Yr7 Report

[BaadRobot]

I home educated my daughter through years 3-6 but she started high school for year 7 last September.

We've just received her report in the post today and I don't really know what any of the letters and numbers mean - can anyone help me understand where she's at please? I think they must have guessed her levels for the start of year 7 as she hadn't been in school for over 3 years and they didn't request any samples of work or any info from us before she joined the school.

English current level 4A. Expected level for June 2011 5C
Maths currently 4C -> June 2011 4A
Science 5A -> 5C
Art 4B -> 5C
French 3B -> 4B
Geography 4C -> 5C
History - teacher absent so no current level reported ->5C
ICT 4B -> 5C
Music 3B -> 5C
PE 3B -> 5C
RE 4A -> 5C
Hard Tech 5C -> 5C
Soft Tech 5C -> 5C
Drama 4B -> 5C

I don't know what the A/B/C means...am I right in thinking the 4 is what's expected of a starting yr 7 and 5 is expected of a starting yr 8? I honestly don't know if this is a good or bad or average report.

Any help appreciated - thanks

4c - 4b - 4a - 5c - 5b - 5a

My son is in yr 7 too, i think it is overkill with the amount of marks they give out all the time. I'm not sure they need to mark them for PE?!

With the SATs at the end of Yr 6 they say the expected level is a 4, although most schools want as many as possible to get a 5 (all gets a bit meaningless). We were told that marks may dip a bit from yr 6 to 7 as they are doing different kinds of work.

I'd say her report looks pretty good

I think it goes A is better than C, so it goes 4C, 4B, 4A, 5C, 5B etc. This doesn't account for the Science result!

The 'expected/average' level of attainment at the end of Y6 (KS2, what the SATS test measure) is 4, but they only measure Maths, English and Science.

Some subject will appear to start at a lower 'base' because the DCs haven't maybe formally studied them in primary, eg Music.

The report looks OK to me!

In the National Curriculum tests, Level 5 is the highest you can get at the end of year 6, although some children will be working at a higher level than that. The 'expected' level is 4. These are subdivided into A, B and C. Scouting around on the internet, it seems that A is the highest and C is the lowest. I'm puzzled by the fact that you say Science is predicted to go from 5A to 5C - could that be the wrong way round?

By the end of year 9, Level 5 is the so called expected level, Level 6 is above average and Levels 7 and 8 are well above. (I think 8 is only available in Maths.)

I'd say your daughter is doing very well and the school is predicting very good progress, especially in English.

Hope I've got this right - this kind of reporting wasn't done when my daughter was at school,and my son's school, being independent, doesn't use NC levels!

OK..I see now, thank you both very much for posting
I hadn't spotted the science result - that's a bit odd, they are saying they expect her to drop down 2 levels by June?! Or are they perhaps saying she is 5A at the moment but would have only expected her to be 5C by June, therefore she has already achieved that and gone beyond it...
So it seems it's an OK report, not outstanding but not terrible, I'm happy with that then
I know she's not doing too well in maths but she has always struggled there and enjoys all her other lessons.
Most importantly of all she likes being at school so that's great!
Thanks again

Thank you LondonMother. Yes I think the science result is probably right, as she does seem to be very good at it, she's had no struggles at all with her lesson work or homework. I think they are probably just saying she is currently above the level she'd be expected to reach by the end of the year. I had thought her English result would be better because she seems to be excelling there. Her teacher told her the other day that she is working at a year 9 level...not sure if the results above show this :/ She has always been outstanding at English, she could read at Nursery and her teachers there were amazed and used to send home books for her. Not boasting, just putting it in persepective, as it's something she's always been extremely good at.

IMO it depends on the school as to what it really means. The only way to really know is to compare it with the other kids, (which might not go down well) and talk to teachers. (some of ours didn't understand the system themselves)

Youngest left yr6 with level 5?s English, maths and science, which that school (local CofE hijacked as feeder for independents) expected for the majority of it?s pupils (most had after school coaching) but most of the local junior school's turned out level 4?s and 3?s as standard.

