Urgent help - ks1 results & progress by Y4

[PhoebeMcPeePee]

I've got a meeting with Ds's teachers to discuss a very disappointing school report. Attainment & progress levels are all below expected & effort is either average or below expected .

I want to know why this hasn't been flagged before but also would like to know his actual attainment levels in terms of points score (much like the SATS) then I can get a feel for whether this is compared to his class mates of which over half (that I know of!) are privately tutored because of pushy parents competitive 11+ selection. Will the teachers have such scores available? And is so, where should he be given his end of KS1 SATS:

Speaking & listening: 3
Reading:2A
Writing:2A
Maths:2B
Science:2B

I'm not sure what I'm hoping to achieve at the meeting so any suggestions how to approach it without me getting upset/cross & her then going on the defensive

Thanks

Just to clarify, what did you expect him to have achieved by this point?

To be honest I'm not sure I had any actual expectation in terms of scores & am not bothered if he's trying his hardest & comes out average but having read previous reports & seen what I think are pretty solid SATS scores at the end of KS1, it just seems a big dip to be below expected levels in everything.

So now I want to know how far below expected are we talking? Ie just needs a bit more focus & some extra help at home, or, serious issue & no progress whatsoever in the past year.

And of course to know how far below expected he is, I need to understand where he should be (based on national average & progress from ks1)

Speaking & listening: 3
Reading:2A
Writing:2A
Maths:2B
Science:2B
Are these his end of KS1 results?

If so by end of year 6 would expect:
Speaking & listening: 5
Reading:4A
Writing:4A
Maths:4B
Science:4B

So if making linear progress by end of year 4 should be
Speaking & listening: 4Reading:2A
Writing:3A
Maths:3B
Science:3B

Does that help?

Sorry that should be reading 3A

Because his KS1 results other than reading (above average) are 'as expected' he should be on track for 'as expected' now.

Yes thank you. And would the teachers know these scores now or is it just something they do for ks1/ks2 SATS? Maybe I'm getting too hung up on scores but I don't know how else to quantify 'below expected'

Are the results disappointing for the school rather than you, by any chance?? Sounds like they are used to having inflated marks due to tutoring and taking the credit at the end of the school year for their league tables. Maybe have a chat with DS about how he feels school is going, does he feel he's learning, how he finds the work etc as this may give you a better indication than results.

Speaking to other parents in DC's year, this has happened to more than one person since the new curriculum came into place - children who were attaining averagely before are now below expectations.

Those KS1 SATS would indicate that your ds would be to be working at least 'at expected level' in Maths and Science and top end of 'at expected level' or 'exceeding' in Reading and Writing.

Our school has changed assessment methods now that the levels don't match the new curriculum, and it's difficult to know how to compare.

It's also worth asking what the school have/are going to put in place, if his progress and relative attainment have dropped markedly over the last couple of years.

They would have known his levels previously, but assuming you are in England, then they don't have to mark by them anymore... I assume they should have a fairly good idea of how he correlates to them though. However, I think the marking has got harder with the new curriculum.

I'm sure the schools results are massively inflated by outside tuition as typically 2/3 of the year will sit the 11+ and everyone seems to have a tutor of some sort (& Ds's year seems to have a particularly pushy set of parents as many started tutoring in y4 some in y3).

I feel bad for Ds as he thrived in the higher sets in y2/3 but now he's in the bottom sets for most things he seems demotivated in class & asking why he can't have a private tutor (£35 a hour - I think not! ). Thanks for the average scores that's helpful for now and be interested to see what his teacher has to say.

Just a thought.... when our school changed assessment methods, they sent out reports with 'below expected', 'at expected', 'exceeding expected' for each subject.

What they didn't include on the first reports in November, and what caused a fair amount of confusion/upset, is that it was expected for the end of the year. So not that surprising if children weren't there yet.

Could this be a factor? Btw, 'expected' or 'average' would be benchmarched against national expectations rather then the year group, but difficult for your ds if so many other children are having extra tutoring to 'get them ahead'.

The national curriculum has recently changed so in Year 4 your child will be doing a lot of "catchup". There isn't yet a standard " grading" scheme but lots of schools (my DC's) are using a working towards, expected, mastery rating.

My DD in Year 4 was given "working towards" in maths in February - simply because the school has not yet taught the whole of the Year 4 curriculum. She has done extremely well in everything they have covered and is expected to be at "mastery" level by the end of the year. My point being that I don't know what current levels you've been given, but it's worth being clear what they actually mean!

I think the meeting will be helpful as from what you say it is hard to tell whether he has in fact fallen behind or whether , with the shift to the new curriculm, the class just haven't covered the whole curriculum yet and so a lot of the children are below expectations...

Dd was 2a for everything at the end of year 2 and is now working at level 4c/b which the teacher said is normal progress. She is at a very pushy school though where half the class is working at level 4 for almost all subjects.

I think a 3b at the end was predicted but then I don't think many schools are happy with predicted progress these days and always push for more. I had to ask dds teacher outright for her levels recently as all they say is 'making good progress".

I wouldn't have thought the new curriculum would have been a problem as surely all the ability groups are working on different things at different levels anyway so there's no catching up as such? For example only the bottom set in our class is doing the national curriculum as it stands. The other groups are working on other topics as the teacher said the national curriculum expects less compared to their ability.

Dd is year four by the way.

Answering your first post ... No the school won't be able to give you scores like the SATs and no they won't be able to compare his results now with his levels in KS1. (No one not even the government is clear how they plan to measure progress before 2023)

The curriculum changed in September - new content and expectations for each year group, so what would have been good last year will only be OK (or worse) this year.

Is that for all year groups, mrz, or particularly Y4?

That's for all year groups except Y2 & Y6 who are following the old curriculum this year. It will apply to everyone next year.