Early setting in yr7

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DS1 had had his yr6 school report which basically says he's a polite well behaved boy who has done well, but not reached his full potential. He should speak up more and make more effort to produce his best work.

His results are:

Speaking & Listening 4B
Reading 5C
Writing 4C
Overall English 4A
Maths 5C
Science 5C

His secondary says they set right from the start using info from the junior school including SATS results They review this at the end of the first term using their own tests.

So, in a 10 class year group at a school that typically achieves slightly above national average GCSEs where will that put him? I'm concerned that if he's not among academic children with high expectations of themselves, the issues with the lack of effort and not fulfilling his potential will only get worse as he gets older/more influenced by the behaviour of his peers.

Also, what can I do to make sure that doesn't happen?

anyone?

My DD was 5A in everything at the end and she went into the top set of 8 (although not based on SATs). I would have said that he would be at least in the top 2 or 3 sets and probably be with children of similar ability. Even in the top set my DD is in they is bad behaviour. There are compliant and disruptive children at all levels.

Hopefully he'll be in an above average set with those grades, but depends on the intake. The only thing would be to get him to work hard and watch his grades during the autumn, so that when they do the end of term test he may get into a higher set.

If discipline is good at the school, he should be OK in most sets. I agree that the bottom ones might be progressively harder for children who want to work hard. That's the big problem I have with some comprehensive schools; they don't expect enough of pupils - if they don't work hard, it doesn't matter as there's always a set (low) enough for them!

I think you're probably worrying unnecessarily. I hear lots of stories of kids at secondary moving around between sets in yrs 7, 8, 9..., it really is NOT set from stone from start of y7.

"The only thing would be to get him to work hard and watch his grades during the autumn, so that when they do the end of term test he may get into a higher set."

You make it sound so easy inky , but just how does one achieve that? I've been trying to get him to work hard since yr1 when I was first told he needed more focus.

I'm in the same position as you. DD has the same levels as your son except she has a 4A in maths.

I think it really depends on the set up at the secondary school your child goes to. DD will be attending a school where they put a lot of faith in the KS2 levels from the very start of year seven and for the next five years. I'm very worried about it. But very many other secondary schools do not do this. Some totally ignore SATs levels and set the children based on a CAT test.

As for getting your child to work, a lot of people have different opinions on that. I will be teaching DD at home after school from independent school text books for year seven because almost no home work is set by the school. I feel a routine based approach will be right for my child. Other parents will advocate an independent learning approach. Some children will be at schools where they are set a huge amount of homework - DS has two hours a night. So I think you need to look at what the school is advising and then decided the approach you feel is right for your child.

Last week we (English) just set our yr6-> yr7s on the basis of the data we had; this was only the externally marked reading SATs paper.

In Sep they will do CATs, our own internal baseline testing, and reading (comprehension) and spelling ages. On the basis of all this and anything else we learn about them, we will tweak sets as necessary around half term.