Just had first parents evening for DD in year 3, surprised at drop in achievement.

[sandyballs]

She has always done very well academically and her reports have always been A's or A*s for everything. Tonight her new year 3 teacher barely had a good word to say about her and her results are all B's.

I know a B is still good, but for her this is very different, to go from all A's to not one single one. Her SATs at the end of year 2 were all level 3, except for maths.

Dh thinks that six weeks into a new term/year, the teacher doesn't know her, which is possibly true.

Reading this back it sounds like I'm obsessed with grades and levels. I'm not but I'm just quite shocked that a child who has been above average during the early years at school is suddenly average.

IME year 3 can be quite daunting. Has she settled in ok? Does she seem happy?

She seems happy and settled. I do think she 'clicked' with her year 2 teacher so so well, she just got her, and maybe it is hard to follow that. I feel it's hard just from a 10 minute meeting with her teachers, so she must feel that ten times over.

Personally, I would be inclined to gently investigate this further as I would be slightly worried that your DD's teacher is not yet 'on the ball' regarding your DD's ability.

For example, when my DD (all Level 3s in Y2) went into Y4, her teacher informed me at the first parent's evening that 'her writing is not her best thing is it?'. I was surprised to say the least and said as much to the teacher. Fortunately, by the end of the year, the teacher realised that she had underrated my DD.

Also, if your DD is a bit quiet, that doesn't always help either - perhaps she needs to assert herself a bit more?

there's quite achange in what's expected between Y2 and Y3 (similalry Y6 and Y7) - DD1s teacher explained it ot me as in Y2 they can get a Level 3 in Maths countign on their fingers, but in Y3 that wouldn't be a Level 3, it would be at most a level 2.
So perhaps it's how they're being assessed has changed? (although DD2 had a horrid time changing into Y3 with a seemingly dis-interested teacher)

There was a veyr similar thread yesterday.

I am surprised yr3 teachers have done such in depth assessment already - it sounds like they've been tested? I'm not aware that ds1 has been tested.

Our PE is not till after half term so it will be interesting to see if I hear anything about grades or levels because I'm not expecting to.

Other people said similar to shrinkingviolet on the other thread yesterday - expectations are different in yr3 and they have to do more to get certain grades.

Couple of possible explanations:

teacher simply has not had enough time to get to know your dd (probably the most likely explanation)

your dd may have taken a temporary step backwards while settling into a very new experience- Yr 3 can be a bit daunting

the other children may be catching up- what is average/above average will change as the slow developers show their real colours

My DS1 has just started yr 4. He had an assessemnt at the beginning of year three which wasn't really as good as exepected. Teacher wasn't really saying there was a problem just that there was room for improvement iyswim.

My thoughts at the time were that

1.He'd just moved out of the kindergarten up to junior school.

1. He'd just been off school for 8 weeks in the summer holidays
2. The 'tests' all seemed to be based on what had happened at one test not over a few weeks and I know my DS can be a bit erratic.
3. The teacher wants to show that by the end of the year they've made a dramatic improvement with your child and so they need to 'down grade them' at the beginning of the year to do this.

At the end of the year DS had made great improvements in the end of the year tests and was back to where I thought he should be.

He's just started yr 4 and his reading appears to have dropped again but I 'm sure it will all be fine by the end of the year.

There is of course another possible explanation to your DD's drop in grades; perhaps the teacher is a harsh marker and maybe a grade B is very good comparatively speaking?

As I said, I would want to get to the bottom of it, in a non-pushy way! It would also bother me that the teacher had barely a good word to say about your DD as well - in fact, that would upset me more than the grades/levels.

Good luck, I'm sure it will all be fine.

Children frequently appear to do worse in Y3 because in Y2, the teachers are allowed to give them a lot of support in their SAT's, but in Y3, tests are usually done independently.

Also, nationally there is a blip in Y3 and this is being targeted with new initiatives in schools.

However, it could be that the teacher isn't on the ball (like my DD's in Y3...)
If you are worried that she isn't making good progress, go and talk to the teacher / head.

Thanks for replies. Interesting to read all this. Obviously year 3 is a bit harder and possibly the marks are harder to achieve.

Meant to say she hasn't been tested formally, this is just a mark on what the teacher has seen of her work so far this year.