Could someone explain 'levels' please?

[owlelf]

I have parents evening this week for DD (Y1). I have read snippets on Mumsnet about levels but I haven't heard them mentioned at school.

Last year she was assessed against an EYFS table I think, but levels were not mentioned.

I would be really grateful if someone could explain how the levels work, or suggest a helpful website. I've googled it but there is a baffling amount of information.....

Presuming you are in England (as it is different in Wales) my interpretation is:
EYFS criteria are marked out of 9 (I think 6 is expected at the end of Reception, but I could be wrong - I'm Welsh). Once in Yr 1 they move onto national curiculum levels, these go right through primary and secondary school.
There are expected levels at the end of year 2, year 6 (and again at certain points in secondary).
At the end of year 2/6 children are assessed in SATS (I think these may now be teacher based in England in year 2?) for their levels.
At the end of year 2 they are expected to be level 2. The top 20% or so of students gain a level 3.
At year 6 they are expected to be level 4. The top 20% or so of students gain a level 5, and last year students could be assessed up to a level 6 (at the school's discretion, ie not all schools entered children into level 6 tests).

Within a level there are sub-levels. These do not really exist for statistic purposes collected by the government, but are useful for teachers to see that a child has progressed from being a weak level 2 to a strong level 2, before going onto level 3, IYSWIM.

In years 1 and 2 a child is expected to make a full level of progress every year, so a child on target to be 2b at the end of year 2, should be 1b at the end of year 1. Some primaries aim to raise a child 4 sublevels a year.

In years 3-6 progress is expected to be slower. A child should rise 2 levels whilst in juniors, so aprox a level every 2years - but progress may not be linear so a child may jump a level and then stay there a while. But a child who gains a level 2 in year 2, would be expected to be a level 4 in year 6, or if they gained a level 3 in year 2 would be expected to be a level 5 in year 6.

Thank you little miss, that is really helpful.

Yes we are in England, sorry, I should have said.......

By end of year 1 most schools aim for child to get a 1a or 1b depending on school and think 1b average nationally.

1c would mean slightly below but at such a young age not end of world all the 1cs in dds class got extra help as did the ones ho failed their phonics test.

some in her year got 2c end of year 1 which is above average.
in year 1.
dd got 1b shes middle of year.

year 2 shes expected to hit min of 2b as thats the expected average
1a or 2c be below average
2a, 3c be above.

she needs to make 3sublevels progress in year 2 to reach 2b.

all areas are graded end of year 1report in our school.

so reading, writing, science and numeracy.

I had no idea about any of this until it came out and was bit stressed at time as dident know what it meant was told by school 1b was fine yet tehir website was telling me its not.

Thank you mam ().

How are the levels assessed? Is it a fixed framework or a formal assessment, or does the teacher grade them using her knowledge of their ability?

Mam29 - my DS got graded for speaking and listening too at the end of yr2 but not in yr1....