Interim report - gone down a grade - DD distraught....

[SilverLining]

Just had DDs interim report (year 7) and since the autumn term she has gone down in her English from a 5B to a 5C - her target grade is 5A. Its surprised me as I thought her work was actually better this term - more effort etc. But its also surprised me how upset she is! Does anyone know if this is a normal thing or is it something I should be worried about? Or are we both panicking about nothing??

Thanks in advance...

Contact the teacher to find out what is happening. It may just be a data input error.

Sublevels are bollocks. Levels are designed to measure progress across a key stage not minute differences over a couple of months. Sublevels don't even officially exist so what they mean from school to school or teacher to teacher or even term to term will vary and be subjectively assessed.

And the teacher may have even simply made a data entry error. Very rare for a teacher to say a child has gone backwards because it causes this sort of worry.

Ah - thanks you two! I'm OK about it (I think!) and do agree that sublevels are a dubious marker. Just surprised to see how upset she was herself - will reassure her that we've been happy with her work and attitude and to just carry on as she has been! Thanks!

Y7-Y9 levels are mostly bollocks. We don't seem to have proper Christmas and summer tests that DDs know about and revise for, but random class tests they sometimes seem to know nothing about. We have had some very odd marks, both stupidly high and low.

my DCs are in year 9 and year 11

I utterly agree that sublevels are bollocks
they might have a BIT of meaning after a full year's work has been done
but they are mostly box ticking guesswork

make sure your DD is getting all of her work done to the best of her ability and have a BIG pinch of salt ready for reading the levels

It might just be that she is weaker in the aspect of English she is studying. For example she might be better at creative writing than the analysis of Shakespeare.

Because of the way KS3 English is integrated there are variables.

Could just be she found the current assessment more challenging than last term and sublevels will fluctuate from term to term in most subjects. Much better to assess year to year but it does allow you to get a snapshot of where they are at the moment and to keep an eye on it. My advice would be to get your DD to ask her English teacher to explain why she got the 5C this term and what can she do to get to a 5A so she is fully informed on what she needs to improve on.

Thanks everyone - she's calmed down & is going to ask her teacher how she can get back up to where she was and beyond.

Thanks for making us both feel a lot better!!

V normal apparently especially if the 5a was from SATS. DS had the same thing and his work quality is constantly improving.

DD1 has just handed me her Y11 report (her final one before GCSE).

The minimum expected grades (the ones for ofsted off her SATs) still contain bollocks.

However, her actual attainment and realistic predicted grades finally look reasonable.

DS1 is also in Yr7, and this happened to him also in English - with the same grades!

I wrote a note asking his teacher if I needed to be concerned and I got a lovely email back explaining the grade reflected one particular assessment and was a task that he had not experienced much before - his grade was actually still good and overall his attainment had not faltered or dropped.

The teacher went out of her way to explain it all to me and also to reassure me there was no issue and not to be concerned at all.

It may be a big piece/test she got lower marks than previously. I know with dd1 she had a brilliant mark in science one term, so it looked like she'd dropped the next term. It was the brilliant mark that was the anomaly rather than her dropping a grade.

Agree sub levels are nowt and often assessed on a single item /test/area of work.

However the thing that really stands out is that your " DD is distraught" can she explain why?What does she understand by her grades and the targets? Does she need some work around resilience if this minor, barely worth noticing, hiccup has upset her so badly? (talk to form tutor, DD2 school is big on resilience and has been for several years)

I guess the trouble is DCs leave primary with loads of pressure to get the best grade they can in their SATs and think of grades as concrete and accurate.

Then they get told all about progress and target grades at the start of Y7. Again all ernest and serious.

Then they get the last pilling little class test they forgot all about on their report. They don't realise the teacher hasn't taken a proper average of six months effort and they panic.

It's a nuts system.

Thanks to DD1's lovely maths and English teachers agreeing that trying to sub-level every bit of work and snap shot reports were confusing, my two have learnt to accept grades (like investments) can go up and down.

Children are bound to be upset. She has worked hard and gone down. They don't consider that adults would ever create, use and report using an assessment system which was not fit for that purpose.

Thanks everyone - she's a bit of a sensitive flower! Had a lot of problems in Year 5/6 but has really settled in year 7 and has cracked on with the work improving week on week - in our opinion! Maybe distraught was a bit strong but she was upset that she had tried hard (in her opinion!) but wasn't marked as she expected!

I realise it may have been a different sort of assessment she perhaps wasn't used to or any other reason! She has English today so will see what home time brings!

Thanks though for all your comments!