Year 6 DS dropping a sublevel in all subjects - should I be worried?

[Harriebabe]

I'm sure this has been discussed a million times on here before so apologies to all for any repetition.

I say out loud that I'm not worried about the constant level assessments and guessing at what the outcome will be at the end of Year 6 but perhaps me posting this is somehow indicating that I am a bit ....

DS left Year 2 (separate Infant School) with level 3s. At the end of Year 5 he was either 4a or (in maths) a 5b. Now, at Christmas of Year 6 they've just had their mid-year assessment and he's dropped a sub-level in all subjects. He's part of a group who is getting extra tuition in Maths but he's gone from a 5b to a 5c and his English has gone from 5c to 4a/4b. I know he's doing well already; is it usual though to drop down in all subjects? Will he have to make more of an effort now to be where they think he should be by the end of the year?

I know the levels count for very little once he gets to Year 7 and the schools' own assessments are made but he is now worrying I think. I haven't approached the teacher as I thought that if they were worried they might contact me .....

I have no experience - my kids are younger but I would say it sounds like last year's teacher over rated his ability. Is that possible? is this the first lot of assessments in Yr6?

Considering that the differences in the levels are small, might it just be that the new teacher has a different opinion on what the higher score consists of? Both teachers might be able to give perfectly reasonable (but different) views of why they believe their score is the correct one.

Thank you - sounds so obvious now you've both suggested that Yes, entirely feasible that last year's teacher was a bit more generous with her marking!

Hi Harriebabe:

First off (and check out MN info on assessment & progressing through NC Levels here: www.mumsnet.com/learning/assessment/introduction) - but if your score NC L3 at end KS1 the expectation is you should achieve NC L5 by end KS2.

So in principle your DS is on track. Handedly so in Maths where he's 5b already, and getting there in English.

Moving down a group can be for all sorts of reasons -

separating friends that chat too much and don't pay attention

giving a struggling student more confidence

and

getting a struggling student into a group where he'll get more time/ attention on areas of weakness.

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What you should be doing.

Worry is good - it's very motivating - so don't be upsets to be worried or concerned. It shows you care and posting here shows you want to understand what this means and do more to help.

My advice would be talk to the teacher (see if you can catch them before breaking up for Christmas). Find out 2-3 things that you should be working on at home and focus on them.

Ensure that your DS is reading regularly - and some of the time to you.

Don't let him fudge it. If he doesn't know what a word means - have him guess by context or go and look it up. You don't just magically expand your vocabulary - you learn what words mean/ how they are used and then apply that knowledge.

If writing is the issue - I'm afraid there are no shortcuts - he'll need to work on it. Don't let him write briefly for homework - if he's ask to write on something - tell him you expect to see a full page or 3 paragraphs, etc...

If the issue is that he's chaotic in his writing - have him plan more - get a piece of scratch paper and plan out what he wants to say and then apply it.

If the rhythm of his writing is monotonous: I went to the .... I saw the.... I felt happy that .... I was...... I knew..... over and over - have him make it more exciting - have him re-write it:

Yesterday evenings, I went to the..... The ..... could be seen from miles away. I felt so happy that..... Perhaps, I was...... I always knew.....

(I play a game with DD1 where she writes a sentence about a character - say Harry Potter is a boy. (sadly a typical sentence for her in Y5) and then writes it again making it more interesting.

So Harry Potter is a boy

Harry Potter is a boy and a wizard

Harry Potter is an ordinary boy who also is a wizard.

Harry Potter seems an ordinary boy but, actually, he's an extraordinary wizard.

and so on....

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As I said worry is good - it's a great motivator. Know that he's perfectly o.k. for passing his SATs (NC L4 is the expected level of progress) - and what this is about is going for that higher level (NC Level 5) and securing those skills for work at senior school.

HTH

Are you comparing similar grades?

What I mean is I believe that there are different types of grades. For example test grades and in-class work grades.

That is fantastic, I'm so grateful for you taking the time to reply PastSellByDate, thank you. It feels like you really know my son - that is exactly what he's like! He will write as little as possible and I know we've been slack at checking his homework as well as we should.

He's never been an overly confident boy, made worse by not having a great relationship with his teacher last year (who didn't know who DS was I sat down to parents evening!). But this year he's loving his teacher (a very enthusiastic man teacher) and was voted house captain for the school which gave him a huge boost. I think perhaps he's relaxed a bit with his work whilst everything else was going so well and so now needs that encouragement that you're talking about. Because he knows that the maths tuition is an effort to get him to a Level 6, perhaps he thinks he no longer has to try. I've always told both my sons that I don't give two hoots about the levels/results as long as they always try their hardest. After the shock of finding out he'd gone down, he did seem to pull up his socks and managed a good result in his writing.

I will try and catch his teacher before they break up to ask about focus at home. For some reason, DS seems to work better with male teachers and has been very fortunate to have had one for each year apart from last year and for the first time ever, moving up a year didn't seem traumatic for him. Now we just need to get his work on track!

Thank you again.

Yes I think so enderwoman, all level scores - they were told the results of the tests and were told how they compared to last year.

I agree with everything PastSellByDate has said but in addition I wonder whether they are deliberately being strict in their marking because the SATs are coming up? DD2's school had a SATs meeting early in the year and said they were going to be absolutely blunt in their assessments of the children.

The writing does need work, and it's a toughie - I have two DDs who love writing and will go out of their way to give it their everything (to the point of excessive perfectionism and not always being able to finish work so not always a great thing), but if you haven't got a natural flair for it, it can be difficult to get away from the basic mechanics. Checking homework is very important, I've always done it for everything.

It's odd that the extra maths coaching seems to have made him think he doesn't have to work at it any more - has he always been confident at maths? DD2 is in a similar extension group shooting for L6 and I was a bit about it because she is always saying she is not good at maths. Turns out she actually is, and she now works at it much harder because she's more confident that she can do it. So exactly the opposite effect. Children are all so different!

Thanks Pointy, some good points. The school don't like to make a big deal of SATs (to the parents at least) and so didn't hold any meetings to discuss but they did say at parents evening that they want him to reach level 5s in everything, 6 in maths.

Yes, he's always been good at maths and always found it easy. Until it was pointed out to us that there are only a handful in the group he's in (out of a year group of 90) we didn't realise that he was doing so well and I'm not sure he did but now he knows .... Yep, they're all so different!

Really really wish he loved writing. My younger son (aged 7) will sit and write books (mainly about space monsters based on computer games) but DS1 had to be forced to write his Christmas wish list!