How do you know if your child is + material and what age do they start to mark work in primary.

[IdRatherPlayHereWithAllTheMadMen]

Just wondering as I have no clue really, we are early days yet but still would like to find out all education options...

What age do they start to mark work properly, what do the gradings mean? I see b and 4a and I have no idea what they mean, in my day it was A++ A+ A A- B++ B+ and so on...

Do you have clues early on, do you wait till a certain age or in school exam?

I guess if your child was strong in English but poor at Maths you wouldnt even consider it?

• I don't care (much) how my DD is getting on compared to the rest of the class (they might be geniuses or really thick), so the national curriculum level lets me know where they are against a clear standard. This stops teachers saying 'DD is making really good progress' when in fact the NC level shows that yes this is the case but actually they are still 18 months behind expected levels

This is making more sense to me.

(Agree it's odd to find this in Secondary Education)
It seems to me you are asking how you will know how well your dc is doing at school ?
You will know because you are likely to have 3 Parents Evenings and One written report each year. If they were really struggling, you'd be contacted by the school sooner for a chat about that.

The National Curriculum levels (not really that new - Nat Curr was introduced around about 1989, from memory) will give you what an "average child, across the whole Country" should be able to do at the end of the Key Stages (ie, end of Infants, End of Juniors and end of Yr9 / 3rd Yr at secondary) as long as you are not in Scotland where everything is a bit different. Doesn't mean it's average for your school or your county though.
Relating to whether that means they are grammar school material or not is difficult for other people to say, as it is very area specific. Vast swathes of the Country don't have grammar schools.

Glad to be of help.

Now, to go back to your original question, 11+. For grammar, you would probably be looking for a child who reaches level 3 by the end of y2, and at least level 5 by the end of y6. But some children are late bloomers, some are precocious but then flatten off.

Your child is young, just encourage them to think learning is fun. What will be will be.

Are you sure you have grammar schools in your area? (Only asking as you're obviously new to all this).

If you are lucky you'll live somewhere they don't and then they can just go to a comp and be top set of some subjects and bottom set of others.

Thanks so much Tween, am saving what you have written to keep going back to it until I understand it more.

yes we have a few grammers and some "failing" in special measures comps...that I would never want her to go too....the comps here are not an option for us, I would rather move country than see her go to one!

I feel very strongly about it and this is why I am worried now.

Thanks so much for your help...

DD2's school has a great system of feedback, once a term we get a sheet that shows their NC level along with the expected level for a child in that year group.

It also has very specific targets for improvement for your child, some of dd2's from parents evening this week are

Record working for each stage of multi-step problems involving money
Choose words to create an effect on the audience
Use empathy to make judgements about a character

She's year 3 and a borderline level 4 ( they don't use the a,b and c) so these targets will help her progress to a secure level 4. It's much more informative than using letters to grade work.

A special measures comp now might well be good/outstanding in 6 years time. It will be getting a lot of attention.

And a grammar school that gets to cream off all the best children, may get what look like fantastic results, but might actually be quite poor considering the intake.

You don't need to move country, but maybe move county to Hants.

Maybe tween I am not convinced and the children I have to pass everyday are not a great ad for the school....its not something I would want for my children.

Your child's work will not be routinely levelled, they will probably do an assessed piece of writing 3-4 times a year. Parents do seem to be far more obsessed with levels than they were even 5-10 years ago. At my school we only routinely tell parents the child's levels at the end of KS1 and KS2, although you can of course ask at any time.
Speaking to the teacher or their report will tell you how your child is doing, they may be working above, at, or below the level expected for their year group.

Having just gone through the ridiculous process of the 11+ you really need to be a strong level 5 by the end of yr5 if you want to gave a good chance of getting into a grammar school. The exams are taken between October and January for the majority of these places...

DD2 is in yr6. Maybe we are lucky that her school has never seemed Sats obsessed, 'good' state primary, around 90% level 4 and above at end KS2.

The grading we get in end of year reports is A to E for effort and 1 to 5 for attainment, so a 3 attainment is average and what would be expected if DC was on track for a 2b at end of KS1 or 4b at end of KS2.

The only report we had showing NC levels was at the end of yr2 (KS1). DD2 never even realised she had taken Sats tests in yr2, just remember her saying they had been doing some fun workbooks most days that week, and were given new pencils for it.

At end of yr5 parent teachers we were told their levels. I suspect that would have been within the 11+ application deadline (we are not a grammar area but have super-selective for top 0.5%, and some selective independents). At start of yr6, given levels and targets via individual meetings with head that were reinforced in parent/teachers a few weeks later.

Glad to say, apart from a week of mock Sats, its pretty much normal work for the all. So still getting to do History, Geography, Science and other non tested subjects.

OP I think Secondary board was a good choice for this post as there will be parents that have already been through primary system, but things have changed. DD1 is 6 years older, in that time the KS2 science hads been scrapped. May be worth an X-post in Primary?

circular

Thanks so much for your post.

Yes I thought secondary because parents will have already been through the system or going through it and be able to tell me how they knew their dc were going to be able to make 11+, and I was right, thank you so much .
I have posted from a different angle on both boards and both boards have come up with extremely useful information and both different from each other.

I always find if you have a border subject like mine, it does behove one to post in two areas, even though this rankles some.