Why would levels on report be different to those achieved in the tests?

[adeucalione]

I was hoping that someone could shed some light on this?

DS is in Y5 and did optional SATs (or whatever they're called) in May. At the time his teacher said that he had achieved L5 for maths, L5 for reading and 4b in writing. However, I have just received his report and this shows his current levels for maths and reading as being 4a (still 4b for writing).

I'm not bothered enough to go in, but am curious about why this has happened.

The level on the report is based on continuous teacher assessment. The test level is based on a single test. It sounds like he is not consistently showing that he can work at a Level 5 standard for reading and maths . (Also I always thinks that schools are pessimistic with levels so they can show progress the following year, but obviously just IMO)

The same happened with my DS. The teacher actually came out and told me he got a L5 across the board in the tests, but when the report came out, only a 4a was reported as the teacher assessment. He told me that they could have awarded a 5, but that would give them nowhere to go in Y6 (erm-the level 6 paper!?).

If they aren't consistently working at a 5c, then a 4a will be awarded. They could have just scraped the L5-that was his point.

children quite often score higher in the tests than the level they are achieving in class as they are practised and the DCs are familiar with them, rather than having to apply their learing in a classroom setting

it's not unusual for this to happen

Ok, so sounds like he scraped a L5 in reading and maths then, but is only reliably demonstrating work at Level 4a in the classroom. I suppose that makes sense, but he was a bit sad because he was thrilled to achieve L5 in the tests and didn't understand why this wasn't reported (teacher told them all their test results back in May). Thanks for explaining it to me!