Is it possible to plateau all through KS2?

[chicaguapa]

DD (10) was a high achiever through pre-school, and infants, finishing KS1 at level 3. She was assessed by an educational psycologist at pre-school and at the end of KS1 (both at school's request) and was apparently 3 years or so ahead of her age.

She changed schools towards the end of year 3 and seems to have come to a bit of a standstill. She finished y3 at 4a in English and 4c in Maths but didn't make a single iota of progress during y4, finishing on the same levels as at the end of y3. But we put this down to not having had a very good teacher in y4 (general opinion not mine). She was still working above average in all subjects at this stage.

But we have now been given her y5 report and she is still at 4a in English and has only moved up one sub-level in Maths to 4b. And her attainment levels say that she's now working in line with the average.

Is this ok do you think or should she still have made some progress through upper KS2, despite having started it at an already high level? DH spoke to the teacher and she just agreed that DD hadn't appeared to have progressed since the end of y3 and we should make sure she does better in y6 so she can finish KS2 at level 5.

I'd be concerned as such a slow down in progress and the teacher's suggestions that you need to make sure that she does better in Y6.

Surely this is her teacher's job?

What do you think about her progress over the last two years?

We are disappointed as she did seem to be doing so well, ie working well above average, but has now 'dropped' to average. But she is lazy and my main concern is that she's been allowed to coast the last 2 years and her potential has been wasted and she has underachieved.

We have considered whether she has just reached a plateau but her previous HT said that we should ensure she continues to make steady progress through school. Maybe her intelligence doesn't lend itself to NC levels anymore and should be measured in different ways.

The class teacher said we should have regular talks during the year with the y6 teacher to make sure she's progressing. It is a high-achieving school so I feel annoyed that DD has slipped off their radar, when I thought she'd have fitted in so well and thrived. Unfortunately it is the type of school that relies on the parents to help their DC along at home and thereby take the pressure off the school. But we haven't pushed her and have concentrated on other areas of her development, eg social interaction. DH is a teacher (secondary) so we are sympathetic to their limitations, but feel that some progress would have been in order.

Surely though level 4a and 4b are not average at the end of year five?
Also are her levels based on tests or teacher assessment?

I'd be thinking that the previous school maybe wasn't moderating rigorously enough - that would explain not much progress on paper.

Dd has just had a year (year 4) of no progress on paper, though her work says otherwise iyswim. The school hAs recently massively upped the ante with internal moderation following APP assessment protocol (new head a year ago).

4a got an A in the report (above average) but 4b was B (average).

Her levels are based on both teacher assessment and tests. The levels at the end of y3/ beginning of y4 were given by the new school. Maybe the assessment is flawed as DD did one of DH's y7 papers (for fun) and she got level 5a, but she got B (average) in her report. Primary and secondary are supposed to be using the same criteria, but maybe they're not in practice.

There's no concern at the school with regard to DD's predicted attainment at the end of y6, so maybe that's why they've not mentioned it to us. We just want to make sure she doesn't finish y6 still at 4a/4b and it affect her predicted GCSE grades going into secondary school, or she'll manage to get away with coasting there too.

My son was 4a in literacy throughout ks2. He's doing really well at secondary school, and his teacher regularly assesses him as a A* (private secondary so no NC levels) I think he found junior school literacy quite restrictive and boring, so he didn't really try very hard.

Thanks. I think secondary might just suit her better then. I suppose it doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things. We can't turn back the clock and change anything. At least the school has been made aware and we are aware too.