QCA test results, I have no idea if they are good or not

[NervousNutty]

Had a letter with dd2's results but no explanation as to what it means.

She is just finnishing yr 4 and got 4b in Maths, 5b in Science and 5b in English.

Y4? Well, the government hope that all children leaving primary school will have achieved at least level 4 - so she's obviously ahead of the game.

Oh really, i thought that was SATS ?? Are QCA tests the same as sats then ?

I'm confused now, because dd1 has just had her sats results for yr6 and she got 5's for English and Science (not broken down into a,b,c because of some technical hitch), and level 4 for Maths.

So if qca's are the same as sats then that means dd2 got the same level as dd1 ??

The QCA devises the National Curriculum and levels.

Sorry ignore me.

Dd2 got level 4a for Reading, level 4c for reading and level 3b for maths.

I have no idea what i was wittering on about before

Yes, SATs, optional SATs (QCA Tests) and the National Curriculum all use and refer to the same levelling system.

3b is average at Y4.

Thank you

Apologies to the OP, but can I gatecrash this with a quick question for the helpful teachers on here ?
My dd did not get any SATs/QCA levels on her reports but I know she sat them at school. Her only target for literacy was to use speech marks correctly - from this could you estimate her likely SATs level?
Ta

Canterbury - has she just finished Yr 6?

Hi Janeite . She has just finished Yr 3 - they did optional SATS this year.

Using speech marks is a target I have for SOME of my children working at 3c/b but it is very hard to say from this single target what a likely level might be, for example a child might ngenerally be working at say L4 but always forget speech marks, so this would be their target!

Well, speech marks genrally come in at around L3 but it's impossible to estimate a level based on just that one comment. What did she get in her end of KS1 tests?

Snap!

Level 3b/c would be a reasonable one for the end of yr 3 ( that's the year group I teach )

She got 3's at the end of Yr 2.
Excerpts from her report include - 'writing is varied, lively and thoughtful, ideas are worked through in interesting ways and organised effectively for the reader's enjoyment', 'uses full stops, capitals and question marks correctly and uses punctuation within the sentence', 'vocabulary choices are ofen adventurous', 'extensive vocabulary', 'strong ability to empathise shows in her fiction writing'. DD loves books, so I assume this is coming through in her writing . It is a lovely report - her teachers seem to really know her, which is fab. It just seems odd that her target is just one thing!

It might be just that one thing she needs to move onto the next level! The comments would suggest a strong level 3, perhaps 3b/a, but if she always forgets her speech marks, it will be holding her back! Anyway, I try not to give too many targets ( especially in reports, there's never enough room!) as it can be hard to concentrate on several things at once!

Thanks very much primarymum, that sounds very reasonable. DD's report says she should use speech marks 'appropriately' - I know she does use them, but maybe not correctly all the time?
Her cousin, same year different class, got a list of targets for literacy, but maybe it just depends on the teacher?
Ta for your help

Some children do have a tendency to put speech marks round the whole sentence (including the 'said Fred' part) especially when the speech is 'wrapped around' ( so for example if writihg "I haven't seen him" he shouted, before continuing "and I don't know where he is", the speech marks would cover the whole sentence!) So it might just be this aspect of speech marks your daughter needs to practise. Whatever, she sounds an able writer!

Thanks again for your help primarymum - it is lovely to be able to ask silly questions on here without feeling a fool .

Just out of interest, does your school do optional SATs and if so, do they report the levels to the parents? I wondered if it was normal not to do so, or if dd's school is unusual in this?

We do optional SATs in yrs 3,4 and 5 ( and the non-optional ones in 2 and 6!) but we only use the results as part of our teacher assessment which we then report to parents. In some cases, my TA might be higher than the "results" from the tests, in many the two are the same and on occasions, my assessment is lower than the test results, but then I'm a pretty hard assessor We only report the TA level to parents, rather than both.

Oh, and your questions are not silly, your school just needs to explain more!

So, you do report a level to parents then (the TA one not the test one)? Is it unusual do you think for a school not to report a NC level at all? DD's school is great, just gets very vague on facts .

It's only statutory for schools to report NC levels at the end of key stages - so in Y2 you get a TA and in Y6 you get the TA and SAT results.

We do the same as primarymum and record a TA each year, drawn from lots of sources of evidence including optional SATs, much like their Y2 assessment.

We don't report them as such, but we do say whether they are at, above or below national expectations in each subject.

Hi Feenie. I am only slightly bugged about the school not reporting any sort of attainment level because the children knew very well they were doing SATs in May, and as the teachers told the children they were being tested, I assumed we would get to know the outcome. The report doesn't give any explanation of how dd is doing at all - no mention of national averages - the only useful information I have was from the personal comments section on the report, from which I would assume dd is doing well, although I am not sure if this is across the board or in specific subjects .

Maybe it is to stop playground tittle tattle, but I am really not interested in what anyone else is doing, I just want to know where my dd is so I can help her if she is weaker in some subjects than others.

Ah well, term is nearly done now . How many more teaching days to go for you?

All done - first day's holiday here