Tracking report for S4 - can you help me understand it?

[Tinofcurses]

We're new to the Scottish school system. Ds has come home with a report today, showing target grade and working grade for his Nat 5 subjects.

It doesn't make a whole let of sense to me, even with the covering letter!

What is a target grade? Ds says it's not a predicted grade for the year. How is it different from the working grade?

Is working grade not where he's at and target grade what he's working towards?

Could you post a picture with identifying info covered? Different schools may use different ways of tracking progress

I'd agree that the working grade is where he's at at the moment. A target grade is what they think he's capable of in the exam (or not in the exam this year) if he pulls his finger out.

Target grade is what they think he can achieve by the end of the course.

If target grade is for the end of year, then a couple of these are not good/unexpected. Eg, Ds has been getting pretty much everything right in maths tests and homework (90%+), but the target is 5 which is equivalent to a C.

It seems very odd that his target grade for Biology and Maths are lower than his working grades....

It's very confusing!

I'm not particularly concerned about ds, he's reasonably smart and he works hard (plus he's made good friends since we moved and he's happy), but I feel like I should be able to understand what this report says and I really don't get it!

What does the letter say about what grades 1-5 mean? I also find it strange that some target grades are maybe lower than the working grades

1-2 are A, 3-4 are B etc

I’m a teacher- I’d contact his pupil support teacher and ask if they can clarify with subject teachers why his target grades are lower than working grades in some subjects. We set initial target grades and if we have robust evidence that the pupil is performing at that level then we set a new target.

We just received tracking report and it says target grade is aspirational but achievable which I think means you could get it if you work hard. It doesn't have working grade, just whether attitude is a cause for concern. And lucky your dc is getting to do 7, our school only does 6 subjects in 4 th year. I did 8 when at school. I hope you get it cleared up, they always seem to change what all the numbers mean all the time!

ds's report shows target grades as what they are working towards. 1=High A, 2=A, 3=High B, 4=B etc.

I don't understand why a target grade would be lower than a working grade and would question. Is there no information on the letter, or can your dc clarify for you? The grades are usually discussed with the pupil during their regular Learning Conversations, it was ds that told me what they meant before we got the report which confirmed it.

According to ds, who talked to some teachers and his friends, the targets in some subjects were set before they'd done much/any assessment, so are just a guess really. Very useful.

Also, for some subjects (definitely English and maybe others) the target is an assessment of their level right now (or whenever the targets were set) and reflects the fact their skills and knowledge should improve during the rest of the year. That is, they wouldn't be given a target of an A based on a couple of months of work which was mostly catching up from last year, even if the teacher thinks they're capable of an A by the end of the year. Seems weird and all a bit meaningless at this stage, but they get another report pre-Christmas which should make more sense.

I'm still not sure how they decide on the working grade, or why it might be better than the target grade...

What's a pupil support teacher and should I know who it is?

Pupil support teacher is their guidance teacher, the one that - ideally - they go to with any concerns. They are usually head of a 'house' group, just below depute level.