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?

I agree, let the teacher do her job.

This is why I never give parents levels, unless they ask for them, because they often don't understand the difference between the levels (or indeed what they were created for) and get in a panic about what it all means.

We have recently assessed our children based on one piece of work. More pieces of work will be assessed throughout the year. Some levels stayed the same as their previous teacher had assessed them, others went up or down. No doubt if I shared these levels with the parents they would start reading too much into it all.

Children are not robots. They do not develop at an exact and constant rate, and each piece of work they produce is not always the same quality. Some of my best writers still manage to have days when they don't remember their full stops and capital letters AT ALL, or spell their name wrong.

OP, your child is fine. You don't even need to start thinking about levels yet.

I know they're not Robots. I also know that I don't do enough (hardly anything) with him after school do more than anything I'm responsible for not being more proactive in this area. He is very observant for his age, a bit like I was and picks up on things that differentiate him from others. He knows that he is in a 'booster' group for reading but he doesn't see it in a positive way. He also tells me that others are reading, ''really hard' books and are on band white etc. I do not ask him but he's obviously aware of this which says a lot about the classroom atmosphere to me and that it is very academic. I reassure him that Blue is fine as he is the youngest boy in the class but this doesn't matter because I think the school are delivering a different message.

Ahh so many things can relate to in your post so do empathise as parent whos not a teacher schools and nc levels are flipping confusing.

Im a year ahead.

dd1 went to nursery from 11months all way up to starting to school and I had no worries about how she was doing developmentally she also attended the preschool next door.

We picked a smallish primary next door rc, had good ofsted at time, lovley grounds, average sats, most of her freinds went there,

We were shocked to get homework in reception, dd loves art, she really enjoyed reception.

At last reception parents evening they said shes doing well, behaves well my only concern was reading seemed very slow.But they said not to worry just chill so I did.

Year 1 -first parents evening everything fine.
even more homework
dd said was harder than reception but enjoyed it all the same.

By time of 2nd parents evening must have been feb /march term one dd recognised as struggling with reading and put in phonics group blending for 8weeks with ta.

But cynical me thinks mainly to do with phonics test introduced last year and she passed 36 out of 40.

Some of her close freinds seperated in other class as its to do with age 30eldest in year 1 class and 15youngest in r1.

fast foward to end of year.

she ended on level 3 ort-not sure on colours will have to check ad bored hating reading
struggled with her maths.

folder sent home with year 1 work mostly incomplete saying needed lots of help with this.

end year report 1b-expectation by our school was 1a
A lot depends on chort but quite a few hit 1 and 2cs even the younger ones.

dd got very upset end of year 1 during summer term that she was notcibly way behind here all her freinds reading levels, she knew what everyone wqas on dident realise how competative little people can get.

She got 1b writing, science , numeracy and reading.

So over summer dident know what to focus on.

wed did reading challange at libary told her to forget about flipping levels.

We did carol vordmans summer camp -boosted her confidence a bit.

tried to start year 2positive frame of mind.

what did we get -well the 15youngest now back in her class but tend to stick to their own group socially.

Majority of younger ones talking july ausut birthdays on higher levels and top table.

Lost some freinds who were older in seperate class and 2got moved up on ability not age !

my dd ended up on bottom table for maths and numeracy.
offered no additional maths support also not extra phonics as she passed the phonics test yet is one lof low level readers in the class.

I made a point of seeing the teacher and telling her how competative kids were and how its damagoing dds confidence and self esteem.

I had to go in twice to say levels too easy please can move up one, please can we read a whole book not 3pages, got impression year 2 teacher hated me, also got to see how she spoke to dd not impressed saying things like shes dissapointed in her and giving her 2lots of maths homework as got some wrong cue lots of tears and being todl off for not listening when really dd dident understand and wanted extra help.

I then made appointment with head-who dident see me saw deputy head who doesnt know dd and says to me

if dd gets 2c at end of year 2 its not end of world.
yes it is as shes expected to get to 2b thats average some will get higher or even get level 3s dont want her forever playing catchup or seeing teacher all time.

