Year 8 Target Levels...I suspect a huge error or not?

[anothermakesthree]

I have received my dd1's interim report for this term. It is sent as a spreadsheet showing current working level and target grade for yr8.

For several subjects (4) my dd1's target level for yr8 is actually lower or the same than her target level for yr7, despite having met her target in yr7. For example her science target for yr7 was 5c. She achieved this by the end of the year (actually surpassed it by 2 levels in the end of year exam). Her science target grade for yr8 has been reported as a 5c? Her History target for yr7 was 5b. She achieved this by the end of the year (again actually surpassing it in the end of year exam), yet her target level for yr8 has been reported as 5c? When I say she met the yr7 target, I mean officially shown on her end of year report.

I have emailed the school and they have said they will look into it for me, there are other subjects that show a yr8 target level as the same or lower than her current working level.

Can any experienced secondary teacher shed any light onto what might have happened?

It might be that pupils' targets for all the years in KS3 were set at the beginning of KS3, based on the information the school had at that point without really knowing your daughter. This is how it works in my school and it can be very frustrating. We use FFT D to set targets, which is a reasonably challenging measure set by a trust outside the school that uses big data to generate targets and it works for a majority of pupils. However, it's no substitute for knowing the kids and knowing their work. You are absolutely right to pull the school up on this - your daughter should have useful targets; even if the system often works reasonably well, it's not working for her at the moment.

I wouldn't expect anything to be done about it until after Christmas, though. You should probably send a reminder in January as it's almost certain that they will forget over the holidays in a fog of wine and exhaustion.

Yep, secondary schools have a complex teacher time wasting system that 'whatever the HT claims' generates random numbers.

Thanks.

I did sort of suspect she was exceeding the 'ceiling' set for her by the school, but surely there is some sort of 'safety valve' that can allow for an increase in targets if a student is exceeding them?

another

something similar has happened with my son.

I was intending to ask about it after the holidays