DS2 (Year 4) going backwards. How worried should I be?

[redhat]

DS2 is in year 4 and has just been assessed for English (writing rather than reading) at a level 3c which seems very low. I have just found his report for summer term of Year 3 and he was assessed at level 3b.

How concerned should I be that he has actually gone backwards? I am about to ask to speak to his teacher.

If it was just a single written exercise, is there really need to worry so much about it? (unless all his works have gone backwards?)
My ds goes to state, so they don't give levels anymore this year, but last year, his written work's level varied piece by piece. ie, he got 2b for one, 3c for other and 2a for another etc.

You can't accurately assess from a single piece of writing.

And I agree it isn't about whether the school is good bad amazing or appalling but about whether their assessment is good, bad or appalling.

In that case, a "level" for one piece of work is meaningless. You still need to have a full picture of his progress over the two terms and this you have not got. You really have no idea if he has gone backwards on the basis of one piece of work. If you ask what he needs to do to improve, you may be able to help. Does your DS know what he needs to do to improve? Has he had feedback?

My DD went to a very high flying prep school. I never understood the idea that parents dictate what a school does in terms of reporting progress. The school are employing the professionals here. My DDs old school ranked the children, top, middle and lower. It means nothing unless every single cohort is identical and, of course, they are not. They didn't take Sats though as the big prize was scholarships to senior schools. Sats were irrelevant.

Just as a matter of fact. Schools that do not have robust methods of assessment and cannot prove the good progress of their children over time, will not fly through an ofsted inspection. Ofsted are not just results driven. All your pupils may start from a very high level so would be expected to achieve highly. It does not mean they have made good progress and it certainly does not mean the school understands how to report progress to parents. It clearly does not.

The old levels aren't 'scores'; they were/are a summative assessment of work against a set of criteria that maps to the old curriculum, as far as I understand.

So a piece of work 'scoring' a 3c or whatever is quite meaningless in itself.

Can you see progress in your son's work?