Hi proudmama272
I get that you find what is happening with your son confusing - last year he was working at level X and now suddenly the teacher is said he's not quite level X, he's working slightly below that at Level Y.
First off - you aren't alone - this happened throughout KS2 for both DDs whilst at dear St. Mediocre. It was in fact teachers gaming the system for their metrics. At St. Mediocre teachers were expected to raise achievement of each child by two sub-levels over a given school year. At the start of the year there would be a lot of testing, one to one work, etc... and at some point at our first parent/ teacher meeting we'd be told that 'due to loss of learning over summer'/ 'child is showing they're not totally secure at that level'/ 'child didn't quite fully achieve all targets in that level' - that they were going to roll the level back - I've had both starting a NC Level & sub-level over again from scratch with the teacher observing targets achieved by my child 3 times all over again to teachers rolling them back to the previous sub-level and starting that all over again.
So if that's what is going on (and I don't know) - that isn't the levels fault - that's 'target culture' - welcome to Britain. (Imagine if the energy expended by individuals doing things like that was actually focused on doing the job at hand - in this case educating children?).
Second - mrz is correct the levels are changing - for a number of reasons - see this recent press release from Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats) for more info: www.gov.uk/government/news/raising-ambitions-and-standards-for-primary-schools - but this is very much the current coalition governments plan and will roll out regardless of election outcome.
The key thing to pick up is that the government have realised that NC L4c is not a sufficiently high enough standard of core skill mastery to go on to do well in senior school.
The most damning statistic from that document is this:
The new “secondary ready” bar will ensure all primary schools have high aspirations. Statistics show that currently many pupils achieve
a level 4 – but only at the lower end (level 4c). But the difference between academic achievement at secondary school between these pupils and those who manage a “good” level 4 (level 4a or 4b) is significant:
<strong>81% of pupils who had scored in the top third of the level 4 mark</strong> <strong>range in both English and maths went on to achieve at least 5 Astar</strong>
-C GCSE grades including English and maths last year*
<strong>72% of pupils who had scored in the top or middle third of the level</strong> <strong>4 mark range in both English and maths went on to achieve at least</strong> <strong>five A</strong>-C GCSE grades including English and maths last year but*
<strong>47% of pupils who did not score in the top or middle third of the</strong> <strong>level 4 mark range in both English and maths went on to achieve</strong>
at least five A-C GCSE grades including English and maths last year*
You may not like NC Levels proudmama272 - but you do need to absorb that it is very much in your child's interest to achieve NC L4b or better on Key Stage 2 SATs so that he can go on to thrive in secondary school. I get that some parents see this as some form of 'academic' threshold - my child isn't going to be a rocket scientist he doesn't need to achieve this - but the world is becoming a place of many forms, on-line information and frequently people having to work out what to do because getting ahold of a human being for help with a form isn't going to happen particularly quickly (and will be expensive as most help lines charge you). Achieving Nc L4b is about ensuring that your child can go on to easily handle life's administration as a citizen, a businessman or an employee.
HTH