Our local secondary said he?d now need to wait until yr 8 to do any new work as level 5?s weren?t expected for the majority until mid/end of yr 8, and yr7 was about ensuring everyone had made it to level 4. Those who'd already done so needed to make lots of posters, and wait. (there started many's bored misbehaviour btw)

However friends with children at the ?desirable? secondary, (we stood no chance for) had an intake of level 4?s to 5?s and where expected to be level 5 by the end of yr7, (and made fewer posters) but, the lot from his old school who mainly went to private schools expected to be equivalent of level 6 by then.

So loads depends on the school?s intake, expectations and if they?re streamed or mixed ability. (Mixed ability classes seem to move slower earlier, generally)

Additionally it depends if the subjects new to them, a child who?s never done French before yr7 gaining a level 3 is doing fine, but one who?s done it since yr3, isn?t doing so well.

I suspect the science is the wrong way round, and she?s expected to be able to progress two sub levels by then. They should be based on where she'll go from where she is now, not minimum requirements later.

(PS we headed in the opposite direction and are now H/E :))

Hi! How is your dd adapting to yr7 after HE? hope it's going well for you.

Given that they had no prior attainment data for your daughter, they may well have set initial targets as 'averages'.
For core subjects (Maths, English and Science), students are expected to achieve at least 4c by the end of yr6. (73% of children nationally achieved this in both Maths and English next year).

To make "good progress" they should progress two sub levels along the ladder each year. ie 4b (yr6) -> 5c (end yr7)

4c -> 4b -> 4a -> 5c -> 5b -> 5a -> 6c etc

Your dd's results look good for yr7 and very consistent across the board. (Though you can't compare levels between subjects as for some subjects - eg MFL - the targets levels are generally lower.)

Makes me mad that schools freely give you all this info ('aren't we good, we give you all this stuff), but it's utter bollocks unless it can be understood/given context (less keen on giving you THAT information!). At parents' eve or before, ask school for clear information on reading a report and how to interpret all the grades, plus the A, B, C for effort, plus all the other awards randomly handed out.

On another note, our school had a prizegiving that only those who got prizes actually knew about (I didn't even know they had one until my son had to go to it as part of the orchestra!!).

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread! Thanks for all the new replies.

Justgettingonwithit
You may be right about the science, but I'm not sure so will contact the science teachers and see what they say. I had a look at the primary school she came from (before she was HE'd) and they do have fairly low expectations, the high school she's at now is about the same from what I can tell. The low French grade is fine as it's a new subject for all of them I think....but saying that, she's very good at it and enjoys it so maybe next report will be better.

I forgot to say that in between Sept and Feb she was moved up classes in several subjects so this may have had some bearing on her grades - some of them were doing work she'd already done, some were coming to the end of topics she hadn't covered yet.

Even though I don't know you, I'm so happy to hear you're HE'ing now, it was a wonderful experience for us as a family and I would happily do it again! Good luck with it

Roisin - she's adapted extremely well thanks She was autonomously home educated and basically taught herself whatever she wanted to learn about (with my help as and when required). It suited her tremendously and she loved it. The choice to try high school was her own, and she enjoys it because it's her own choice to be there. She knows she can go back to HE any time should she want to, so she's happy and has plenty of friends and is enjoying the lessons (well - except maths!)

Inkyfingers - yes it is maddening! Thank god for Mumsnet, it was the best place I could think of to ask my questions . I will ask about the report next time there's a parents evening. Prizegivings were the same when I was at school - I didn't know they existed either until in my last year when a friend was getting a prize! My daughter's school has a fantastic rewards system though, if they have 100% attendance in the week their name gets put into a hat and whoever gets their name pulled out wins cash - if the winner isn't there that day then there's a rollover! They also get positive comments in their homework diary, with different prizes at different amounts of comments. My daughter is all about the prizes, she loves it

Sorry for such a long post!