Parent's evening - can someone explain the numbers?

[Katymac]

DD is 3a in Maths and either 4 or 4a in English

She is in Yr 4

What does it all mean??

The number are the results of their optional SATS which some schools administer every year and show how they are progressing between the two compulsory SATS in year 2 and year 6. An average child is expected to achieve 2b in year two and 4b in year six. If s/he progressed at an average pace of 1.5 or 2 sublevels per year that would mean getting 3c in year 3 and 3a in year 4. Getting 3a or above in year 4 would put your DD well on target to get level 5 in year 6 which is well above average - so what it means is that you have a clever DD! Well done her.

Thanks - sorry I was being dense

I was worried that in yr4 see was only a 3 (iyswim)

I understand now it has no relevance

Thanks again

It is useful for the teachers to put a figure on how a child is progressing especially when moving on to the next year group and a different teacher. The new teacher gets the information in July so has an idea of the abilities of the class to plan the work for the following year.

For an individual child the parent can also see if the child is moving on (and been taught properly) and areas of problems.

A few years ago teachers would say at parents evenings that a child was doing fine which means absolutely nothing.

Hmm I too find this a bit confusing. DS is in Y1 and in October he was 1a+ for literacy and 1c- for numeracy. In February he was 2a for literacy and 1c+ for numeracy. So he has moved forward slightly in numeracy and quite a bit in literacy? Is this right?

That is possible sometimes a child can just click with reading when the time is right

DD went from 5a in year 6 to 7c in year 7 as there is a ceiling of 5a at primary school

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What I really meant is - is my interpretation of what the numbers read correct. I do realise that DS has really come on with reading and writing in the last few months, and advanced several levels on the school reading scheme so would expect this improvement to show through.

can work other way round as well, year 3 teacher showed me two pieces of work from DD2 both given the same level but I could see one was far better than the other.

The other thing is a teacher will hold back on a level just to prevent problems the next year for the next teacher as a child may be making progress and consolidating but not moving up a level so it looks worse on the second teacher

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So a child in Yr1 with 2c in reading and writing, what would they be expected to achieve by the end of Yr2?

anything from 2b up to 3a depending on child and teacher

very unlikely to go above 3a as year 6 only goes up to 5a and school wants to hold back to look good in juniors

Wow, looks like my boy is doing well and he's only 6. Hope it continues though!

And this was a child that didn't like writing.

However, not too bothered about all these levels, although its nice to know.

Thanks