Yr7 levels - Should we be worried?

[Unofficialpeacekeeper]

My DD is in yr7 but an August birthday. For her yr6 sats she achieved a combination of level 3's and 4's.
She is now coming home with work being assessed as 3A's/4C's. Should we be worried by these levels?
Her sister is yr5 and coming home with 4C's and we have been told that her brother in yr2 is a level 3.
She doesn't find school easy and can struggle with information overload at times.

Take a look at this thread - it may be useful to read:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/844915-National-Curriculum-Levels-and-how-they-predict-GCSE-grades

Levels at the end of year 6 and in year 7 can't really be compared as in year 7 they will be assessing a much wider range of skills. It can also take all of year 7 for their actual level to become clear.

However these are low - we expect 4a or 5c at the end of the year for year 7 and she would seem to be a way off these targets. What feedback have you had from herteachers?

The August birthday btw shouldn't make any difference! Maybe in reception or year 1, but not at secondary!

Her teacher's don't seem concerned by her levels at all. Her maths teacher has said that she expects my daughter to be a level 4A/4B by the end of the school year but other than that nothing else has been mentioned.

4a would be in line with expectation - just about average in terms of ability. I imagine she would be prediced 5 GCSEs at C grade and maybe a few more at D. She's only year 7 though so plenty of time to improve as long as the support is there. If she struggles with information overload can you/her teachers break things down a bit for her so she can see the wood fro the treees.

A C/D borderline student, which she seems to be, would typically get quite a bit of intervention in year 9+ to try and get a secure C.

Your younger too are obviously bright which probably makes her grades look worse!

Also don't worry if she has what seem like anomalously low levels in French or other MFL. That's normal - they assume they are starting from nothing with those.

We've started going on the internet and looking again at anything that she didn't understand at school but I think alot of it is a lack of confidence.
The information is in her brain but she can't always find it when she needs it and then the meltdown happens which means she definitely can't remember it.
Her yr 5 sister quite often will answer the questions in yr7 DD's homework so we have put a stop to that.
It's so hard when a child can put so much effort into doing some work only to get a low grade.
School does not come easy to DD whereas her younger sister seems to fly through.

Today's new league table results make uncomfortable reading. My son, who has dyspraxia, scored 3a/3b in his yr 6 sats. According to the new data children scoring less than 4 only have a 6.5% chance of getting 5 GCSEs at A-C. At his school, which is excellent in many respects (70% get 5 or more good GCSEs), none of the children in this so-called "low attainment" group achielved 5 or more GCSEs A-C at KS4. Have been trying to raise his level with private maths tuition, but maybe we should be focussing less on academic attainment . Not sure, thoughts welcome.

She's already talking about failing her GCSE's. Luckily her older sister is in year 11 so we have college prospecus's (sp.) in our house. I've been sitting down with her and we've been looking at all the courses that are on offer and what grades are needed.
I know it's a long way off but if she's thinking about it now then that's a long time for her to worry.
The school she goes to next has a 91% A-C. GCSE pass rate and also does some B Techs so maybe there is some hope!

Vampyra 2,

I would be interested to read the "new data" you mention. I wonder if they are talking about Level 3s in all subjects or just one? My son has dyslexia and got a Level 3 for his writing but he is quite bright so I don't think this is a true reflection of his ability. The SATS writing test is based on spelling and punctuation whereas I am hoping that the GCSEs will be more content based. As your son has dyspraxia, then level 3s are possibly not a true measure of his intelligence either. He has a difficulty which might be stopping him from reaching his true potential.

Slight improvement over the past couple of weeks. She's been doing tests in some of her subjects and as a result is now getting 4C's and 4B's. Very pleased as one of her languages she got a 4C, 4C and a 3A.
Unfortunately her sister in yr5 has come home with a 4B in one of her subjects and a 5B in another.
We're just trying to re-enforce the whole as long as she's trying her best approach but finding it very hard when she looks so upset over what her sister gets. She comes home so excited over her levels only to be blown out of the water by her over achieving sister.
We're so proud of both of them!
We try and talk to them seperately about school but that doesn't always work.
Parenting can be so hard at times!

4C, 4C and a 3A in a foreign language is very, very good!!
maybe that should be your secret weapon when building her confidence up?

Were her Y6 levels teacher assessed, or did they come from her SATs?

It's very common for Y6 levels to be 'inflated' due to SATs coaching in some schools, and give the impression that little progress is being made in Y7.

Also, predictors taken from KS2 data do not take into account a whole range of factors. Some children have 'spiky' profiles, and do not make even, steady progress.

Has your DD done any CAT tests?

Her yr6 levels were a combination of test results and teacher assessments.
She's at a Middle school so her teachers are the same this year as they were last year.
She has done CAT tests but we only saw her results at parent's evening and I can't remember what they were.
We have been focusing on the MFL levels (can't remember if it was German or French as she does both) and she seems a little happier about them.

I would ask for her CAT results again, and the attached grade predictors generated for every subject.

Far more accurate an indicator of ability than KS2 results, IME.

I was wrong and we were given a copy of her CAT results at parents evening. There was no grade prediction with them and the results were in terms of Stanines.
Non verbal 4 Quantitive 4 and Verbal 5

Her yr5 sister got Non verbal 7 Quantitive 6 and Verbal 9.

These don't mean anything to me so hopefully somebody can explain what they mean.

I'd never heard of a 'stanine' before but here is the explanation (graph p 15, table p 16). Essentially those scores mean your yr7 dd is of average ability and your yr5 daughter is above average in non-verbal, and very high in verbal.

So its not too suprising that the younger girl is getting some high sat levels - she's not 'over-achieving'. It must be hard for your older DD - hopefully among her other talents the younger can learn some tact . But as someone has already said, those levels in MFL are really good!

Poor DD2 has always struggled with DD3 and her 'talents' of which tact definitely isn't one.
The CAT results make sense now and actually back up what we've always thought about DD2.
DD2 has never liked going to school but goes grudgingly and does just enough when there to get by. DD3 on the other hand gets upset when it is school holiday time much to DD2 's disgust.
The difference between the two of them is so funny!