Do you think it's right to have children's Levels up on display in the classroom?

[Niceweather]

Three Circular targets (like for archery) have appeared on our classroom walls. One each for reading, writing and maths, along with pictures of children at various points in the targets. I do not think this is a good idea for several reasons - what do you think?

I think it's a terrible idea. Can't see any merit in it at all. Reminds me of my (private) secondary school when they read the end of year exam results out in order from top to bottom of the class!

Awful idea. That's just humiliating for the lower level kids.

If they had some way of publicly celebrating children's effort, that would be different, but just putting levels up is wrong.

Perhaps this is for a particular group - and all the targets are achievable. Other groups might have their own targets elsewhere in the classroom.

It's not levels, though, on display. It's Targets.
I don't have a problem with Targets.

Gove thinks its a good idea for all kids' test results to be posted in the corridors in descending order, as does Wilshaw, the current head of Ofsted.

Hells Bells - I think that's awful. How sad for the less able ones.

At dd1's school there were all sorts of things on the wall - one girl had a sticker chart for simply coming to school, and my dd had a contract that listed how she and her friends had to manage conflict. I don't think dc find it humiliating to have things on display.

Not great = esp in younger classes where parents come into classes often - the children might not notice but the parents will and some parents will see it as a big competitive thing . No way would we do that in our classroom - the potential for it to make a child and/or parents disgruntled is too much.

All our Y1 children do have targets in reading, writing and numberacy - but these are inside their school books for them to see, not for everyone else and esp not the parents of other children.

DD goes to a fairly academic and competitive school and ever they don;t do this!

what a stupid idea, i would be angry if they did that at my kids school.

Hullababy: numberacy love it!

not just sad for the lower achieving ones but also the higher achieving ones. They end up being labelled as the clever nerds, hated, resented, teased, told thousands of times over how being nice is more important than being clever, how no-one likes a clever clogs, etc; the competition and pressure put on them to keep being top, to be perfect, from everyone who wants to see them taken down a peg - it's awful, and can lead to perfectionism, control tendencies, unhappiness and stress.

should be up to any individual to decide whether they want their scores or targets known by others or not.

lol! It's been a busy week - numeracy!! Mind you, maybe numberacy would make more sense to little ones??

Good point, RunAwayHome (Antonia Forest?)

It's a nonsense. FAR better to have a chart of DC's efforts towards their individual targets!

I don't subscribe to the 'all shall have prizes' idea, but I think for every absolute achievement 'prize' (the 'straight 'A' prize we used to see the same DC get every year) there should be a corresponding 'best effort/ best improver' prize. Even most of Govey's marvellous private schools appreciate this!

I've been in a Reception class where targets for each child were written on the wall. There was no pictorial representation and no photographs. I didn't think it either good nor bad. But I was a bit sad that some of the goals were things like Angela is going to count to five, and Tim is going to say the letters from a to h. I know that some children don't go to nursery, but of the ones that I know all of them were beyond that stage long before they got to school.

Just gives more ammo to those who want to gossip and boast and more reason for the parents of kids at the lower end of the target to worry.

No!

Found out today that my DD's class have targets on the wall as she has bought home her reception bit and bobs and I asked about something with her picture on and she told me that they use it to show what targets she is working on! 3 of them in the bag but they don't use they for reading for readin, I've never seen anything when I've been in the classroom.

The children in the class are generally competitive but not as much as the mum's in the playground :(

(feels worried)

We have the children's targets (several differentiated levels of them, depending on the cohort and the subject) up in the classrrom BUT no indication of which child is working towards each child IYSWIM?

Every child knows which their target is, though - it's something I talk about with them frequently in discussing their work and the progress that they are making. It's also in various books... However, there isn't a public indication of where an individual child fits with the overall class targets for other people to see...

Is that OK???

learnandsay - I work in an infant school and many children come to school not knowing these things - some still have similar targets in Y1. Some children just take longer to get there and some children (not always the same ones) don't get much support with this stuff at home either. One more reason why personalised targets - those attached to specific children - should be displayed for all to ogle.

If they put my DS2's targets up on the wall, I'd have a funny turn. He already KNOWS at 8yo that he is behind, why the HELL would he want all the competitive parents to know that too?!

He can't fail to know that he is behind, he is not on free reading yet at the end of Y3. He gets embarrassed about it enough when they have to read in class (he isn't allowed to read 'home' books at school as he isn't a free reader), and is still on poxy ORT books that he hates and would rather pull his own fingernails off with pliers than to read them when he would rather be reading his BeastQuest books, or Yuck! books, or the back of a shampoo bottle, anything but ORT!

I would say that surely their levels are PERSONAL information, and as such should be covered by the Data Protection Act, and not be available to other people? But then I AM known as the 'difficult' parent. Not that I care!

Fine as long as teachers' targets are also displayed.

I have a targets display up in my room, but it is just a target picture with the statements of the targets that are being worked towards. They are not arranged in any way or labelled to show what level they are, or whose targets they are. They are just a reminder for them and me that some children are working towards them. I refer to them when I am introducing a task like "and I know some of you have x as your target, and you'll be able to show this in your work today"

Exactly, 2kidsintow. Ours usually have a theme e.g. punctuation, problem solving etc, and appear as part of a display all about that aspect of literacy / numeracy.

If it's targets, not levels, then it's not so wrong, is it?
Targets will be completely different for each individual pupil relative to their ability (if they're doing it right) so can hardly be humiliating for those less able, unlike levels, which are absolute.