Y7 targets- why do they vary from subject to subject??

[erebus]

DS1 is at a high achieving state comp. Though we don't have a lot of communication with the school, they send home curriculum news etc. A recent one broke the curriculum down into subjects and each section was written by the Head of the subject, all in different formats. All came up with an 'expected achievement level' for the end of Y7, but why do they vary?

Why do they expect, say 5C in music but 6A in maths? Bear in mind, this isn't my DSs' targets, but the Y7 targets.

DS has also been given his own individual targets which he is supposed to memorise. They seem a bit random as well, but it would make more sense for these to vary according to his ability, wouldn't it?

Subjectsless studied at primary such as drama and music and languages will usually have a lower target as the children come in at a lower level.

The targets should be 2 sub-divisions higher than they started the year at. So for 6A in Maths I would expect that the average grade in the first set of Maths testing would have been 6C.

Now this looks very high to me, so are you sure these aren't the targets for the end of KS3 (year 9, or sometimes 8) instead? I would expect at the end of year 7 some target grades of 4 (DT and a new language or example).

The targets vary because of overall ability in subjects (and how well taught on average by primary schools), and then there are the new subjects.

They are often based on national data - something called Fischer Family Trust, who make predictions about how a student should achieve in line with how other children from same areas, backgrounds, ethnicities and with the same entry (KS2) data etc achieve in a subject. Some schools use CATs data along with the above (this is data from exams in Year 7) because it is meant to measure ability.

Why is he supposed to memorize his targets?

erebus, the grades look similar to DD's individual targets for the end of year. Any "new" subjects, like French, Spanish and Drama, they are all levels 5 - 7. Hers are individual as far as I know and vary slightly according to ability in the subject and the baseline testing at the start or Y7 as far as I know.

It does seem a bit strange that he has to memorise targets - presumably the "word" ones, not the number? DD gets given target sheets in subjects which she can refer to when doing homework - far too much to memorise!

She is also at a comp.

I think the idea of memorising targets will be to do with the school being a 'high achieving comp'. I've worked in schools like this before where the Head liked to be able to walk up to any student and ask them about their targets on various subjects and where their attainment was in comparison. It does sound a bit 'vigorous' but it stems from the idea that schools and students can only improve if they know 1)where they're going 2) how they're going to get there, iyswim. Previously, students might not have had a clue what their progress was in most subjects and therefore not know how to improve.

The variance in levels is just as others have explained. It'd be very unusual to have exactly the same target in every subject.

My DC are at a high achieving Comp, but don't memorise their targets. They are supposed to record their targets in the diaries and highlight at the end of each term Green- those they meet or exceed, yellow those they are on target for, red those they are in danger of missing. But those are their individual targets not the year group ones, those are just for parent/school reference.