Are some schools a bit 'tighter' with NC levels than others?

[standwellclearvehiclereversing]

This is a genuine question - not an invitation to compare NC levels or anything.

DD1 got her end of school report. She is strong at reading (not gloating - I know her maths and writing need help, but reading is her strong point).

The section of her report on reading talks about how well she reads, decodes text, brilliant comprehension etc. There are no areas mentioned that she needs to work on (unlike where they've pointed out her weaknesses in maths and writing).

She's on gold book band and has been given a 1a for reading. I know the book band isn't everything, but I can't see anything in the write up that would have brought her score to that level?

Conversely - she's been told she needs to consistently use capital letters and full stops in her writing, needs to concentrate on writing on the lines, needs to make her writing smaller but has also been given a 1a for writing.

I just don't get the big disparity between what I see as the ability in reading and writing and the scores given?

p.s if at all relevant - DD's school is a larger than average primary that just got a requires improvement ofsted grade (was previously good with outstanding feartures)

Standwellclear:

I fear my experience has been more akin to what too many houseguests describes (school focused on middle ability - and rather struggling to help low ability & leaving high ability to themselves) + clearly there is a great deal of 'gaming' going on with reporting NC Levels to parents and at end KS1.

We've just received a letter (fortunately DD1 is Y6 and now moving on) which has informed parents that 'although the school has many children working into NC L3 in Y2 - as a team they have taken the decision that these children will not be awarded NC L3 until they are a secure (3b/ 3a) NC L3. (for which I think a cynic like me would read: we're struggling getting Low Nc L3c Y2 pupils much above NC L5c by Y6 - so to make our progress figures look awesome - let's just call a Nc L3c in Y2 a NC L2a.).

I also know that some schools studiously avoid using NC Levels about 4 - so we had a friend with an incredibly clever daughter but her school only reported Nc L4+/ exceeding expectations. In part this was because in the past there had been a little too much of parental showing off about this kind of thing (imaging book band envy and then some).

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My advice is to keep doing whatever it is you're doing (reading at home, supporting homework, maybe encouraging educational video games, etc...) and try not to get too worried about what the school is saying.

Try to keep abreast of what your child notionally should be covering & mastering in a given school year (new national curriculum programmes of study are very detailed on this: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum - just scroll down to programmes of study by area of curriculum - & read blurb for whatever year your child is in. I find this a useful reality check - e.g. if they're suggesting by Y4 you should know your times tables and your child doesn't - well you know you've got work to do.

HTH