Have they made the early learning goals easier this year?!

[Sleepswithbutterflies]

Last year only 52% achieved expected in all 17 goals. I'm sure I've read this year it's set to be about 80%.
Have they adjusted them?

Had ds's report and I believe it's wildly optimistic. There's no way he would have achieved the levels in some of the schools mentioned on here.

What's the point of levelling them like this when it varies so much from school to school? At another school ds would have been emerging / expected.

No they are exactly the same as last year but remember it's all very subjective and open to interpretation.

I think that's why they seem a bit pointless!
It's not like ks1 or 2 results which seem more uniform.

My ds is reading stage 4 and they've said he is exceeding for reading! There is no way he is. He is also exceeding in number and shape. Except he isn't. Not really.
The other ones I can kind of see he might be but not in any of the academic subjects for sure.

Schools are so different in the way they assess. Last year my DD1 was assessed as exceeding in all but 2 of the ELGs. Made her sound like some kind of genius. Except she isn't. She's perhaps on the bright side of average. If I had been assessing het (based on the descriptions published) I wouldn't even have given her expected in some areas- such as number.

So my advice is to use your own judgement and don't worry too much about levels, think more about next steps. E.g. if he needs to work on taking account of punctuation when reading.

well DD2 has had the same teacher this year as DD1 had last year and I think has been marked pretty much the same way. Both getting what I would have expected them to having looked at the descriptors.

I know last year we were told by the teacher that DD1 was unusual to have scored as well as she did but she was reading chapter books so to get exceeding seemed reasonable. I am not sure exceeding at level 4 is really right but that must be what that school chooses to do. However I would personally have thought that a child getting exceeding in reading/writing/maths in R would be expected to go on and get level 3s at the end of yr2 and so therefore should really be only given exceeding if they are truly likely to do that.

Some schools were too harsh last year, perhaps those ones have adjusted now and are no longer using a 2b as the requirement to get exceeding so that would change the % a bit but if other schools have also now started giving them for much lower than before then it does become pointless.

We were given further advice from our Borough this year regarding 'expected' levels, in that we were told to take a more 'best fit' approach and think about what you would expect from an average 5 year old, rather than picking them over with a fine tooth comb which is what we did last year. So we may have been slightly more generous in some areas. Our biggest sticking point is still the 'exceeding' judgement for writing, which based on the examples we were given still looks like a 2c to me. There is still a lot of variation nationally because different schools are given different advice from their borough as to how to interpret the goals. Assessing in the early years is much harder (in my experience as both an EY and KS1 teacher ) than say for example Year 2 because the curriculum is just so different, and much of your 'evidence' is from child initiated learning and through observation rather than a whole year's worth of writing/maths/ science in an exercise book! If it's any consolation last year's cohort are exactly where we would expect them to be, with the same number of children predicted to reach L3 by the end of Year 2 as in the years before. It will be the same for this year's. Calling achievement 'expected' 'exceeded' etc is just a label really. It does seem a shame for parents though who are feeling that either their child is failing or that their achievements aren't being recognised. I had about 3 or 4 children who's writing this year was very good, certainly above average, but I didn't give them exceeding because I couldn't. I did mention it in their reports though, and I am passing on much more detailed information to their next teacher than just 'expected' so their achievement has been recognised.

Ds's comprehension is excellent so perhaps that swayed the reading?

He is exceeding in number, shape, all of the managing own behaviour stuff and the knowledge, understanding, speaking and listening.

I do think they've been generous! I'm pleased because he's a summer born boy but I do wonder if it's kind of worthless.
The comments were lovely though and probably count for more at this stage.

the comments are much more important I agree.

At the end of the day if they are generous then they are generous but he is being 'marked' against his classmates. unless you are moving schools then in a year it will be fairly irrelevant because he will then have some level of achievement for the end of Yr1 (can't say what levels because schools will be able to come up with their own methods).

We are moving him! That's part of my concerns!

ah I see - well in that case when you start at the new school in september I would find out when the first parents evening is or ask for a short meeting with the teacher a few weeks into term just to check how he is settling in. A new school will no doubt do their own checks of level anyway at the start of Yr1 I suppose because it is the start of a new KS.

nomoreblack, I had the exact same issue with DDs report this week.

