NCL Clarification please - I am not sure whether to worry.

[marge2]

I am a little confused about the NCL levels. I have had two different sets of exaplanations. I thought the school had sent something home this time last year with the reports they sent out then, saying that the level numbers matched the expected level for the year, and the letters went from c to a with c being lower than a. i.e the expected average attainment level at the end of the 1st term in Y2 would be 2c, moving on up to a 2a by the end of the year. So I was horrified yesterday, when My Y4 son was given some level 3as and a 4b , which going by the 1st explanation I had would have meant he was about 2 years behind starting Y5 in sept.

BUT then I found another graph type thing when I googled the NCLS saying 3a was 'as expectation' for the end of Y4, and 4b is beyond expectation.

Of course I understand all kids progress at different speeds,

Could someone who knows what they are talking about please explain how these ruddy levels work.

DD's only in reception yet, but as far as I can work out once NC levels kick in, they're expected to make 2 sublevels of progress per academic year. So going from eg 3c to 3a would be right.

Oh Poo, that sounds worrying then.

I googled, it's 1.5 sublevels every year. See this document for an explanation.

4b is the nationally expected level for y6 so he's doing very well .

It's constants amazes me why some school don't send out a chart

Yes - that was the chart I found that re-asured me , but it seemd to contradict what the school had told us last year. He's 3as for literacy and science, and 4b for maths. Thanks for that - I am more happy now!

I'm keeping that chart for future reference.

In KS1, it's a whole level per year. In KS2, it's a whole level every 2 years.

end of y2 - 2b
end of y4- 3b
end of y6 - 4b

There appears to be almost universal confusion between year group and NC level, not helped by the fact that in Year one Level 1 is expected, and in year 2 level 2 is also expected, but after that levels slip behind year group so a 2/3 is fine for the end of year 3 and level 3 is Ok for year 4. Level 4 is fine going into year 5 and level 5 in year 6 is wonderful!!!