Sats levels

[Janacek]

OK this may be a hot potato.

DS moved from a gr 1 ofsted school state primary at the end of yr 3. His SATs levels were as follows:
Reading 4c
Writing 3a
Maths 4c
We were pleased with these however, he is fairly bright but I would say "just above average"
Yr 4 we moved him to an academic private school where he flourished and we were delighted to see a big improvement in all areas. So after a very productive year his report from the private school was:
Reading 3a
Writing 3a
Maths 3b

How can this be? Are SATs levels different in private sector? Is there such a discrepancy between schools?

Yes I agree with pickled siblings, if you feel he has made good progress and is doing well, who cares what his old SATs levels were. I am inclined to think it is due to exam perofrmance which is lower with some children than continuous assessment ( my dd 4a in maths based on what she can do, scraped a L3 in maths SATS paper as she falls to pieces in tests ). I doubt the state school inflated the results as others said it doesn't make sense to do so. Sounds liek he was in a good state school and now a good private school so you're lucky

I understand the a 4 c to a 3 a doesn't seem much but this is also factoring in that it is a year later. I agree with Mummyoftheyear.

Interesting point though, I am a violin teacher and we have the ABRSM music exams. Whilst not perfect the criteria and marking are rigorously moderated and basically if you are a grade 4 voininist and take exam in Glasgow and another grade 4 takes exam in Exeter the levels are exactly the same. Teachers assessment must be affected by what the mean ability is of the class/school particularly in Englsh (reading and writing sats). Our new school is very academic with some extremely able kids. Our old school was a lovely c of e primary with a cross section of the local community. No I am not worried about it. I brought the subject up as a matter for debate rather than for advise. There have been some interesting comments!

Yes Janacek National Curriculum levels are affected by relying on a one off test (that can only cover a percentage of the actual level content) rather than basing assessment on work produced over an entire year ...the later being more reliable.

Many private schools don't use NC levels at all. So it may be that they just did a couple of tests and gave him levels based on the results, whereas the state school teacher would have had to have been assessing him in an ongoing manner and the Sats would have been based on overall performance as opposed to a few tests. If you're going to keep him in the private sector then I wouldn't worry; as you say he is obviously making progress (though who's to say he wouldn't have done that in the previous school, where he was clearly doing well?). I don't really understand what you're asking. If you think the current school has it right and the old school inflated his levels, then so be it, but maybe you are underestimating your son! FWIW my older son had very similar levels at the end of Y3. He is what I would describe as above average in his class but by no means a genius. But if there are lots of very, very able children in the class, as there are in DS's class and may have been at your very good primary, it is possible to fall into the trap of thinking your child is fairly average when they are in fact quite able.