Average levels end of Y7? (sorry!!)

[kitnkaboodle]

Sorry for yet another levels post. I realise that they can border on an obsession.

My Y7 son has started at a school I had some reservations about, and I am trying to discreetly keep an eye on where he and his peers are at, and how this compares with other schools.

Could someone in the know kindly let me know what the national average levels are at the end of Y7. Any stats/tables, etc, gratefully received.

We have had no meeting with teachers yet, and none on the horizon (I know I could ask if I was that bothered). But he has his end of year targets written in his journal, and I've sneaked a look at the grades he got for assessmetnts before half term. They are, at present, pretty meaningless to me.

secondary levels are VERY different from primary.
Do not compare year 6 and year 7
just make sure they are happy and the levels start to shake out by year 8

I should say that according to our HT there is a highly scientific system.

However, wearing my scientists hat, there really isn't enough data until Christmas Y8, at the earliest, to give statistically sound levels.

My dyslexic DD1 puts so much random jitter on doing some tests well and others less so (and forgetting to revise or not bothering because she's got a concert and a real Controled assessment) that I think her GCSE grades will be the only believable levels we ever get. (Due to yet another new system, she has two different sets of predicted grades)

Why do they bother doing levels if it's so arbitrary, then? (Naive question, I know!)

Dd is 5s and a 6b for Maths - she got 5s in yr 6 sats so I'm figuring that this probably means her first term at secondary school has been okay academically.

Levels will be scrapped from 2016 because they are a bunch of arse parents don't understand what they mean.

However, they haven't actually been replaced with anything, and so schools will probably continue to use them.

I've just received a profile for my year 7 DD listing all her achieved levels for this term and targets for next term. I would have thought the school would also be communicating with you soon. If you hear nothing ask for this information. This is a box standard comprehensive that she attends, who I must say are excellent at communicating with parents and keeping them informed. We had an introductory target level meeting in October.

We've just got the end of term reports

Gives us a target
Effort grade
Tracking to target (yes or no)

Dd is predicted a 5a in pe but is in the bottom set so I don't understand that one
Spanish 4a

The rest are various 6s which she's bothered about as the children that she went to primary with that went to the other high school are being targeted as 7 in maths. She feels like she's being left behind so I told her not to be daft -her school hasn't targeted any if the yr7 with 7s

As long as her effort grades stay high and she is happy at school I really don't worry about levels

Because they have to.

DDs maths teacher said she hated having to grade every single piece of work, because inevitably DC get some maths concepts quicker than others.

Pupils and parents wouldn't worry about 7/10, 9/10, 8/10, but after so much emphasis on SATs, levels going down cause panic.

Grading every single piece of work is a horrible misuse of levels. Utterly meaningless.