Are children meant to have targets?

[km17621762]

Are they optional/ good teaching practice/ compulsory? They suddenly appeared around the time Ofsted visited a while ago and have not reappeared this academic year.

Maybe they haven't done them yet? Our school is finalising targets this week.

My children have them.
In ks1 they only knew which target they were working on. Eg. Always use full stops rather than 2b
In ks2 they know their grade and target. Eg. 4b and Use extended noun phrases in writing.

In ks2 they knew the grade they got in their last assessment and how many marks in their optional SATs.

Every child in my ds's school (state primary) has individual targets and when they get to KS2 the targets for each term are discussed individually with the child, confirmed at parents' evening and then sent home so parents know what the children are working to. I think it works really well and we keep each term's targets pinned up on on the kitchen board so he completely ignores works to them doing homework.

Ofsted do look for them as part of their assessment (hence why they suddenly appeared), so while they are technically good practise, they are effectively compulsory if you're being inspected.

We mainly do it with writing targets - they know the level and some of the key things they need to do in order to achieve it.

We have targets for Y1 upwards at the dds' school. When they reach them, they have a small celebration ceremony with the Head, and are given cards to take home. They are discussed at parents evenings, with children present (usually), and definitely motivate the kids!

Yes.
In our school it is one target for each for speaking and listening, reading, writing, maths, personal development. With child input and collaboration, reviewed monthly and a new target set.

Some of your schools sound really good with this. It must be a lot of work for the teachers but I imagine it gives everything focus and helps parents know what their children are working on/ towards.

Our lot definitely haven't had any yet but yes maybe the teacher is still sorting them out. Slightly worrying though that we're nearly at half term and this hasn't happened yet.