that schools don't tell parents

Schools do report end of KS1 results, auntpetunia - it's a legal requirement. The OP's school will too - she is asking about the rest of KS1, I think.

Our school gives end of Yr 2 SATS results per individual child - and the national average.
Fwiw, in yr3 and 4 they tell you what level your child is working to so you have an idea as to where - if they make expected progress, they might be at the SATS at the end of yr6.

we got the levels in every report starting from Y1. It was only at the parent's evening to explain Y2 SATs that we all finally found out what these numbers and letters meant though. Before that not a clue and teacher never talked about them at parents evening. I guess I should have looked it up, but I was always more interested in what the teacher had to say in the report about him individually. I didn't realise they graded kids this young.

Although I agree the level number can be useful for some parents, I feel it is more important that the parent knows the areas of success and development. No school should withhold the numbers from you, but the details are more important. As a year 2 teacher I loathe that children are being reduced to numbers; every year the government / LA expect us to have equal or better overall scores than the year before, and parents get drawn into that as well. Don?t get me wrong I have high expectations, my class make really good progress, but ignoring the child as a whole ? their happiness, their social development, their attitude to school and learning, the progress they make and effort, the challenges some children face and still make progress - makes me steam. School is not a production line, children are individuals and a huge number of factors impact attainment and progress. Progress is not linear it has plateaus and spurts . ?. Sorry rant over ? I?m a year 2 teacher who has a delightful child in my class. They joined year 2 on P5 and now is 2C, but I have been told it is not ?good enough? as it?s below level 2B?. we have been weak teachers if all the children are not a 2B or higher.

In response to a previous poster about when the End of KS1 results are given to parents: The reason the End of Key Stage results come out at the same time as reports is that they are to be read as part of the comments on the report, to show the big picture. Raw numbers don?t mean much to many parents. Knowing your child is 2B tells you that your child is reaching ?expectations?, but it doesn?t tell you which aspects of level 2 they have achieved and which aspects need more work.

If we send out one set of results early to a parent requesting the print out, we have to send it to all 90 Year 2 parents. Then we would have a hoard of clamouring parents wanting to see us for an explanation of what the numbers mean. When they come out with reports the narrative in the report expands the crude data and the parents evening expands further. I just couldn?t cope with explaining the subtleties of why each child has achieved their level, what they still need to do, etc. and finalise reports, plan school trips, plan, resource, mark and assess lessons (yes assessment carries on even after we?ve submitted the levels) by sending them out at the time we submit them to the LA?. I do like to sleep! We?re not being awkward and keeping information from you ? you get the results eventually, but we do have create systems that ensure some work/life balance for teachers.

It's bollocks isn't it. 2b used to be the average attainment in Y2. So average means as many will get less than this as those who will get more. How it has now become the target, I will never know? How can every child reach average? So long as they are progressing and reaching their potential, that's what matters.

Same way every year has to better than the year before, until we get 200% level 3+ I tried saying that at our last target setting meeting!
HT: "Are you sure there are not more children you can give a level 3 target to Abi?"
Me: "Well I know I get 3 or 4 sub-points in two and half terms as average, but I don't think I can manage 6"
HT: "Surely you can identify three more children in your class that could get a level 3"
Me: "no"
HT: "I really need three more"
Me; "OK stick a pin in my register three time" .....
Didn't go down well . There went any possiblity of getting a good deal on timetabling or a pay rise!

Oops, Well, at least he knows how you feel. 6 sub levels in less than a year!

Thanks for your replies, so is it common for schools to hide any assessment information from parents? There aren't many who say their school does.

Also, my concerns are not just about levels. If the school doesn't put levels in the report, fine, but I do want to know what my child is like in school in every respect and that includes how he is doing academically.

I was getting very upset with teachers telling me 'he is fine, he has been doing xyz, but he is just not so interested in maths' - I do think maths is very importent and we still have to learn it even if we are not so interested.

By co-incidence I found out (could see) that my silly, immature 6 year old was in bottom set. I googled what I needed, 4 months of a bit of 1-to-1 with me each day and now he is in a good middle set - no thanks to the school who continiously insisted that the bottom set was the right place for him at the time.

Why are they trying to hide any assessment information though, I don't get it. If not levels then they could just tell me how he is doing in relation to expectations.

Ime, it is common but not guaranteed for the teacher to show parents exactly how their child is doing, with NC descriptors, this is target, this is where your child is at, kind of statements. I have the impression they would honestly answer a Q about below/at/above average if asked (& that there is no particular policy about giving that info out, it's up to indiv teacher discretion).

I personally think specific levels are a load of rubbish, though, I don't have faith in them meaning much of anything, or even the changes between them. Below/at/above average/target/national expectations statements are more meaningful. Even better is simply "What does he need to work on, What can he do best right now and where are they especially concerned?" answers.