Releasing levels to parents

[tepidcuppa]

If you can help clarify would be useful:

I recently asked my child's teacher for her NC Levels (Y2).
I was told that the head does not want NC Levels given out to parents.
When I questioned this i was told that if the levels were given to me they would have to be given to anyone who asked.

The school has never routinely given out NC levels but has previously happily released them if asked.

My question is:

1. Is the school legally obliged to tell parent's their child's NC Levels (mid-term). In fact, are they obliged to tell parents where they think they are heading in the Y2 Sats (L2/L3 etc).

1. Is there any reason not to give NC levels or targets to parents if they ask (other than fear of competitiveness between parents, of which there has never been a culture in our school).

I thought the dept-of-ed happily released a statement, some time ago, saying that NC levels were henceforth abolished and would not be replaced.

Therefore this is publically financed data and is subject to the freedom of information act. As your child's legal guardian you are fully entitled to see any data they hold on your child.

FoI explicitly excludes personal information. FoI would relate to aggregate data. The legislation for data about your child specifically is Data Protection.

We get a targets sheet about 2 weeks into each half term. It lists the academic targets the children are working towards as well as the NC level they were given at the beginning of the academic year (which is not necessarily the same as the one in the end of year report).

This is relatively new. Before this, we were given the NC level with each end of year report and a verbal update at parents' evenings.

The children also know their targets. With each guided reading session the target is written into their reading records. Their exercise books/folders have the targets on the front with the label changed as they work through.

Our school (I mean, the dc's school) uses APP for internal assessment and for moderation of progress and attainment, but reports in NC levels because parents seem more au fait with this.

Is a state primary with pretty poor attainment, but progress is getting better. Was awful 3 years ago. New head making a big difference, but takes time.

Update.

I asked the deputy head. She seemed genuinely perplexed and said that in fact the policy was to release NC levels and that parents had a right to see them and know how their children was progressing. She said that the school was still assessing children (last week's 'assessment week') so perhaps the levels hadn't been agreed yet.

But the teacher, it seems, got the policy wrong.

sorry for various typos/grammatical errors...

tepidcuppa:

great news. Glad to hear that you will soon learn what NC Level your child's school thinks your DC is at in various subjects.

Friday 16:

Your are correct that you are entitled to general, non-identifiable information - so all scores (but unattributed) on a SAT test, for example.

BUT...

Under FOI you have a right to any data held specifically about you (or your child to age 12 - 12-18 although still a minor is slightly blurry in England, apparently your child has to write to request data) -

You are entitled to any medical notes

You are entitled to any e-mails/ discussions about your performance from employers

You are entitled to see any data held on your child in relation to their performance as a student

----

Many schools use FOI as an excuse about why they can't release data and most parents wouldn't bother to look into the technicalities - but you are ENTITLED to see any data held about yourself specifically or your child (to age 12).

HTH