No sense of where my child is in the class

[Enjoyingmycoffee1981]

I was very anxious about my August born son starting school this year. As it turns out, it has been fine. I am actually gob smacked at his progress. Before school, he knew how handful of letters, no sounds and blotchy counting.

Now he is reading!!!! Not everything obviously, not even close, but if he doesn't recognise the word by sight, he can sound it out and then gets it.

I would love to know how this compares with other children in his class. I want to know if he is doing well for a summer born, or if he is doing well. Period.

I have asked the teacher and she said, yes he is doing very well, but it is a large busy school and that was the sum total of our conversation.

So I would be keen on your thoughts.

He is 4.5, he recognises all letters of the alphabet, he can sound them all out, he can identify a number of words without needing to sound them out e.g. It, is, the, and, go, on, no etc. He can read most 3/4 letter words by sounding them out.

It is this doing ok, or is this just doing ok for a summer born?

Thanks v much

I mentioned to her that I would be concerned, fro me what I had read from teachers on Internet forums, that she may not be in a position to tell me.

She rolled her eyes.

Furnished with the information, my DH and I feel a lot more confident about our son beg at the school, and will hold off private school enquiries for the time being.

Oh well, that proves it then.

Open and shut case if ever I saw one.

Glad you agree.

Did you ask her what the 50-75 quartile means in real terms or were you just pleased with a number plucked from the air?

Coffee, are you sure she wasn't rolling her eyes at you? What a bizarre thing to say to a teacher.

Did you ask her what the 50-75 quartile means in real terms or were you just pleased with a number plucked from the air?

I assume she trusts the teacher to have a rough gage of where the children in her class are in terms of ability, and she is happy with that. At this precise moment in time.

Coffee, are you sure she wasn't rolling her eyes at you?

Maybe the teacher was chocolate?

So what have you gained from knowing that? Do you also know how he stands against national expectations for his age? Do you know what sort of cohort the class is?

I think it depends on how much info she wants, it sounds like she wants a rough idea right now...he is only 4.5 after all!!!

I am not sure how much stats would mean right now, my DD only started to fly at 6. I think op wants a rough idea, how he is doing against other children obv, born at different times in the class.

She has got her info, she knows he isn't bottom so I guess she is happy.

Don't know about op, but I certainly have a fairly good idea of cohort of class, as many of them were in toddler groups with us, I know lots of the parents and we talk about the school and how are dc are doing and what we think of teachers, are they good in weak spots, how are they managing x problems...and we have parties and play dates and see the children quite a bit !

I'm sure the teacher has more than a rough gauge of where the class is but the information she provided doesn't tell the parent where her child is against national expectations

Yes...I think we all understand that Mrz and we are able to put that into.....context.

I'm not sure you do

Mrz you come across as jaded and have a low tolerance for parents, I could be wrong.

I think if the OP had all that though, WillBeat she might not need to ask the question. She'd be aware of what many other children were doing because it would have been brought up in conversation.

I do think if as a teacher you are going to give a quartile you should at least contextualise it by saying where the cohort is in terms of national expectations or where you as a teacher would expect them to be at a given point. If nothing else it saves the awkward conversation in 2 years time when there is an obvious problem and the parents complain 'you said he was fine'.

But aren't going round in circles? Knowing where your child is in relation to his classmates, while possibly gratifying (I have posted before about my talent, honedin the offices of 3 Secretaries of State), to read upside down very quickly), is completely useless knowledge. Knowing where he is against national expectations is useful, both in assssing his performace and that of the school. For example, my ds is comfortably in the top 3 three in his class. (He is in year 9, and by then they know that sort of thing). However, his school has very few high attainers, so that tells me nothing.

And jaded is the last word I would think of to apply to mrz.

So, the class teacher has told you that your dc is in the 50-75% bracket, and on the strength of that information, you've decided to hold off on private school for now.

I'm not convinced that where they are in the class is not just as informative. Where the class is against the national average may be a freak of statistics, the type of catchment, or may indicate the quality of teaching they've had or where that teaching has been focussed. If the latter then where the child is in the class may well give a better indication of how they'll get on as they move up the education system.

For example DS class spend a huge amount of time on writing and the average standard is high. They spend much less time on maths compared to other schools in the area, and the standards reflect that. I'm sure when they get a teacher who gives more time to maths the standard of the whole class will bounce up - but the children at the top of the class are more likely to remain at the top of the class.

17 out of 30 children in my Dd class sat the level 6 sat paper for maths and English (some sat the science paper as well) She didn't.

She achieved 5as across the board and is in set one for everything at high school.

But she was in the bottom of her primary school class. It was a ridiculously intelligent cohort.

Tells you nothing.

The only time you will need that information is on your Ucas form.......

That's not to say I'm particularly interested in either mind. What I want to see is DS making progress.

I have a 14 year old and a two year old. I am a teacher. I was very young and inexperienced when DS1 started school. Less so now. And I will not be repeating the mistakes I made with DS1 the second time round educationally, and yeah, I will be asking the questions that mrz and some others deem so ridiculous when ds2 starts school. I know the catchment. I know how to read data. If he is falling behind his peers, wherever they sit nationally, there may be reasons for that which I can address.

I also find this dogmatic "there are no levels now" and other such government dictacs odd from experienced teachers. "Current" educational philosophy changes roughly every five minutes few years or so. I don't change my practice, except to fulfil the law, every time. My God - you'd end up debunking levels, say, in 2015 and saying they are no longer current, so no good, and embracing them whole heartedly again 7 years later.

But isn't the law the national curriculum? Levels were part of the old nc which has been scrapped by the government. Current law requires you to teach the new national curriculum and presumably to assess against it. Assessing against an old curriculum rather than the one you are legally required to teach, if not outside the law, just seems a bit daft.

I'm fairly sure, although could be wrong, that the level descriptors have remained virtually unchanged for nearly 15 years. It's hardly every five minutes.

You are very wrong WillBeatJanuaryBlues ... I hate seeing parents conned by misleading useless information. However it seems that some are quite happy to be placated by meaningless data.