Do teachers tell parents where their child is position in the class?

[mariebelle234]

A friend of mine who has a DC at a different primary school to mine told me her teacher said she's top of the class. I thought that's great. They don't inform us where our child is in the class at our school. Then today my DS informed me that in his class DC A is top of class, followed by DC B, DC C. I've not ever been told this information from the teachers at parent teacher meetings or at any other time. Perhaps it's because he is not near the top. Is this the sort of information that teachers share with parents of top academically performing DCs? Surely they just tell you they are doing better than expected standard, at standard or need support, not some sort of ranking. But I don't know:? This is for primary school.

Kids just assume.

Mine told me he's 3rd most intelligent. I asked how he knew - I think he just ranked them in order of things like reading book bands and seeming clever.

Yes my parents got rankings and my dad was around 3rd one year and 39th the next. So I have to say I don't think too much of rankings.

The top 3 or 4 are obvious in every class.

It's easy to say who is top.of the class.

But it's not as easy to rank every single person.

So unlikely to be told your kid is number 18 in the class, but easy to identify the top 1 or 2.

Joining with others who say it does depend on parents' interpretations.

Dd's friend's mum came to commiserate that dd wasn't in the top set maths with her dd. She said to me that she knew she'd be top set because her was right at the top of her class.
I kept quiet. Dd and two other dc had been working a year ahead for the last year so it seemed unlikely they weren't in the top set - as it turned out.
Didn't help that they didn't call the sets "1/2/3/4/5", so no one officially knew when they gave out the sets. We got a letter that said "your child is in Mrs McFee's set" which tells you absolutely nothing, so why they bothered I don't know.

Turned out that at parents evening the teacher had said "she's doing well - above the average for the form". They were really upset when they realised, because she'd gone round telling everyone her dd was top.

I've also had a parent tell me that their dc was really struggling in reading, felt she was behind everyone else. She didn't know whether to go in and ask for more help. I was a parent helper and took her dc's group. I knew firstly it was the second reading group, and secondly her dd was right at the top. Teacher had said something along the lines of "some children this year may be wanting to read chapter books" she took this as a hint her dd wasn't coping.
In that case obviously I couldn't say anything directly, but I said to her that I thought she should go in and say exactly that to the teacher and listen to what they said. She came out so relieved!

I'd say that for my dc I've been told "they're in the top group" (in a subject) - which may be up to the top 1/3.
And the dc normally do know who is in the top tables (well except ds who was clueless on such things; his aim was only to do as little work as possible)

Not normally, I was quite surprised DS's year 6 teacher mentioned that he was in Maths and computing. That is surprised they'd said, not surprised he was as it was after she did the 'this is the point where I'd normally tell you what he needs to work on for maths, but he got nearly 100% on the entire year 6 syllabus' and he'd said he quite often ended up helping the teacher in computing as he knew more than she did. I doubt he was top across the board, but he's now in grammar school and nowhere near the top of the class (they don't tell us but do say roughly where they came in the percentiles).

Top of the class in what? It doesn't really make sense unless it is a school that tests a lot and constantly ranks children against each other. Which is a pointless exercise and I can't imagine a teacher saying something like that

'this is the point where I'd normally tell you what he needs to work on for maths, but he got nearly 100% on the entire year 6 syllabus'

I would be annoyed if I was told this. Surely he should be supported to progress too? And with DC at both ends of spectrum of ability, DC at the bottom end are working hard as it is.

For example at mine I was told my child had scored full marks on a PUMA test. It’s a national maths test and full marks put them in the top 1% in the country.

Literally the only time a teacher has been that specifically is when one of my elder daughters started to seriously slip and it was a sure sign something major was going on.

It was along the lines of "X was top of the class for maths, top group for English and top group for Spanish at the start of the year and in the last two months not only has she gone very, very quiet, but she's dropped to working near bottom level with everything."

Beyond that with 3 children through school and 3 currently in no teacher has ever been that specific.

TBF they did try, but we're in a grammar school area and he'd already learnt this stuff for the 11+. Sadly I don't think any state primary school has the ability to truly stretch the most able.

DS’s primary school is unusual (very academically selective) and is fairly open about relative positions, at least for specific things.

Recent example was a maths contest where not only were results public but the teacher made a prediction model, so everyone could see who had outperformed/underperformed their class record.

Most of the boys seem to see this sort of thing as part of the fun. I do feel sorry for any who don’t, though.

No, never. My DS told me he scored the second highest in a reading test and who scored the highest. Other than that it has never been mentioned.

They should be able to. My DC state school bought in secondary teachers to teach one particularly able child once she reached Yr 4 and had moved beyond the primary curriculum.

When I was at a private primary school in Scotland in the 80s we all sat at individual desks, and we sat in order of our overall class ranking. The desks were numbered. The list was read out to us on a Friday afternoon and then we all had to move our stuff to our new desk, then on the Monday morning you’d sit at your new numbered desk.

Brutal.

Older kids can usually work it out - they can see, who is clever, who always knows the answers to all the questions, who does the best work, who helps others with their work, etc. I have always been only informed that e.g. DS1 works at greater depth and DS2 is struggling and that's it.

As a teacher in primary I’ve never done this.

I think with DD (now year 12 and predicted A* for a levels pretty much all 9s at GCSE) I was told she was pretty much top of the class or one of the top two or three and she was aware during primary
not at her grammar just in top set

DS who is very much middle of the road has never been placed at all

the thing is it is clear DD knew and pretty much everyone knew

Not in our primary. They work in a mixed ability setting. The more able and talented children are given tasks and questions to go deeper but they also develop their own understanding by supporting other children in the class with whatever the activity is. As a parent I knew where my child was with the information sent at the end of the year with the chart of where they're at in comparison with the expected levels - exceeding, meeting etc.

The children are able to work out who has strengths in different things "Max is great at reading" "Ali's the best singer" "Josh knows a lot about animals" "Lily's amazing at maths" "Guto's the fastest in the class" but there's no clear delineation in the class and certainly no numbering of groups!

In high school it's different because they've been set and on their letters home about GCSE options there's been stuff like "as your child's in the top 10% they are invited to choose triple science" and so on but the school awards includes trophies for kindness and respect so they don't only celebrate academic and sporting success.

What would be the point though....it all depends on one set of children in class that you're #3, by your ability could be #29 in a brighter cohort

Yes, sometimes it’s just really obvious. If they are above expected/greater depth in everything and the teacher sings their praises and says how well they are doing then they are probably in the top 10% or 2-3 in a class of 30.

That's just one subject though. And it is a pretty remarkable result. I would be surprised if the school were ranking all the children in other subjects and telling parents.

Yeah mine has had that pretty consistently since she started reception, I do think it’s off the cuff and probably don’t mean absolute 100% top at everything always. Think it probably means in a cohort of kids who are doing well. Havign said that she seems to be getting told off with increasing frequency so those blessed days are probably over.

It can sort of slip out, DD's class teacher told me when some other kids got to an appropriate level they could do an advanced writing group but not until there was more than just her able to do it.

She's not a genius or anything, just a September born, second child who is quite bright and confident. Im sure it will change over time lol

I do think people are hearing what they want to hear.
“Charlie is doing really well. He’s above average in reading and maths. His progress in other subjects has been solid.” does not equal ‘top of the class’.

At my child’s school you could tell how they are doing by looking at the group they were in for maths etc. The group names wouldn’t necessarily make it obvious but the kids in the group would give it away.