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Primary education

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Reception reports - what is exceeding this year and progress made?

110 replies

BeatriceBean · 11/07/2014 21:11

Hello, I'm pleased with my daughters report and really only concerned with the comments from the teacher as I'm not overly fussed about the target driven eyfs reporting BUT I'm curious....

  • How exceeding does a child have to be to get exceeding? How many in a class would get them - as in is it only a few in a year, or 1/3 of a class?
  • Do many get exceeding in the non reading/writing/maths areas in reception? I'm not sure if they have had the chance to "exceed" in technology/ world/etc - not that I mind as I wouldn't change anything about the reception year my daughter has just had, its more of a curiosity about the concept.

Finally "progress made".. I used to be a teacher (not infant) and I don't get this. It isn't like effort grades is it - I don't get the difference between very good/expected etc. If a child starts reception reading already and finishes with "exceeding" do they still ge very good progress or expected? I just don't really understand how progress made relates to very much - especially if the child has already "progressed" well in preschool so comes in already meeting some goals.

OP posts:
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mrz · 12/07/2014 08:06

Some schools are giving exceeding for reading yellow level while others give it for gold or above basically there isn't a clear standard

BeatriceBean · 12/07/2014 08:20

Mrz - lovely to see you :) is the whole thing a bit poinless then? If it doesn't have a national standard and you've no idea if all the class/half the class met the target or exceeded then therw no benchmark.

im still anxious about people being told their child is emerging.

Im just not sure there is any point or meaning yo it.

OP posts:
Llareggub · 12/07/2014 08:25

We don't get any of this in Wales, or at least in our school. I think on balance, that pleases me.

mrz · 12/07/2014 09:10

There are national criteria but they are open to interpretation so will always be a very subjective form of assessment. In 2016 there will be an on entry assessment (test) instead/as well as.

BeatriceBean · 12/07/2014 09:15

entry test :( Good lord.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 12/07/2014 09:33

70% of girls achieve the expected level in writing vs 54% of boys.

Funnily enough, at GCSE last year 71.2 per cent of girls’ English GCSEs were graded A* to C, against just 56.3 per cent of boys'.

So that difference carries through all the way to GCSE.

3asAbird · 12/07/2014 09:45

You know what might sound contracdictory to my other post on nc levels which think should remain.

But im wondering if scoring at efys should be scrapped as it stresses parents from farily stage and is meaningless.

examples

then they were p and number.

she was above average most of it.

but struggled when came to year nc levels.

she couldent read before she started school. 2 kids in her year could.
she couldent read well at end of reception, struggled year 1 only clicked year 2.

shes feb born so middle of year-at end of year 2 the gap in kids sept-jan were mostly top groups.

The summer borns were same level or overtaken her.

The whole 1year age gap in rec makes huge difference.

now child 2 has start sept birthday so missed starting last year by 16 days.

she did 2 settings as split funding

nursery have said shes way ahead and given her 40-60months
preschool disgree and says shes 30-50months working towards 40-60 yet shes 60months old in sept yet thats not expected until end of rec when shes nearly 6.

She can wrte her names, knows phonics but she cant read yet.

she has little mate at preschool same month birthday he can read and write and seems way ahead.

her mates at nursery start in sept too but they 6months age gap and makes huge difference.

same as year 1 preschool/nursery there wasent much to differentiate her old freinds who had summer birthdays and started last sept they now entering year 1.

Now my perception of my 2girls is different and i remind myself.

child 1 started reception at age 4.5

child 2 will be 5 so its natural to think shes ahead i relation to her sister I dont know if school will come any easier to her im sure being older having done 2full years of preschool and nursery been a factor.

child 3 is april born. hes due start next sept.
I dont think hes ready hes youngish for his year, hes a boy and hes nt talking we have no idea why? he starts preschool in sept.

Im sure obce they start scoring him he will score low due to speech and language.

Im unsure how he will cope with reception and would anticipate him struggling and scoring lw in preschool and reception.

Hw can he d phonics if he cant talk?
how can he read if he cant do phonics.
How can he write?

the whole concept of scoring him is a pointless exercise its setting him up to fail have no idea what we going to do even considering schools that dont use efys we feel he needs more time.

Lots of kids need more time for age gaps to close.

there are so many factors

how much preschool/nursery they did, do they have older siblings, birth date all can influnce how well they do.

in my opinion

a child who cant read and write before school is generally quite clever.

I would expect by end of r child should be able read a little but reading levels of class would vary a lot.

There as 41 maths skills expected at end of reception have tested middle child nd she can do most of them already.

important to note we expect in uk so much more of little people from much younger age as oz, canada, new zealand, south africa, singapore they start at age 6 we have stupidly low start age, high expectations and end game is at end of it we still not top of league in world education tables.

So as hard as it is try not stress about reception scores as long as your childs safe, happy , has freinds and can do basics simplest analogy would be new build housing estate some houses go up quicker than others but eventually will all be the same. just 1 year and very 1st year school not enough to determine how your child wlll perform all way through primary.

anyone else think mr kipling cakes exceedingly good when hear exceeding and I think butterflies when hear emerging its such weird words that really dont tell us much.

try look past efys scores you and childs teacher hopefully know childs strengths and weaknesses.

mrz · 12/07/2014 10:05

P numbers should only be used for children with SEN Shock

Sleepswithbutterflies · 12/07/2014 10:10

So when ds (summer born) gets emerging for reading and writing should I not worry too much??

