NC Level / GCSE maths

[homebythesea]

Hopefully someone more au fait than me can quickly answer this one - what NC level would a pupil need to be at to get a C at GCSE maths?

L3 G
L4 F
L5 E
L6 D
L7 C
L8 B

Why?

Of course, that doesn't mean that a child in Y7 is ready to sit their GCSEs - there's a maturity factor to take in to account and as the maths papers now require a good level of literacy that would need to be taken in to account too.

I'm not a maths teacher BTW but MFL, I'm just going on my own understanding and conversations in the staffroom... I'm sure others could correct me :)

Do you mean what level is equivalent to a C (in which case it's roughly level 7) or do you mean what do you need to achieve in e.g. y9 to have a good chance of getting a C at GCSE?

So need to be at Level 7 to get a C?

Oh very dear......

My Y8 is at level 4b

In maths that is - levels 5& 6 for all other subjects

The latter noblegiraffe.

She's been tested and screened to within an inch but no actual discalculia detected. She's just very behind her peers and I'm worried that the magic C grade will be beyond her in maths (no issues with any other subjects - she's not an A* student by any means but she'll do OK). Trying to explore practical things we can do to get her over the line....

So she's getting the equivalent of Egrades now in year 8 yes? She still has three years to make two levels of progress - it's not out of the question you know. Concentrate on the basics, if these are secure a C (or whatever the equivalent grade will be is) is achievable.

A 4b in Y8 would probably move to a level 5 in Y9. Back when Y9 SATs were proper external exams, stats showed that 25% of students getting a level 5 in Y9 went on to get a C at GCSE. These would probably be ones getting a higher level 5 rather than just scraping through. So it wouldn't be beyond hope, although I would be recommending some sort of early intervention, perhaps a tutor if possible.

Unfortunately Y8 won't be sitting the old GCSEs, they'll be sitting the new ones, graded from 9 to 1, with 9 being highest. Grade 4 will be the old C equivalent (nothing to do with the NC level 4). Whether your DD will be capable of getting a level 4 is as yet completely unknown. We have no idea what this means, but the sample assessment material put out by the exam boards looks really tough, so I think the bottom end will struggle.

Can you afford a tutor? I think she definitely needs some support in addition to school, to increase her chances.

Already tutoring noble giraffe! It's the new "harder" regime that gives me the collywobbles :(

Thanks titchy-!

My dds trajectory through school in maths was this:
Y2 2c
Y3 2a
Y4 3b
Y5 3a
Y6 4c
Y7 4c
Y8 4b
Y9 5b
Y11 gcse D igcse C
I double entered her in Y11 (I know, helicopter parent gaming the system but it was well worth the £100 it cost)
I am a specialist maths teacher (ex LA primary consultant) but my dd was adopted from the care system aged 8 suffers from trauma and has an EBD statement. She had no intervention, even from me because of the battles but I put my hard hat on and entered the battle in the January of Y11. I insisted on half an hour of past papers a day worked through together (in reality this happened about 4 times a week). The first 2 months were reinforcing G and F grade concepts and as her confidence grew we moved on to E and D grade concepts. I felt she never really made much of an inroad into C grade concepts but on the day she pulled it out of the bag (well with the igcse anyway). I even recalled her papers to see how she had done it, and she really had answered lots of the C grade questions very well:) - this was on the foundation tier. So it can be done....!

Olivevoir that is an inspiration thank you!