Parents' Evening level revelations

[Goldenbear]

My DP went to the Parents' consultation and asked about my DS's levels in comparison to the National Average. I have to say I was fairly surprised to hear that he is 1C for English. He will come home from school and write a story with very neat writing, he is using basic grammer correctly and using upper and lower case letters correctly. He will illustrate his stories with drawings that are exceptionally good for his age. His ability in Art was commented on at Nursery but seems unnoticed, irrelevant at school. He turned 5 in June and will draw ariel perspective pictures with accurate proportions. He can portray near/far relations well. Most importantly, all of his stories and accompanying illustrations are his ideas and he is almost obsessional about creating one every night.

He has sent some of his stories to my mum, who has stuck them on the fridge with pride. My mum has told me that my SIL was very impressed, particularly with the drawings but also by the accuracy and detail of the stories. My SIL is not easily impressed and does not compliment anyone ordinarily. My mum who was a primary school teacher up until 2007 thinks his work in this area is definitely above average. I had to look after a friends's daughter last week who is in Year 2 she is apparently deemed to be very bright at the school. Both my DS and this girl decided to write a letter to a pretend pen pal. I can honestly say in all honesty she was only marginally better at writing than my DS and yet she is above average at the school for her year. So my question is, if anyone can answer it with experience in this area does an assessment of 1C sound correct in this area? He is on band colour blue for reading and apparently is in a special booster group for reading. Would it be the reading band that would average out this assessment?

How is it irrelevant if they start (rightly or wrongly)streaming pupils in year 2?

Goldenbear if you want reassurance about your son you could get one of these private tutoring companies to assess his reading and writing. The first sesson is usually free and they will tell you his reading age, national curriculum levels as well as brainwash persaude you to sign up to expensive tutoring.

Despite being told this -at parents' evening in Reception Year, he is at level 1C for this subject as well.

Well, doesn't that prove to you that 1C is more than fine? Presumably his ability has not changed over the summer. I don't really understand what the problem is here, not least because although most posters have told you that 1C is good for only just into year 1 you persist in talking about it as if it is some kind of failure.

I understand your concern regarding streaming but he is doesn't sound like he wont make the cut so to speak. You've been told that he is one of the best writers in the class and he has been recognised as being good at maths. Do you have any indication of where he is in the class? are they in ability groups etc? A 1c at this stage of the year is excellent, as many children will be starting the year still working on achieving the eyfs points.

While the school may be academic and telling you that 1a/2c is average, these stats are very much cohort dependant.

It may be worth raising your concerns with the teacher about streaming and his end of year targets but you may just end up annoying her. I'm not really sure how much more the teacher could say to reassure you!

My DC school put them into groups according to ability from reception year and there is a lot of movement from group to group...

So if he is put into one group at the beginning of yr2 it does not mean that he will necessarily stay in that group the whole year...

Is this a state school? Do they really stream into two classes - one higher one lower ability? I don't know, that sounds unlike any school I've heard of. Is it not more likely that they take levels into consideration in order to have two balanced classes ie even number of girls, high achievers, sen etc. That's what seems to go on usually.

GoldenBear, being good at Art and being able to write beautifully (in terms of handwriting and presentation) are probably closely linked. It makes sense that your ds's writing is ahead of his reading, if art is his 'thing'.

tbh, at this age, I would be looking at ways to allow his artistic ability to flourish outside of school, as primaries are pretty limited, in KS1, in terms of time to spend extending art specifically. They do lots of it, hopefully, but if its not enough for your ds I would look for other ways of enriching his artistic experience for now.

Re levels, again, I would say be patient - reading is the main focus still at this age, and so important. Yes, blue is fine for your son's age - probably average in dd's Y1 class - and I too would be concerned that he isn't made to feel 'bad' in any way about it: hopefully, though NONE of the children are being made to feel that way. If they are, that is a larger problem.

Is your ds frustrated? Or is he happy? I would look at that too, ask yourself if its his frustration or yours...his need to have something recognized or yours...its so easy, when they are little and we are looking out for them, to confuse the two!

Just re-read thread - I still think you are overly focussed on levels, tbh. It doesn't really mean anything much at this stage, that he is 1c - and it may not be totally accurate, and that (to me) doesn't matter hugely either. I repeat, they need a chance to get to know the children, assess over the year - what they say at the end of the year matters a lot more I think!

At this part of the year in year one my little girl was at W, she didn't reach 1C until spring term, she ended year one on 1C and she is now year 2 still only at 1C, I think the average for the end of year 1 is around 1A although some schools still have a target of around 1B so to say your child is already at 1C is fantastic, you must be really proud :-)

Reallytired, thanks for the advice. It seems my concerns are probably unfounded and I probably am coming across as a bit fanatical about the level he has been graded at. I suppose I got fixated on DeWe's passive aggressive comments suggesting my DS was and would be bang on average at these levels. I posted on Primary Education to avoid the snide judgements that IMO seem more about the Poster's ego than the subject to hand! I know it's off topic but it really pisses me off. I don't want snide unhelpful comments, I want constructive advice like Elibean's comments seem to be.

farewelltoarms, yes it is a state school. In a meeting about something else the Head told me directly that they fo stream them in year 2. I was surprised too and wondered whether they were doing this serruptitiously as it seems so young.

