Y7 school report- what do these levels mean pls?

[erebus]

I am sure I'm not alone in struggling to understand how well a DC is or isn't doing!

The cover latter says 'The report contains the National Curriculum Attainment Level for your child in addition to their effort grade'. There is a key at the bottom of the report saying 'Achievement Level: .20= low, .50= medium, .80= high'

The teachers remarks are all reasonably encouraging: he gets top marks for effort (1's), but the 'achievement level' for each subject reads like this:
English 5.80
Science 5.20
Art 4.50
Spanish 3.20

etc.

Now, an earlier question revealed that you'd expect a DC tackling a new subject (eg Spanish) to have an achievement level that started 'lower' than say English which has been measured since any DC was 4, but how do I know if '3.20' is good , bad or rubbish IF, as appears, all subjects are pitched at a different level? And what about a DC who may have done Spanish at primary school? Would a higher achievement level be expected from them?

Is 5.80 for English OK? He got 5's in his KS2 SATS. Are all these marks on the same scale as the KS SATS?

Anyone who can enlighten me would be very welcome!

THe scales are the same for KS1, 2 and 3. However, the way in which the children are tested changes between Key Stages.

The Primary school had a vested interest in him doing well at KS2 (league tables), so his levels may (or may not) have been better than if he had been tested at the new Secondary school on arrival

Only English, maths and science have been really pushed at primary, so I would expect a slightly lower level fo rthe other ones, unless they had a natural ability in certain subjects.

I think the expectation for MFL's (Spanish, French, etc) is a level 3, maximum 4A in aY7 as it is a "new" subject. It may be the same for say Drama?

His scores look OK to me - I have a Y7 too!

Thanks very much, very helpful!

Generally "good" progress is 2 sub-levels per year.
ie progression from yr6, year by year through to yr9 would be:
5c -> 5a -> 6b -> 7c
or
4b -> 5c -> 5a -> 6b

Personally, in this house we comment on and reward effort grades the most. And if he's getting 1s across the board for effort, then he's doing very well.

Grades look fine for me.

He should have targets for every subject though. If these are not in the report, they may be in his exercise books, and he should know them himself. That will give you a better gauge against which to measure his progress.

roisin, where would you expect a child to be at the end of Y8 if they were going to start a GCSE in Y9, aiming to get an A / A*?

No idea bigTillyMint - these early entries/early courses are very much an experiment atm. When are they actually sitting the GCSE exam?

Is this for English or Maths?

Generally I would expect A* students to be achieving the ceiling of their tests in yr8. This could be L7 or L8 in Maths/Science, depending on what the school will test to. Probably L6 in English, though some schools will test higher. But Grade A students could be considerably lower.

If the exams are taken at the end of yr11, as usual, then when they start isn't so relevant.

Thanks!

Well they are starting doing all GCSE courses from Y9, I think - new condensed KS3?

I don't know when they would sit the exams, but DD is already L7 in a few subjects, so maybe at the end of Y10 - surely there will be coursework to cover - subject matter?

Not really sure what you don't understand?Surely you know whether it is good or 'less'good' by the 20, 50 or 80 figure?

At our school it is compared to the average achievement in the Year group .perhaps they are the centile your DC is on relative to the whole cohort?

wotnochocs, the .80, .50, .20 figures are just numerical equivalents of the A, B, C sub levels of the national curriculum levels. In Y6 you might get a level 4A or a 5C for literacy, by end of Y7 in the OP's school that should increase by 2 sub levels.

4A would go up to 5B or 5.50
5C would go up to 5A or 5.80

French may be much lower at 3.20 or 3.50

The low, middle and high are just sub levels like ABC within the bigger level.