What do these grades mean for reception children?

[BottySpottom]

Sorry if this has been done before, but they didn't give grades in recpetion when my oldest was there & we have been given no guidance at all (only for SAT scores and these don't look like SAT scores).

Against each subject is a little bar - partially greyed out and with a number next to it. There is no key, but it looks as though the maximum score, if scored, would be 10. There are 13 subject headings in total and then a total score presumably out of 130. No idea if this is a nation-wide thing or school specific.

Thank you.

Mrz, I read on another thread the following:

Autumn born children expected to gain a score of 105, Spring born 90 and summer born 75.

I thought that was a bit odd as 13x6 = 78, and there is no 'winter' - so maybe four month 'seasons'.

Have you ever heard of these age related EYFS expectations?

So how is the score worked out for each of teh 13 areas then ?

I think it is how many complete points they have achieved katiesstar. e.g. my son achieved points 1-5 for dispositions and attitudes and pt 7, but didn't achieve pt 6. He was awarded a 6. In creative development he achieved pts 1-5 and partially achieved pts 6-8, and was awarded a score of 5.

Oh dear, my November born dd has scored 65. Does that mean she's a bit thick then?

this link has some useful stuff too. It's crazy that they give you the 'scores' but don't explain what's it all about. My dd's score has more than doubled since her initial assessment last september so I reckon, regardless of the numbers, that's the important thing.

The EYFS is such a new system that many childcare practionioners follow different methods. My daughter is a december born child and is graded 8's & 9's in all 13 sections, They do not give an overal score. Where as my younger daughter who was 4 in April was graded an average 8 by her preschool using a different method. So nothing at present is set in stone. I work at the preschool that my daughter goes to and have seen the scoring system the questions are really left open to interpretation.

School terms are Autumn - Spring - Summer so the poster will be referring to children born in these terms I would imagine or perhaps to children who start school in these terms.

Totalling the scores is an inaccurate way of doing things too.

Using the totalling method an imaginary child may achieve 9 for creative 9 for physical and 9 for knowledge and understanding of the world but only achieve 4 for Dispositions and Attitudes and 4 for Speaking and Listening and 3 for Number 3 for Reading 3 for writing 8 for Shape & Measure and 7 for social dev 7 for emotional dev and 6 for linking sounds to letters and calculation =78 but isn't the profile of an average child.

Lulu EYFS is new but the profile isn't new it's been around in roughly it's present form since 2001 (only 2 scale points changed with EYFS).

The profile is moderated to ensure everyone is following the same standards so there shouldn't be differences no matter where you live in England.

I think there must be quite a lot of 'interpretation' going on despite moderation etc.
My son achieved a score on 4 for his writing. Fine. I have seen the older girls writing - VAST difference! However, he can form MOST of the letters correctly and he can make very good attempts at phonetic spelling. I just assumed not good enough. Now, we honestly haven't sat around comparing, but I was a little surprised to find that one of his friends (a slightly older girl) also gained a 4 and very surprised to find his autumn born girlfriend achieved a 6. She has lovely writing and uses punctuation!

That makes sense mrz, thank you.

There is guidance for awarding points but we are getting back to politics... better a low score in reception to show value added in SATs

Zeke -Lol at 'autumn born girlfriend' ...of 5 yr old!

Heehee! He has proposed, several times! Oh and he is only four! Actually, I use 'girlfriend' in the old-fashioned sense, too, though.

My dd is five and already knows who she is going to marry. I don't think the little boy in question knows yet.

Can I ask a quick question please? My ds also got sent home with one of these graphs with virtually no explanation at all as to what it meant. Why would the different sections of the columns be in different colours?

If it is non-hierarchical hwo can this be the case: 'Autumn born children expected to gain a score of 105, Spring born 90 and summer born 75'?

Wishing I hadn't asked the question now!

It sounds like parents aren't being given enough of an explanation of these scores/ ratings whatever you want to call them...

BottySpottom there aren't any national expectations for Autumn, Spring and Summer children just an overall average regardless of birthday/starting date.

DS's teachers have said they expect an average total score of 60-75 at the end of reception year. I don't know if this is their expectations at his school, or national average expectations, but they don't tie in with this overall average of 78, nor with the autumn/spring/summer figures. It's a better-than-average school, too, so I am confused!

Forgetting scores, I found out yesterday that DS has been faring a lot better than I had thought and is progressing really well, so I'm happy with that.

The scores must be hierarchical, it makes no sense otherwise.

All I can say is I'm glad to hear that "the dispositions and attitudes strand is considered to be the best indicator of future success." Cos my reception child appears to be making fairly mediocre progress along those academic scales but she certainly has a lovely disposition and attitude.

Here are national average scores from a few years ago.

Here you can download the table featuring all 117 markers.

HTH.

2008 average Foundation Stage Profile scores:

GIRLS

• Average total score of 88.4
• Average category score (out of 9) of 6.8

BOYS

• Average total score of 83
• Average category score (out of 9) of 6.3

My son's school said they expect a total of between 60 and 75. Don't know where that range came from then! (Unless they're factoring for having a lot of summer-borns this year.)

Found the info in an earlier post on the areas that really matter, very interesting. Thanks.

so what do the different colours mean ?

Completely different format to ds's report from nursery. It has learning targets and then 4 categories - exceeds through, meeting, through working towards to not achieving or something like that.

Really at how limited the targets are - am I being naive but the main numeracy one is counting to five. Surely nearly all four year olds without SN can do more than that?

Apologies if I'm off the mark with that.

Maybe the colours reflect the fact that 6 is average, so achieving a few more or less might also be considered within the 'normal' range - the mid-blue could be 'normal' (I hate that word, but YKWIM). The lighter colour might be either mostly pre-school expectations, or give an early indication of where some extra support is needed? And the darker blue is maybe a rarity at this stage, hence being singled out (perhaps it's their way of looking out for gifted-and-talented already?). Am guessing!

The counting-to-five is most likely an earlier target, reached in pre-school or during the beginnings of reception by most kids. The thing to remember with numbers is that it's not just about counting (or so I'm told by a friend who's a reception teacher). DS can count, and recognise, numbers way past 100, but can actually work with - manipulate - numbers up to about 15. It's really knowing these seemingly low numbers, knowing their number bonds, starting to understand a bit of adding and subtracting with these numbers.

HTH.