Did the head clarify what she or he meant by 'stream'? Most (all?) schools split children into groups but the bulk of class time is spent with less obvious differentiation.

Having a 'top for everything' stream, 'middle for everything stream' etc would be unusual and not a particularly good idea.

I wondered that too, Golden - whether 'streaming' meant 'grouping' for specific topics (which dds' school does from Reception, though the groups are flexible and children are moved from one to another as needed). Grouping is useful in that children are learning at more or less the same level as their peers within it - so easier to teach - but streaming at primary sounds awful

Sorry, I meant 'split into groups for key subjects like reading and maths'.

Most children will be 1B at the end of Y1 so your son is doing well. Of course no one can say where he will be at the end of the year but he is on track to achieve well above average.

Golden what were his profile scores for these areas?

Yellowsubmarine53, they are not streamed in Year 1 but The Head did say to me that this is something they do in Year 2 but he didn't mean that the classes are not mixed ability. There are 4 classes within each year and within the class there will be subgroups that represent different levels of ability. This was in response to a query I had over the class he had been put into. My DS had 2 solid friendships (as much as they can be in Reception), one particular boy was always coming to play at ours and visa versa. The classes are mixed up every year and according to the handbook the pupils are meant to be asked which 2 people they would most like to stay with. This didn't happen and DS was put into a different class to the other boys who were kept together. The Reception teacher had commented on how strong the friendship was between the 3 of them on her report. Needless to say DS was upset, other boy was upset so I had a meeting with the Head to ask about the rationale behind the decision and if they could reconsider. I asked if it was about ability, he told me that it wasn't in Year one but in Year 2 they do group into level of ability more in preparation for Junior School. The school is outstanding and has a reputation for being quite pressurised. However, I didn't know this until my DS started at the school.

mrz, I don't know what profile scores are? At the Parents' Evening I asked DP to ask if he was doing ok. She listed the levels mentioned. DP was given her e-mail address if we had anymore questions as she had to be strict about the ten minute slot. I could therefore ask her this question.

If I were you I'd test his reading myself to see what he can read. If he can write that well, surely he can read pretty well?

It sounds like they group for attainment/ability for certain subjects, rather than have a 'top stream' or the like. These groups are usually pretty fluid.

Sorry to hear about your ds being separated from his friends - they do cope with these sorts of situations, but they can be very upsetting for parents.

Profile scores are the summative assessment using the Early Years Foundation Stage profile done at the end of YR. Possibly? 9 different areas, scored 1-9, 6 being expected attainment at the end of YR and 9 being 'beyond' EYFS goals.

I found that dds school didn't tend to assess very exactly. The 1c would be as much as they would give at the start of year 1 - basically acknowledging that my dd was already working within L1. I think what used to wind me up about school levels that weren't right at dds school was the way you were told your child was carefully assessed and you had to act as if black was white because you knew that wasn't true.
Everyone is right though. It really isn't worth getting wound up about. If your ds is being given some work each day that is about the right level then it doesn't matter what level he is at. You get used to it.

It is particularly difficult to assess within level 1, as the level descriptors are really wishy washy. Our Australian supply teacher had levelled all of the Y1 writing two or three sub-levels higher than our final agreed levels at a later moderation meeting!

Did I read somewhere that the levels were not even originally written with the intention of children being assigned specific sub levels - or is that higher up?

Golden profile scores are the assessments information you would be given in his report at the end of reception.

beezmum technically sub levels don't exist which is why it isn't an exact science when assigning them.

National curriuclum levels are going to be scrapped to add to the confusion. Its a pity in that national curriuclum levels did show whether a child was making progress. However NC levels fell apart at secondary school level.

OP - you sound like you're getting yourself very upset about the teacher's comments.
I know that we all want our children to do well and I suspect that most of us think our own children are doin better than average but please don't stress so much about this so early in your child's school career.

As others have said this isn't an exact science, as long as you're happy with your son's progress and he's being supported to do his best at school imo the level is totally meaningless.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/9455881/Tiger-mums-its-best-to-underparent.html

Let the teacher do her job. Don't put too much pressure on him or he will burn out too soon. He sounds like he is doing well. I would expect a child who starts year 1 achieving a level 1c to achieve a 1a (perhaps 2c) if making very good progress by the end of the year.

As a teacher I am most happy when I have children who can generate ideas. I can easily teach punctuation and grammar etc and improve their levels, but teaching good ideas is much harder. He is on track to do well.