I liked SATS style scores, it was easy to understand, you could see if your child was above or below average therefore understand where they were in their work and you could compare to the previous year and see how they had progressed.
Now SATS are gone, our school said they will get emerging, expecting or exceeding. I don't really like this. If a child was previously quite low in, say maths, and continues to stay low but within their capabilites, they would get expecting because they are working at their expected level? If a child was a high achiever and continued to achieve highly, surely they too would get expecting so unless they do spectacularly badly or amazingly well even when they are normally high up, they will all end up with the same scores/results ie expecting. This just seems a bit crap and doesn't really tell you anything.
DS is fortunate and one of those who is fairly good at all his subjects. So (I imagine) that they will be expecting him to continue doing well and he would get expecting. To get exceeding would be quite difficult for those who are already at the top, imo (I may be wrong so if a teacher wants to explain it, I'd be very happy to hear it).
Now DD has started and I have no basis, I have no idea how good she is or if she'll need extra help. SATS style levels would tell me this but the new way doesn't.