year 5 has gone up for 4 sublevels in one year??

[anice]

DS (current year 5) has climbed 4 sublevels in one of his subjects this year. He's now a 5B. Is this really possible, or is it more likely that either this year's teacher or last year's teacher is/was an easy/ tough marker?

yes its possible my daughter has gone from a 4b last yr to 5a this yr in maths and 4a in literature to 5a - she is also yr5
well done to your son

I think it can be possible my daughter has gone up 5 sublevels and my son in year 5 has also gone up 4 sublevels. It might be that that they won't make as much progress next year. My daughter was behind until this year. My daughters teacher said that children don't always make a steady 2 sublevels a year, it can go up and down or plateau for a while.

My son had gone up 3 sub levels in reading & writing since feb when they have a half year report. I keep thinking that it's an admin error. Will only find out when I speak to the teacher tomorrow.

Thanks for your replies. I knew they don't progress uniformly through KS2 but somehow I thought progress was always either 1,2 or 3 sublevels per year. Maybe I need to stop eyeing the teacher with suspicion in my mind that she's an easy marker and just be glad for my son!

One of my dds has regularly gone up (and down) up to 6 sublevels in a year, for all of her subjects. She's a bit variable . I went in to chat to the teacher about it once, and he showed me the other kids' charts with nice neat lines of progression, and dd's looking like a cardiac arrest chart on a tv casualty programme. I have got used to it, she's 12 and she still flips about all over the place. "Creative nature" we say....

Yeah, be proud and pleased. He has done well!

I suppose it depends on what they could not do last year... eg maybethere was one or two crucial things that they did not do, but they were doing lots from the next level.

this year, they may only have just scraped into their current level.

combine that with strict/generous marking... and a learning spurt..

how much did they progrress the previous year?

Yes it is possible. Sometimes there may be just "one thing" holding them back from getting one sub-level e.g. 4b but they could have been achieving some he requirements for level 5 before. So once they grasp that "one thing" they may appear to jump up a long way. We had this in Y3 when dd jumped from 2b to 3a in one year so it is possible.

I think it was just two sublevels in 4th year and 3 in 3rd year.

I was surprised that ds had gone up 3 sublevels this year, his teacher said he is a summer baby and hasn't reached his natural level yet.

In a lot of schools, as I understand it, they 'coast' a little (if that is the right word) through yr 3 and 4 and then really start working in yr 5 and 6 and make most of their solid progress in the last 2 years. That is what happened my DSs' junior school until they started to put more emphasis on yrs 3 and 4 to even things about a bit and avoid the cramming at the end.

As others have said it might have been one component of a sub level that was holding them back and when your DS got whatever it was he was considered a 'safe' level 5c or whatever and has moved on more evenly from there. My DS1 is the flip side of this. He is in Yr 7 now but he started the year at a 4a in maths and has been getting a level 6 in some of his maths for some topics (which would be 4 sub levels) but overall he is a 5b because somethings he hasn't got yet. If he got those one or two things he would apparently make a big leap in levels but he hasn't yet. He may do at the beginning of next year.

But well done to your DS anice. He is doing really well to be level 5 at the end of Yr 5.

My DS is also a summer baby, so maybe that's part of the reason. He went up four sublevels in one subject and three in another.

Since the middle of the year, he has been saying that he finds the work in which he got a 5B very easy, but I was really just expecting a 4A or 5C at best. He isn't even in G&T so there must be children in his class who are doing better.

I am sometimes surprised at the levels some of my students are given at school. They sometimes don't correspond to their ability in Maths during the tuition sessions. In your son's case it's probably fairly accurate as very few children have such a high level at the end of Year 5 and it's probably based on an end of year test. Sometimes it's hard to receive such positive news - trust it more, and you'll probably receive more.

Dd2 is in Y4, and she went from a 3c to a 4b in writing. She was given 3c in both Y2 and Y3.

I felt that her Y2 3c was a little generous, Y3 a little harsh, and Y4 4b too generous again. I suspect her Y5 mark will show little progress. I suppose progress isn't linear.