The cracker was maybe its not schools fault maybe she started school at low level or did not so well reception.

After that went home dug out old reception report and efys scores.

she scored average 6 for reading and writing-which at that time was fair score and 7-8 out of 9 for numeracy and other things.
s so she was above average so was year 1 where he fell behind in class of 30, dd dd like her teacher though.

ofsted was downgraded last term due to low level attainment.

I then checked sats again with local schools-near the bottom.

There were other issues minor to some.

last year not picked for primary olmpics , school council
only 1 trip a year
no after school clubs at all
no music instruments until year 5.

dd very sporty, active and loves art, wants to do an instrument.
I think these extra curricular make kids realise its not all about academics that they can excel other areas too and be recognised for that success.

so we looke dround another school.

she starts mon-bit nervous but she wasent happy.

new schools offering

sports, netball, drama, football, choir, recorder, art club and seems lot less pushy and smaller.year 3 she can do intrument.

As shes year 2 its sats in england and by end of yera 2 she needs to have climbed 3sublevels from 1b to 2b so thats the aim.

we really did try to work oit out with school but thourght nothing much would change.

oops pressed enter too soon.

advice to keep track of it talk to teacher, appointment with head if need be explain how your dd feels.

For me i get annoyed when have to nag them over reading levels as felt year 1 progress was too slow in my dds case.

but on a more comforting note.

the bootcamp year 2teacher has progressed some quite quickly and theres some surprising results

some who failed phonics test getting extra reading support on higher reading levels than ones who passed.

I know 2little girls at end of year 1

one got 1c reading
other got 1a they end this term on same level yet ones on top litereacy table and other ones near bottom and getting extra phonics support still.

The girl who came from another country done no phonics egtting extra support but higher level reading.

The colours /numbers to tally up to nc levels

you see dd ended level 3 ort =1c yet got 1b in reading so was baffled she did fall behind her ability and they let her.

Hope you can sort with the school.

i was quite blase in year 1 thinking trust the teachers.

i dont wnat dd to be top just acheive expected or her potential, if shes struggling i expect support.

just a small point mam but a child scoring 6 on the EYFS profile would be expected to achieve a level 1B at the end of Y1 and a 2B at the end of Y2 so effectively hadn't fallen behind in terms of national expectations

Thanks for info see that be so useful if school explain that,

she got 6 in reading writing.

but 8 in numeraccy so felt she did fall behind with numercacy and made little progress compared to peers in reading.

Like we say kids not robots but national curriculum expects them to make x amiunt progress each year so year 2 she needs to climb 3sublevels.

What baffled me as seem couple of conversion charts now how levels tally up with nc levels.

92three30.com/school/school-reading-schemes/

this one rather alarmingly had ort level 3 which is what she finished year one on and could read with ease as below a 2c yet she scored 1b.

This one has ort level 3 as red or 1c.

www.kingswayjm.herts.sch.uk/downloads/BookBandingLevels.pdf

dds just finished 1st term year 2 and is on ginn level 5 -1 a equivilant so hopng she will continue to progress but I have had to push the current teacher twice to move her up levels as what she was reading was too easy plus they limit reading to only 3-4pages a night which sometimes mean takes 10days to complete a book and makes climbing levels very slow. She still gets upset others higher than her and she wont catch up although from what i seen so far i think theres some leveling going on as everyones restricted and told off if read too much.

New schools accessing phonics and reading and has no restictions on how much they can read.

Also just thourght of something.

may mrz z or another teacher can explain how they get to nc level should t be linked to books they reading?

I only ask as new head says they offer wide variety of reading schemes not just ort or ginn as diffrent one suit different kids.

My dds finds ort tedious and boring.

good luck and fact hes getting extra support readng a good thing.

NC levels are only tenuously linked to the books the child is reading it is more about the skills they display when reading.