Effort and Conduct marked 1-4

[Knottingley]

DS has in yr8 has just had his monitoring

His levels are about where they should be and he has mostly 2s for effort and conduct with a smattering of 1s.

The definition of a 1 for effort is, "Effort has been excellent in all aspects over the last monitoring period. Expectations have been exceeded in this subject and every possible effort is made to achieve their end of year targets." (their underline)

2 is "effort has been good in most aspects...significant effort is being made..."

To my mind, if they're applying those definitions properly then achieving three 1s is brilliant and the 2s aren't at all bad. But, how likely is it that DS really made maximum effort all the time? i.e. how "generous" are teachers usually with these things?

My knowledge of the boy is that he will always do as little as he can get away with.....

Anyone?

We use a similar system. Of a class of 30 I probably give about 4 or 5 1s, so they are really quite rare and yes, brilliant.

Speaking as a teacher who wrote their thesis on effort grades, they are a load of old bollocks- completely arbitrary.

One person cannot accurately assess the level of effort another is putting in to a task. If they do, it's a lucky guess.

I would concentrate on the attainment and conduct/behaviour grades instead.

We use a 1-5 scale (1 being top but with slightly different descriptors to the one you describe) and around 15-20% of all effort grades are a 1.

We publish the percentages to help parents understand how good (or bad) the report actually is in the context of the school. They might give you that if you ask.

Opposite for DD1 yr 12 mumslife. She's quite engaged and might seem more "loud" but is putting max effort in but this is not always recognised so it seems arbitrary sometimes.

Many teachers already do, mumslife.

Perhaps take a leaf out of your own post and don't generalise

At one point our junior school had marks for effort along the lines of:

1. Excellent: Always puts in full effort and homework always handed in.
2. Good: Usually puts in full effort and homework normally handed in.
3. Satisfactory: Sometimes puts in full effort, and homework. handed in most of the time.

I think parents did query what happened if they didn't put in any effort or hand in homework, so they now add two more.

1. Unsatifactory: Not always making an effort, and homework handed in sporadically.
2. Poor: No effort generally, and homework rarely handed in.

I suspect they never give out 4 and 5 though I might be wrong.

Mums life, your post implied all teachers. I know it's really picky of me and probably it not what you intended but I get as increasingly irritated by sweeping generalisations as you obviously do.

Your other comments about the recent suggestions that teachers should register to show that they undergo regular training and evaluation of their skills would be an entirely different thread. But I would just say that you are making the assumption that this does not already happen because that is what the labour MP managed to imply in his interview. Might be worth finding out what already happens and evaluate the extent to which MPs manipulate in order to create good press for themselves.

sometimes certain nos mean you are supposed to DO something paper worky - so teachers avoid giving 3s