Disappointed with school report, is it harder now to get exceeding?

[workshyfop]

DD is in Year 3. Throughput KS1 she was exceeding in most subjects. This year though her report had her at expected for most, and exceeding in only one subject. In previous years her teachers seemed to have a good handle on her abilities but this year I kind of feel she's not had much attention. Unfortunately she will be in the same class with the same teachers next year. When I asked her teacher why she hadn't done as well this year, I was told the standard had increased. Is this right, in the last year? AIBU to be concerned about next year?

There used to be 'levels ' which was national, with the only problem being moderation between schools. Some schools would team up and cross - moderate, to ensure that they were agreeing with each other what each level of work 'looked like', so that they didn't get nasty surprises when it came to SATs time, and they found that their child working at a 'secure level 4' was actually working at a level 3, etc.

But then the Government decided to scrap levels and let every school decide for itself how to assess children. So unless schools choose to group up and use the same systems, you can't compare the grading of one school to another, even if they are 1 mile away from each other.

Count your blessings, DS has slipped from expected to emerging for most subjects with effort mainly at 3 (rubbish) for most things. Would've been nice to get more of a heads up from the school on this before the report!!!!!!

Thank-you all for your help it has helped me understand. mrz what is PoS please?

The levels were never meant to be used in all year groups only at the end of each Key Stage although they were used that way.

Programme of Study .

I was coming back to say that, in fact, levels were also only meant to be used for year 2 and year 6 - the whole ramification of levels and sublevels in between were likewise artificially constructed after the initial assessments were put in place for the end of each key stage.

ilovesushi is he yr 3 too?

Thanks mrz

OP, tbh, it really depend on teacher. Some are good at extending able, some are good with others.

But this year, even though I thought my ds's teacher didn't get my ds so much, her end of year report was spot on, on his weakness and strength.
It really made me realise how teachers are dedicated and watching each child closely.

Some of the assessment is based on how children perform at school, and not given enough opportunity to show what they can do.
My ds does French and computing at home and is very advanced, but he still got "expected" for them, since teacher doesn't know his skill. I had to explain it to my ds, that it really doesn't matter.

Are your children happy well adjusted and confident? Yes? Then THAT is all you need to worry about right now imo

Here in Wales they do National tests every may fromyear 2 onwards.
They results are then standardised so that 100 is the results they should be getting and then they are compared to all the children born the same month as them and the shown on a chart as achieveing/exceeding/considerably exceeding. (So achieving is 85-115)

It's good to be able to see how they are doing compared to thier peers ( but also it does away with the advantage September borns have over August borns as you aren't comparing them only August borns with August borns)
You can also compare how they are doing over their years and if they are keeping the same place amongst thier peers.

They do 3 tests - literacy, numerical procedure and numerical reasoning. (Some schools also do Welsh but ours doesn't)

Isn't it odd that after years of boasting they didn't have SATs teachers in other parts of the UK are now singing the praises of testing at the end of every school year

No Y5. He has dyslexia and dyscalculia so I was expecting 'emerging' for maths and writing, but his reading is great considering and he has always managed to just pip 'expected' through sheer love of reading and doing it all the time. He is very smart, so I can't see why he has scored 'emerging' on things like science, history, geography etc. The low assessment on history really surprises me. He loves reading about the Ancient world and has really tried to get his head around how the different cultures and periods fit it to each other - his own interest and curiosity, not pushed by me or school. I guess they just don't see that side of him, which makes me question whether this school is the right fit. Reading between the lines, the main thrust of the report seems to be 'thick and lazy' and I don't think either of those describe my son.

On these kind of threads, most people seem to answer 'your child is making progress so why are you bothering, they are only X years old'

However, I totally understand OPs concern. She hopes for an upward trajectory. If the child was exceeding previously and a year later is not exceeding in that area, less progress has been made in that year than the standard expected progress. It maybe that there is no official measure of meeting and exceeding in Yr3 but if schools are going to use those terms they must be able to justify them. It is of course true too that progress is not always linear or constant across all areas and so progress won't be even across subjects or over time and that a 4 year ks2 allows for that.

OP I would go back to the teacher. I would ask for clarification as to how the expectations have changed from last year and exactly what it is in the areas your DC has not gained exceeding in which she did last time, that she needs to do. You can simply say that you are a bit concerned that progress has plateaued and are keen to help and would be interested to hear in September what her targets and what the school will be working on with her.

In my experience, flagging these concerns in a positive and friendly way is useful. It is a valid concern about plateauing progress. The teacher should be able to throw light on it, plus having her attention drawn to it can only be good if helping her get targeted help next year to make further progress. I think you were fobbed off by the teacher, but you can go back to her, being positive and friendly and get some more helpful answers and put your mind at rest.

I guess they just don't see that side of him, which makes me question whether this school is the right fit what you mean is he is pursuing an interest outside the curriculum, and you think it overlaps with the curriculum and should be reflected in his scores, when in fact it doesn't overlap with what is assessed in the curriculum, so doesn't change his scores. It wouldn't be any different in any other school

When DD was in Y3 she received straight As... in Y4 it was straight Bs. To me this indicated that overall her performance had fallen relative to her peers etc, and I mentioned it to her Y5 teacher at parents evening , who put me straight and said it was much more arbitrary, and not to take too much notice of it all!
I understand your concerns though.. if in my work one of my key sets of data showed a shift from A to B consistently, , I would be reviewing it very quickly!