Report - who to address queries to

[bonkersLFDT20]

My son got his interim report yesterday.

I have a general query about how, even though his effort level is 2 (good) he has not made any progress since the report we received at the end of last year. This seems to be the case for 4 or 5 subjects.

Would I address this question to his form tutor or to the individual teachers?

Thanks

Tutor I would think. Our interim reports have a comments sheet attached to them to use.

However, no change since last term isn't unusual. I think average progress is considered as a whole level taking two years. So, two years to get through 6c 6b and 6a. You wouldn't expect there to be great leaps and jumps at that speed.

However, if you are not happy, then yes, I'd ask. And I'd ask the tutor in the first instance because it's general.

DD had one subject with this last autumn. I asked the particular department in his case - and had an explanation that they hadn't done everything on the carousel of activities that would enable a higher grade.

We are told to contact the subject departments concerned.

Our reports say students are expected to progress 2 levels during KS3 (ie years 7 to 9). So if 4+ at start of year 7, should be 6+ by end of year 9. The national expectation for end of year 9 is level 5 or 6 (depending on the subject). So if reports are termly like ours, then I would expect some subjects to stay the same score some of the time, but a general upward movement across most subjects. I would be concerned if he hadn't shown improvement in a lot of subjects, or if this happened over a longer period, or if he was going backwards in attainment or attitude scores.

Silverstreet, can you help me with a query please? My dd is very able and is in year 8. In set 1 for all subjects except pe. Her targets for year 7 were 6a which she got. Now in year 8 they are 7a which she is getting. Is she expected to "go up one" each year? By that i mean year 9 to get level 8a, year 10 level 9a etc. When she gets to year 11 she would be expected to get a level 10. Does it go that far?

Thank you very much. This is very reassuring. How do you know all this though? Did your schools tell you? Are you teachers? Are you enquiring parents?

It seems that the school talks about level-this and level-that but does not give the parents the accompanying information to know what these levels mean.

I will email his form tutor. It does seem that they have very high expectations. His school does a condensed KS3.

If I was writing a review this early in the school year, for current level I would simply look at last year's level.

Sub-levels are generally bollocks, as is the expectation that children will progress steadily through them. Learning isn't like that.

Ibizagirl - The NC levels stop at the end of yr9 (KS3).
Most subjects only go to level 7, in maths level 8 is possible.

Your DDs levels seem very high fir her year, I remember mentioning this in another thread. I was worried that my DD was only a 6a in MFL at the end of yr9. But when we got her final levels that year, there were also stats across the year group showing that only 1% got above that. And they have a decent MFL department, not having cut back there as soon schools did when language GCSE stopped being compulsory.

For yr10 (start of KS4 and most GCSE courses) their assessment grades are being given in terms if GCSE grades. Ie working at grade C, target for end of yr grade B, predicted (FFT possibly) GCSE grade A.

Looking at DDs, the subjects she has started on higher grades this year seem to be those with earlier modules being sat. Not necessarily those she ended yr9 with best grades on. That is more to do with the level the class is currently being taught at.

Hi circular. Thanks for replying and i remember you talking about the mfl levels. Do you think they levels are too high for my dd? Now i am worried that they are going to be out of reach for her. She is very able and on g and t and all that rubbish and finds school work very easy. Some of her friends within her sets are near her levels too but most are on 5c or 6a. The trouble with my dd is that if her target is say 7a and she gets 7c she will become upset and think she is useless. Although THAT level would still be high for her age. Funnily enough, she is not that brilliant at pe. She is a big girl compared to her friends and can't do a lot of the pe. But her targets are all the same for every subject including pe and dance. So when her last report came it showed a red square where pe is because she got 5c instead of 7a! Dd was upset again because all other subjects were in green and pe was red and dance was amber.

Reply from form tutor "....pupils are expected to move forward by approximately two thirds of a level per year. JuniorBonkers is therefore not a major cause for concern at this point but I would encourage him to push himself harder and to really look at the targets his teachers are giving him in order to reach the next level....."

ibizagirl
My son was awarded target grades for all subjects based on his CAT scores, so basically A* for everything. I was "called in " at the end of Year 7 to see his form tutor as several of his subject levels were significantly below his target grade ( specifically PE, DT and Art) The teachers were slightly bemused when I explained that, as he has dyspraxia I wasn't too concerned about his apparent deficiencies in these areas!

I wish schools would use these targets as they are meant to be used. Targets which are generated from KS2 results or CATs scores are average targets - i.e. on average students with those results would get these grades. Some will get higher and some will get lower than the average grade and not necessarily because they have worked especially hard or slacked off, but because these targets are based on statistics and on no knowledge of your individual child whatsoever. Thus you get the ridiculous situation of a dyspraxic child being targeted a high grade in PE because they got good results in maths, English and science.

These automatically generated grades should not be shared with individual students or with their parents. They should not be used to slate a student who is working hard but despite best efforts failing to meet them. They are designed to be used to assess large groups of students to see if on average that large group of students is meeting expectations. Teachers can use these grades with cautionand with other assessment data and knowledge of how the child has been working to assess if a child is underachieving - clearly the dyspraxic student is not underachieving in PE and should have never been told that they were.

Apologies for weird italics. Frustration at misuse of statistics by schools clouded my vision :)