year 7 interim reports

[nickey1]

My daughter is in year 7 and has just come home with an interim report which includes her target as level 5 for each subject. Can anyone tell me how the school arrives at the proposed targets that they set for the students, as her friends have got higher target levels than her, but had the same teacher assessment levels as her when they left primary school.

At the end of year 6, her teacher assessment results were level 5, so we were expecting a higher level target. Unfortunately, the secondary school are telling us that they can't find my daughters CAT results, but have CAT results that are poorer than her primary school teacher assessment results, but which matches my daughters' birthday, so they are assuming that they must be her results.

I am concerned that they may not be her CAT results at all and are basing the interim report on them. So I would like to know how the target levels are decided

Any advice would be appreciated,

Thanks

Just quickly going to say that a level 5 at key stage 3 is not the same as a level 5 at key stage2. Its a mistake that parents commonly make as it is not very clearly explained by the school usually.
Also, please remember a target is just a target and is usually generated by 3 different kinds of data, including cats. What is actually important are her assessment results and if they come out a lot higher then the school will have to reassess the target as she goes through the year.
I would speak to them again if you are concerned about it though and get them to explain how they set the targets as it is different at each school

Is the target for the end of Y7 or for the end of Y9? If it's for the end of Y7 then it is possible that her level at the end of KS2 was a low level 5 so her target is a high level 5, but her friends got a high level 5 at KS2 so their target could be a low/mid level 6, with the school expecting the same amount of progress from all of them.

It is also possible that the school has done its own assessments and are basing their targets on how your DD has performed at secondary school, ignoring any primary school data. Teacher assessment levels in primary school aren't necessarily a good indication of performance when starting secondary, for various reasons.

I don't understand when you say her CAT results are poorer than her primary school assessed levels - CAT results are a completely different sort of test and assess ability rather than prior learning. If they have CAT results with your DD's birthday on, but not her name, and can't find your DD's results, then it is likely that they are her results. They should obviously check that there aren't any duplicate birthdays in the year.

Hi and thanks for your responses, they have been very helpful. The target, I am assuming, is for the end of Year 7. We have not received any of her CAT results data as they cannot ascertain that they are hers and they do not correlate with her SATS results. The CATS data showed reading comprehension levels 3 years below her actual age although she was previously assessed in school as having a reading Age two years above her actual age. She has been placed in the top set and is coping well but my concern was with how the target level was set, I have spoken to other parents in the school and they do not know how these targets are set either. Her peers in the same set have higher target levels and I was unsure whether this was based on the CATS results or classwork and class tests. Thanks

Ok, the CAT scores sound odd. Different schools set targets in different ways so you'll need to phone and ask. They could be based on internal assessment, CATs, FFT data (which looks at KS2 results) or any combination. At my school, I would see where she was at the end of last year, look at KS3 targets, then add a bit on. I think parents would pay them far less attention if they knew just how crappy the whole thing is.

Okay thanks for that, the advice is much appreciated. Unfortunately the School gave the report out on the day they finshed for the Christmas holidays so I am unable to get clarification from them. It is a frustrating system, all I can hope is that they will continually assess her ability and not rely too heavily on the CAT scores when it comes to streaming at the end of the year. Thanks again