Cheebame · 12/07/2014 10:31

Sleepswithbutterflies as I understood it, 'emerging' means that the staff have seen they can do [skill] but not consistently. Does that sound about right?

I wouldn't worry about it too much - any more than perhaps the parent of an autumn born would have worried about their child being 'emerging' if the reports were done in January.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 12/07/2014 10:38

Emerging just means they haven't met the criteria to be assessed as expected. It could mean they can do it but not consistently or it could mean they are a long way short of being able to do any of it.

I don't think you can compare an autumn born child that's had 1 term of Reception with a summer born that has had 3 terms. I would expect the summer born to be ahead of that in most cases. There are a lot of schools where the age/gender gap doesn't exist or is much much narrower than the national data suggests it should be. The question we should probably be asking is not 'is the assessment wrong' but 'why is there a gender gap in some schools but not others?'

3asAbird · 12/07/2014 10:41

mrs z she started r 2010. im sure was p and everyone elses looked the same.

she has no sen.

im sure p was letter

then numbers

she scored 6-was told average
some 7 and some 8 so above.

but dident make diffrenece as achieved lower than average nc levels in year 1

so was bit pointless.
same as preschool and nursery disagreeing over efys scores to send to school.

mrz · 12/07/2014 13:55

P1, 2,3,4,5,6,7 & 8 are assessment scales used for children with SEN 3asAbird.

EYFSP scores of 1-9 were reported at the end of reception
Many schools report 6 as average when in fact it depends on which 6 points were scored not the total

1B isn't lower than average in Y1.

Preschool and nursery shouldn't have been sending any scores to school the score were only intended to be used at the end of reception.

3asAbird · 12/07/2014 14:41

well i must been mistaken about p there were numbers not sure where put it now as moved house but scored mostly 6s with new 7 and 8s.

preschool said they send her efys scores to her future rec teacher god knows who that is at moment we defering and home ed and on wiat list for 4 schools.

i think nursery are more accurate and at nearly 5 have no worries about her starting shes keen to learn, read and write where as older sister never interested her shes loved playing and art more.

LucasNorthCanSpookMeAnytime · 12/07/2014 18:03

Last year my DS got exceeding in every category but he wasn't at Level 2 - does that mean he was marked wrongly?!

Loobylou3 · 12/07/2014 18:06

No , it just highlights the complete inconsistencies between schools!

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 12/07/2014 19:22

There isn't anywhere official that says children need to be working at year 2 to be given exceeding. I think the official guidance says something along the lines of teachers should make a best fit judgement about whether a child meets the criteria for 'expected'. If children are not and are working below that level, they should be given emerging, if they are working above then they should consider whether the child should be given exceeding taking into consideration NC levels and the descriptors for exceeding.

Somehow this seems to have translated into some LAs/LA advisors/moderators insisting that all criteria are met to be given a level and the a child must be working at level 2 to be given exceeding.

It doesn't really help that the reading criteria are so vague that they are virtually useless and can be interpreted very differently by different teachers.

jamtoast12 · 13/07/2014 18:45

Dd2 got exceeding in nearly all areas last year. Not assize lay bright but top half of class. She was equivalent to dd1 who scored 9s on the old framework. She was on ort stage5 at end of reception and got exceeding for reading. She was a 1a by Xmas of year 1.

jamtoast12 · 13/07/2014 18:47

Assize lay should read massively!

EverythingCounts · 13/07/2014 20:02

Are year 2 and level 2 the same, then? I am confused..

mrz · 13/07/2014 20:07

No National Curriculum levels are totally separate to year groups it's pure chance that the expected level for the end of Y2 is Level 2 - the expected level for Y6 is level 4 and the expected level for Y9 is level 5/6.

There are no levels in EYFS (nursery /reception) at the end of reception children are assessed emerging - expected - exceeding end of EYFS expectations

Cheebame · 13/07/2014 20:07

In reception they get graded as

Emerging (some schools call this '1' to make it easier to put on a spreadsheet)
Expected (some schools call this '2')
Exceeding (some schools call this '3')

It's a different system for the Early Years Foundation Stage (the one they've just finished) and the National Curriculum (the stage they atart in September) so the numbers do not correlate at all.

LawnOrnament · 13/07/2014 20:08

No they're different. The scales used for reception and year one and up are separate.

I think reception kids are assessed soon after they start year one.

Level 2 = expected level in EYFS. Doing well, meeting expectations for a child of that age.

2a, 2b, 2c, etc are the assessment framework for Year 1 and up. Although those levels are apparently disappearing and haven't been replaced yet or won't be replaced by a new national scheme.

Loobylou3 · 13/07/2014 20:14

Pondering on this most of the weekend I was wondering about the percentage of child initiated vs adult led activities. Are some schools/LA very directive about only giving certain levels if it has been seen a percentage of times through child's own choice?

I do plan to meet with dds teacher this week to see what their criteria for exceeding is and what specific gaps dd has. It probably would be useful for schools to actually talk about these much earlier in the year!

Cheebame · 13/07/2014 20:15

LawnOrnament said "Level 2 = expected level in EYFS."

That's where the confusion comes from - it's not called "Level 2" - it's called "Expected" - but for ease of analysing figures on a spreadsheet it gets allocated a value of '2' because it's the second of three options.