A question on report marking Y2

[Bonsoir]

I am interested in what report marking scheme schools in England use and how they link it to NC levels as reported after KS2 SATS.

What does a child need to achieve in order to get an A (or whatever the highest mark is)?

KS1 SATS

Our reports don't work that way Bonsoir.
dera.ioe.ac.uk/10747/1/1849623848.pdf

It depends on the school. The NC levels don't have sub-levels; these were invented by marking schemes to give teachers something more to work with. Apparently, they are being scrapped too under Gove.

For maths, my school uses APP but it isn't very popular. We highlight statements that match a child's ability, and if they're all highlighted it's a 'b'. If some of the next level's are highlighted, it's an 'a' and if a few more are highlighted, it's the next level up and a 'c'. It's not an exact science.

For writing, we've been told to use the Surrey assessment grids this time (even though we've been using APP all year) and they give statements for each sub-level.

Alternatively, I've used Ros Wilson's level descriptors too.

It depends on the school. We had a writing moderation meeting last week, and loads of teachers disagreed on the level for the same piece of work. That's not very encouraging imo

Thank you Juniper904! I was hoping that you were going to tell me it was all sorted and a nice exact science that all teachers agreed upon... But no, it's obviously as difficult an issue as it is here.

Thank you for that link, mrz. That is very useful.

We don't get marks in school reports.

Some schools give NC levels, and some don't.

Some say stuff like 'at expected level'

Some give a grade for effort.

Etc

But I've never heard (in a state school) of giving a child any kind of mark other than NC level.

We give a written summary and NC levels in Y2 and 6

OK - so if I understand you correctly, IndigoBell, the NC level is the mark?

No the NC level isn't the mark

Mostly I get a whole report that says absolutely nothing :)

It will say 'DS enjoyed learning about the Romans' etc, etc

Then the last sentence of the English section will say something like 'DS is working below the expected level and is making progress' (or whatever)

At another school I've had the same rubbish in the report but also a NC level.

The problem with NC levels is that 6 (or more children) all at the same level will not necessarily have the same skills or knowledge.

Having twins in different classes I was always amused at how much personal views came into marks/reports etc.

The only outside indicator I received (the SATs) said they were both on the same levels...which is clearly utter rot.

Now I have twins at different schools, the differences are even more amusing

mrz - sure, but you can say the same for children with a B or C or some other fairly middling mark in schools that grade that way. Another mother and I were comparing the reports of her DS and my DD the other day - her DS is French first language and English very much second language, though highly fluent. DD is stronger in English than in French, though a native speaker in both. The two DCs are in the same class in both French and English. You would not know from their report that her DS speaks and reads French a lot better than my DD (both got C+ for vocabulary and B for reading) nor that my DD exceeds her DS in reading in English by a mile (they both got A-) and that her writing fluency and accuracy in English is way beyond his (she got B+, he got B).

Why is evaluation and marking so hard?

because technically A, B and C don't exist

Then you say that nothing exists. What system is acceptable? Marks out of 10?

There is a broad level 1 an even broader level 2 a broad level 3 ....up to 8.
They don't equate to marks, they equate to children demonstrating understanding and the ability to apply a set of skills and knowledge over a period of time in their daily work.

So how do parents know what their child is achieving?

If a child is demonstrating some of those skills they may be working at a low level or still at the level below so it's very subjective.

Some teachers are much tougher than others.

Some will expect a child to show a certain skill consistently, day in day out beofre they'll mark the child as able. Ohters are more permissive and will consider the child able if they can do it more often than not.

This is one of the reasons why parents get into a flumox about what their child can do at home versus what they display at school no?

The teacher gives a summary of what the child can do and what they need to work on rather than report numbers

There are 7 assessment points in APP's writing assessments. Some people put more weight on punctuation than on content; connectives rather than spelling etc. There's no set rule.

For example, I am trying to level a piece of writing now and have asked my mum for help (she taught year 2 for 38 years...it's not cheating to ask her opinion, surely?!) between the two of us, we still aren't sure if it's a 2a or a 2b because it's not that clear cut. There are aspects of both... so yes, it is a very subjective call. There isn't a 2b and a half, so I have to make a judgement call.

Hmm. Would be lovely but fat chance of that in a French school!

Ahhh, now we do have a 2b and a half - it's a 2b plus. Our free LEA software records plus levels like this aswell, as do neighbouring authorities. It's a northern/Yorkshire thing apparently.....

but apparently Mr Gove plans to get rid of it all

Internally, we track using NC levels, down to sublevels. Maths is via APP, Literacy is mostly APP with a dash of Ros Wilson. We moderate internally for every year group once a term, and 2 year groups each academic year attend external APP moderation. We keep those externally moderated packs of work for internal standardisation to ensure that our internal moderation doesn't 'drift' over time (we have tended to become harsher internally over the last couple of years after introducing the Ros Wilson statements for writing, for example, so we are continually standardising to check).

In reports to parents, we report attitude to work (from excellent down to poor) for all subjects, and above / in line with / below expected levels of attainment for their age for maths and all parts of literacy (Reading, S&L and writing sepoarated). We don't report levels or sublevels to parents except at the end of the key stage as required.

Oh, and we do do optional SATs....but then we ignore them ... cluster thing, soon to die out we hope.

but apparently Mr Gove plans to get rid of it all hmm

Is that true!? I can't see Gove getting rid of anything that he can hold us accountable to/by...