Only one sub-level progress in a year - should I be worried?

[zen1]

Just had my Ds's school report which states that he got a 3a in English, Maths and Science. At the end of last year (when he was in year 3) he got all 3bs. I have read that children are supposed to go through 2 sub-levels a year in order to be considered to be making satisfactory progress. Should I go and see the teacher about this?

Kids don't have to be tested at the end of every year that is the school's choice

The level you have been given will be mainly teacher assessment, zen1.

Our school has a designated "SATS week" every year for all classes (they love to test ) and are quite an academic school so like loads of statistics documenting their results. They've just become an academy, so theoretically, I guess they don't even have to do SATS, but I know there is a lot of pressure on the teachers and all the kids have lots of practice papers to do in the 3 weeks leading up to sats week.

Schools are only required to carry out "SATs" in Y2 and Y6 by law

As you are only interested in your child's progress, not comparing with other children, may I suggest you avoid the "was in the top 25%, but now only in top 45%" route when talking to the teacher. That is comparing your child's ranking with other children as I assume it means in Year 2 25% of children got a 3, now 45% of children are at 3B or above. It doesn't automatically mean your child has fallen behind, but that other children (who maybe "only" got 2A in Year 2) have made good progress and moved to a 3B.

Hope the meeting goes well and you get clarification on 3C/3B issue and what you can do to help your child. I suggest you ask for specifics if you want to work on them at home - e.g. in writing they need more varied connectives / adverbial phrases, or maths they need more secure understanding of multiplication and division in practical problem solving activities.

Thanks Abigail. No, I won't be mentioning other children in the meeting, just the fact that he went up 3-4 sublevels from year 2 to year 3 (in one subject he went from a 2c to a 3b) and now he has only gone up 1 level from 3b to 3a, so that is what concerned me. On paper, teacher says he is still achieving above "average", but it's just the lack of apparent progress in a year.

zen the expectation is one full level (3 sub levels) from Y2-Y4 he has made 4- 5 sub levels progress almost double expected progress.

I think you have to take a longer term view rather than just over a year. 3-4 sub-levels one year and one the next = 4-5 over 2 years. The government reckon children should make one whole level, ie 3 sub levels over 2 years, so he is doing fine if you take a longer view.

But still go in and have that chat - it may be that he is coasting and needs some strong encouragement

Admittedly, he is not particularly motivated, unless a topic comes up that he has a real interest in. Yes, looking at it longer-term, his progress looks ok. I suppose at the back of my mind I am worried about what if he only makes another sub-level's progress next year? Thanks for all the advice, by the way

His progress is more than OK!
and you need to look at progress over Y5 & Y6 not a single year

I wouldn't worry about it either, children don't develop in a nice even linear way. As long as progress is steady over the whole of a key stage that's fine.

Well, I went to see the teacher today and feel reassured . She said she ummed and ahhd a lot about wither to give him a 4c or 3a, as she feels he is achieving a 4c in several areas, but would rather he was comfortably in this sublevel before grading him as such, and expects him to be firmly a 4c by the autumn term, so I am quite happy now that he is progressing fine.

That's great, zen it sounds like she's making sure he keeps his confidence as the work gets tougher.