Grading in secondary school

[samuvel]

Can someone explain , how grading in year 7 , year 8 predicts scoring in gcse.
Does children scoring poorly at year 7 ultimately perform better at GCSE

the school takes the overall performance in year 8 and 9, not sure about 7 to predict a GCSE score, that is all.
for example my daughter is predicted a stunning range of Ds and Es but then she does have Splds

Children are all individuals and many change a lot during these years of their life.

My ds was a low performer until the middle of Yr 8 and any predictions made in Yr 7 would have been very low. Now in Yr 10 he has worked his way up the sets, sometimes going up as much as a whole level in less than a term.

Dd otoh was predicted A's and A*'s but had a breakdown and left secondary with a reduced number of GCSE's.

Some children (particularly boys?) develop maturity late, so their early predictions can be very misleading. Other children peak early, have a difficult puberty, or lose interest in their studies.

Thanks for your feedback . It was really helpful
With regards

Students who arrive at secondary with low levels tend, on average, to do less well at GCSE level than those who arrive working at a higher level.

Of courses averages are just that, averages. I have taught students who were working at Level 3 (in maths) in Year 7 who have achieved A grades at GCSE and students who were working at Level 5 who ended up without a C in maths.

As a very general rule of thumb - students starting secondary at level 3 tend to move on to get D/E grades at GCSE; level 4's tend to end up with B/C/D and level 5's A*/A/B.

In the majority of schools GCSE results are predicted based on KS2 SAT data. The only influence Yr7-9 has is on GCSE sets and options advice.

There's a difference between a target and a prediction. My targets are generated for me from KS2 data. I can move them up if I think a student's target is too low, but I may not move them down.

My predictions are my professional judgement of what a student will achieve, rather than should achieve. It is based on my ongoing assessments, and may well change over time.

so all you people on this thread sound like teachers...
can i ask is there actually any point in doing GCSEs when the targets and predictions are so low?

I'm not sure what you mean. My GCSE students (and I teach 3 classes of differing abilities) have targets ranging from A-D, and predictions ranging from A-F.

well what i mean is - if all the targets and predictions are like say D- E and all college courses and apprenticeships ask for 4 or 5 at C+, is there actually any point in doing them?

also if someone is predicted an E for english based on KS2 at which point they had a reading age of 7, but since then have improved to 16 plus, why do the predictions not reflect that?

Hence my discrimination between target and prediction. And the fact that targets can go up not down. I teach a lot of EAL students. I often adjust targets up, and certainly increase my predictions, to reflect their improved performance in my subject as they become more fluent.

All college courses do not require 5A*-C. We have students who are level 1 learners (D-G) who go on to college. I can't predict a C for someone who really won't get it, despite all our best efforts.

Ok thanks for that madonna, the college course that dd wants to do needs those grades sadly. just the school seems so negative, despite the massive improvement i mentioned.

Is she in year 11?

Is she doing any vocational subjects, and are they included in the 5A*-C offer?

no she is in year 10 - in fact she tells me that the predicted grade E for English was a 'misprint' and should have been a c.
she is doing an engineering NVQ.
actually she does not have any offer yet but is in the process of applying and i am like ...grr... what is the point? it is D E and F across the board. she does have dyslexia etc but no statement and no offer of help/support eg using an alphasmart for writing - when i asked about it i was told that these were for 'other' more needy students - ones with statements and sharper elbowed parents more like...

Nigella, if the school are not being very supportive, just putting her in a low set, with a low grade prediction, and you genuinely believe your dd is capable of higher grades, it may be worth looking into private tuition. A qualified professional (preferably an experienced teacher) should be able to give you an honest opinion of the level your daughter is working at, and if it is realistic to aim for e.g. a C grade.

If your daughter really wants to do a level 3 course that she does not have the grades for (5 GCSEs at A*-C is level 2) then one option may be to do a one year level 2 NVQ (in Engineering), alongside resitting core GCSEs that she has not achieved a C Grade in (Maths, English, Science). After that year, assuming she passed the NVQ level 2 and the GCSE resits, she could apply for an NVQ level 3 in Engineering.

At our school we run an 'improvers' course in Year 12 for students who are not yet working at a high enough level to be able to genuinely access level 3 courses.

Then, at the end of year 12, they start the level 3 courses which they complete over years 13 and 14.

It's sort of a bridging programme really.

That is great advice thank you frogspoon