I was really surprised that DD got 'Expected' for writing as she has earned the 'Headmaster's award for writing' a number of times this year. So I went to see DD's teacher about it, to understand what DD needed to get exceeded.

She said exactly what you have described. That she really wanted DD to have an exceeded and that as far as she's concerned, she is exceeding in writing (she showed me a piece of her work that she got a recent award in, I have to admit that her writing was lovely ). But she said that to get Exceeding, the children are expected to want to write even when they're playing which she said is very unusual and she's rarely met a 4/5 year old who goes off and just writes. She only awarded one exceeded for writing and that was for a particularly bright child.

She did say that out of all the ELG goals, the writing one seemed to be pitched at totally the wrong age.

Sorry to hijack OP!

Oh, that probably explains DS2's exceeding in writing. He does just go off and write when he's playing. Apparently he likes to go to the writing corner with his friends and write stuff. He sits down on his own at the weekend and writes labels for the dragons he draws (he's quite inspired by hiccup horrendous haddock III). His writing is pretty good for a 4 year old, but it isn't the level teachers are describing on here (or at least, I don't think it is but I could well be wrong) so it must be because he's so keen on writing.

Gives meaning to marks they make as they draw, write and
paint.
Begins to break the flow of speech into words.
Continues a rhyming string.
Hears and says the initial sound in words.
Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them
together.
Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of
the alphabet.
Uses some clearly identifiable letters to communicate
meaning, representing some sounds correctly and in
sequence. Writes own name and other things such as labels,captions.
Attempts to write short sentences in meaningful contexts.
Early Learning Goal
Children use their phonic knowledge to write words
in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also
write some irregular common words. They write simple
sentences which can be read by themselves and
others. Some words are spelt correctly a

www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf

pg31

I could be completely wrong - not a teacher - but when the new EYFS profile was introduced Exceeding meant they had achieved some of the objectives of Level 1 on the KS1 spectrum.

yep both mine were exceeding for writing but one sat and wrote poetry for fun at the age of 5 and both wrote stories, letters, menus, food orders etc on their own just because they felt like it.

My dgs got exceeding in everything except the 'shape, measuring etc' where he was at the expected level. The most interesting comments though were about his developing personality which showed how well his teacher has come to know him.

My DD got exceeding in all but one areas last year. She was doing really well but not at the level some posters talked about on here (she was green band for reading for instance). Her writing is genuinely very good and she does and did write for fun even when could be playing. I went to the open day at school last year and she showed me her work books and learning diary and I have to say the teacher did have very good evidence of her working at above the expected level so you may be surprised by what your DS has done. Could you ask to go in and look at his books even if they don't have an open day? It can be useful to do it in a situation where you can raise issues with the teacher rather just glancing through at home.

Exceeding isn't about level 1 objectives. There is an exceeding statement just like there is for the elg;

Writing: Children can spell phonically regular words of more than one syllable as well as many irregular but high frequency words. They use key features of narrative in their own writing.

Even in old profile point 9 (exceeding) required child to demonstrate aspects of NC levels which isn't the same as saying they were working at NC Level 1.

so where did you read this op? I read that it was about 80% on each one which is a bit different.

I also don't understand the angst around exceeding, as long as they are meeting expected in most areas it surely doesn't matter if they get exceeding or not? dd got expected for writing, she writes as part of play and can write narrative (which is what a different school locally put as exceeding - saw friends daughters report). But why does it matter either way?

It matters on Mumsnet tobysmum .
I was more interested in comments and can see my ds moving forward developmentally at school which I am pleased about.

It matters because ds is going to a new school and I'm worried they've scored him far too generously at the old one!

A good teacher will be continually assessing and will not over rely on previous data.

I agree it matters on MN (where everyone's child is either exceeding or their reading war and peace on their own while writing a 10,000 word allegory exploring themes of individuality and instrumentality in social life yet only got expected).

I think it's actually part of the increasingly influential idea of the child as project and the need to produce 'super children' who will exceed norms etc. the same logic that sees 'satisfactory' become unacceptable and in need of performance management makes people view 'expected' as some kind of failure.

They're reading.

ok sleepswith I would probably be a bit worried about them expecting a child genius to arrive also - I understand . If it is generous though I'm sure they'll work it out soon enough!