Can someone explain DD's SATs levels to me please?

[InViennaWeWerePoetry]

DP and I have just been given custody of a friend's DD- this most likely a long term arrangement. We're in the process of moving schools and DD's previous school have sent me through a preliminary version of what would have been an end of year report from that school, and levels from optional SATs which as I understand it she did a few weeks ago. At the moment I'm more concerned about finding somewhere she's going to settle in quickly and be happy than I am about how she's doing academically, though I would like to understand what these actually mean!

Reading: 1A
Writing: 1B
Maths: 1B

Can anyone translate these for me? She's in year 3 if that helps.

Hi,

By the end of year 3 a child would be expected to be around the 2a/3c level.

So, looking at those results- academically she is working at about the level expected for a child at the end of year 1/ start of year 2. (6 or 7 ish in age terms)

The higher the number, the higher the level. The letter shows how confident/secure they are at that level- C=low, B=mid, A=high.

She is basically working at the level expected for a child two years younger. I would check with her previous school to see if she was on the SEN register and if she was receiving additional support.

OK, thanks. She is still 7 for almost another 3 months. This is her first year in a UK school- until September last year she was in a foreign school system with different cut off and start dates. So she started the equivalent of reception in January 2011, whereas if she had been in the UK she would have started reception in September 2009 ( I think.) Given that and the fact her attendance record for this year is absolutely dire, she's not too far behind is she?

According to the information I have from the previous school she's been in an Extra Learning Support group since January.

Yes she is a long way behind and obviously her previous school recognised this and put support in place

OK, thanks. So presumably she can be placed on something similar at her new school?

It will really depend on her- I had a child who started year 3 with similar levels, due to similar reasons, but has made extraordinary progress so has not needed an IEP.

If you've taken her in, does she count as a looked after child? I don't know about fostering, but I know that if a child is adopted then the school receives extra funding. Might be worth asking about- the extra funding could be used for TA support or intervention groups etc.

She doesn't count as looked after juniper- we're currently under private fostering and the next step is going to be special guardianship, then eventually adoption. Due to the circumstances (which I don't really want to go into) it's not really possible to get DD classed as looked after, which means unfortunately we can't access extra funding. It's a bit of a pain but it's swings and roundabouts, there are a lot of advantages to doing it this way too.

Good to know it's possible to turn things around academically at this stage though- what does an IEP stand for?

Things absolutely can be turned round. But equally they often aren't.

Depends whether she has learning difficulties or not

If this child had been in a UK school since reception and was working at these levels the odds of her catching up would be very low.

But your case is very different. No one can predict what will happen.

When the new school receive her levels they will automatically give her extra help. They'll have to. She can't read or write when the other children willbe able to.

But due to the inclusive nature of our education system the number of kids in her class with SEN (special educational needs) will be high. So there may be other kids working at such a low level. Or there may be none.

IEP is individual education plan which children on the SEN register get.

Normally it's a piece of paper with 3 targets on it and what extra support the child will get to help them meet these 3 targets.

Based on the limited info you have given us - I would say that your DD is probably more affected by her circumstances rather than having an inherant learning difficulty, although obviously I would want some support from the school to try and establish this.

If she started school very late (compared to the system she is now in) and she has had a disrupted home life, this is likely to have had significant impact on her ability to make academic progress. It doesn't, however, mean that she will necessarily "catch up" quickly and it is probably important to focus on establishing her emotional security as a priority as this will give her a good basis for establishing a better focus academically.

In terms of a new school if I were you I would be very keen to find somewhere where they will recognise her emotional needs and intervene on the basis of these rather than focus on pushing her academically to catch up. She won't achieve academically until she feels secure IMO.

At about that same age My dad was working at an equivalent to those levels (for reading anyway) and turned it around. Went from 2 yrs behind to 2 yrs ahead in the space of a calendar yr. Don't despair, just do what you can.

I spoke to you on your other thread. I agree she is around 2 years behind. This could be due to SEN, but also could be due to different schooling systems, language, school moves, and poor early care.

If you can get hold of level descriptors for English and maths, you can see for yourself (or maybe the school will do it for you) whether there are any earlier gaps. Especially with maths it is very additive, if you don't get the foundations right it is difficult to build on from there.

If care has been lacking, you can help in maths by doing lots of playing with ADD, eg building blocks, cooking, pouring water into different containers etc. Really making sure the pre-school foundations are there. When my eldest ADD arrived age 8, she had missed out on much early playing, and did not know for example that the heavy side of scales was the lowest side.

Although it is difficult, try not to get too caught up with where she 'ought' to be by end y3. There is no point pushing her on Y3 stuff is she hasn't got the y2 skills yet.
It is possible, over time to catch up, but it is a long slog. My ADD1 was a 2a in maths end y4 (1.5 years behind), reached 4b end y6 (ie caught up).

NB . None of this is as important as making her feel secure. She won't learn if she is on edge the whole time.

Also have a look on the adoption board here (under Becoming a Parent) and also at the Adoption UK site, which has loads of information on things like settling new ones, kinship care, education issues etc.

It depends on the reason why she is behind.If it is not a SN she will most likely catch up very fast. We have a traveller child who had not attended school at all previously start in mid Y4 and by the end of Y6 she had surpassed national expectations.pity her parents wouldn't let her go to secondary school

Right, we've done some reading together today (in a fun way, more me reading and trying to encourage her to contribute occasionally) and it's clear she hasn't really got going with it yet, I'm not really sure what would be expected of a child her age but it's fairly clear it's more than what she can do. I'm looking around the school she's been offered tomorrow so will be asking about learning support. Maths I haven't tried properly yet- don't want to overwhelm her and put her off completely.

Helpful teaching assistant MIL has pointed out that based on the levels, if DD was at her school she would be one of the weakest in her learning support group. Very helpful

Thanks teenandtween, will take a look.

Oh xylem :( So much potential wasted.

Have a look at the ebooks on oxfordowl and select a book for her age to get an idea.

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Library/Index/?AgeGroup=6

I'm afraid what your MIL has said would apply in most schools but as people have said it doesn't mean she won't catch up with support from home and school.

How does getting a 1a for reading from school match up with your assessment that she's "not really got going with it yet?" Surely a 1a implies a reading ability of around orange/purple book band?

Thanks for the link mrz, really helpful. We tried a 7-9 one and it was too hard, but she did one of the 5-6 ones with help sounding out a couple of words. I'll try a 6-7 one tomorrow and see how that goes.

jgjgjg my assessment probably isn't very accurate, the last time I experienced learning to read was when I was learning 20 odd years ago so I don't really have anything to compare DD to to judge how well she's doing IYSWIM. I haven't gone through from reception with her, so I'm still trying to get my head around A) how much she can do and B) how much she should be able to do by now. No idea how hard/easy each book band level is I'm afraid!

It's probably also worth pointing out that I've worked the dates out and the week DD took the SATs tests would have been one of the weeks things were particularly unsettled at home, which I suppose could have had an impact on how well she did to a point.

just to say that when i went in to listen to children read in Y1, needing help with a couple of words in a book meant that they were on about the right level.

As she was "in a foreign school system" is English possibly not her first language? If she has had to assimilate English then surely she is bound to be a year or two behind? I have worked as TA with Yr1, Yr2 Polish boys, also an older Lithuanian girl, and have found European children can sometimes be more industrious and better motivated than British children. (Big generalization I know, but SOMETIMES!)