disparity between two subjects?

[cell2000]

My son has achieved 6b in Maths and 5c in English in his yr 7 mid-year report. On questioning the teacher I was told that a yr 9 test was used in the English. It must have been a tough paper?

I am worried about the difference in grades, should I be ?

Do you thin he should be 5c or 6b in both? Why?

think

Errm,
Presumably he's better at one than the other?

I mean, I'm better at Maths than scuba diving/Italian/housework. Doesn't worry me.

Why should he get exactly the same grade in different subjects? Perhaps he is better at one than the other? Maybe he had an off day in the English test? Maybe he just didn't click with the particular paper? Is there more to this?

Were you expecting such a high mark mid year 7 for his maths ? Are you anxious they are over assessing ?
Why would you expect different subjects to be the same ?

Has he always been just as good at both subjects in the past?

Maybe she thinks he should have been offered y9 papers in both? (Come back OP....)

Sorry, I had to go out! I'm not sure what I expect. Secondary school is a whole new, unfamiliar ball game for me. His literacy dipped in primary due to prolonged abscences/illness in yr 4 & 5. After a lot of hard work he left yr with a 4a in literacy. Although he has 'technically' caught up I still get anxious and don't want him to fall behind again.

Does anyone if these grades are ok for his age?

They're fine. Both of them. English in secondary school is very different to literacy in primary. His levels are fine. The maths one is very good.

My dd's marks soared up quite quickly in Maths in year 7, but stayed in the 5s in English for a long and frustrating time - think it;s fairly common.

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know of any tables/websites that have average grades? I have seen ks2 SATS ones but nothing for 7r 7 or 8.

A would take the 5c in English as fine (about average) and the level 6 as good. I am an English teacher btw.

I can understand your concern, but in my experience it takes a couple of years at secondary before the levels you get in reports make much sense relative to Y6 SATs. They often go down before they go up.

Dyslexic DD1 produces random English levels and I've come to the conclusion that I may not get a meaningful one until her GCSE grade. Some class tests she does well at others she doesn't.

She got put in too lower maths set, so her initial maths levels were silly. That they have sorted out and we mostly get sense.
The maths mistresses admits that there system of giving out decimal levels is too fine and really hard to get right.

I've found all you can do is go to parents evening and talk to the teachers. DDs always have their mark books with them and are happy to discuss progress.
(Sadly I suspect our very space limited formulaic reports are somewhat rushed by some teachers and DD1 will never potion hole neatly)

Doesn't sound like a huge disparity to me, especially as Maths goes up to level 8. Nor anythng to worry about with those levels in yr7.
Is his science high also, with humanities being slightly lower?

DD1 now in yr10, ended yr9 with 7b Maths & 5a English - the latter showing little improvement since yr8., but mainly due to creative writing difficulties. Yet still started yr10 with GCSE targets of B for both, although the maths has now gone up to A.

"English in secondary school is very different to literacy in primary."

I would be really grateful if someone out there could explain the differences between secondary and junior English please. My son has dyslexia and English is both his worst subject and his best subject.

Also, there is a very very wide disparity in his Yr 7 grades - from a 3c to a 7c and everything inbetween so I wouldn't stress.

If that's NC levels, 5c in Y7 is better than average! I'm an English teacher, too, by the way. 5 is the expected level (that is to say the level an average child should be capable of) at the end of Y9. Successive governments seem to want to make everyone above average, though, which suggests their maths is not at the expected level.
Niceweather it is different because the stimulus material is more challenging - for example they all have to study SHakespeare, and the novels tend to be for young adults so more difficult. THere is more focus on things like using sentence types/lengths for effect and an expectation of a wider vocabulary.

Thanks Cardibach. I imagine that Shakespeare will not be attractive to all the Yr 7 children!

errm, Primary children study Shakespeare and "difficult" novels ( we've covered The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Water Babies, Hiawatha and The Tempest this year) and we too focus on sentence types/lengths with an expectation of a wide vocabulary! Level 5 might be the expected level at the end of Year 9 but there is also the expectation that AT LEAST a third of primary children achieve level 5 in Year 6.