Year 7 results

[CLL65]

My DS received the following end of year grades, 5M in science, 6M in maths and 5M in English. His target grades for Science and English were 5H respectively. I'm cross with him for failing to attain his expected targets. Am I being unreasonable? It's just that he isn't working to capacity and his teachers know that he's scores do not reflect his ability. Any advice anyone?

Um - the bit you have quoted is talking about As at A level

Obviously no-one is guaranteed an A at GCSE, but children who are getting 5s in y7 would certainly be expected to be aiming for As

Yes. In the real world, that is what one would expect.

Children are expected to progess at least two levels over KS3.

Which would put them at around level 7. If they started at level 5.

Most children would be looking at achieving grade A's in GCSE from this starting point for KS4.

There are no direct correlations between NC levels and GCSE because they are different beasts. But a rough estimate would put level 7 at a GCSE grade of C. so ending KS4 on level7, with an expecte uplift of a grade a year would result in As.

Parents would do well to remember that you can't get higher than a GCSE A*. So being expecting level 6/7 at the end of Y7 is pointless. There is a ceiling.

my mistake, ending KS3 would result in an expected uplift of..

My daughter did the TSA....she didn't work for it as she knew she had her place at school.

I think the OP should also look at it more holistically. Is your child having a good time? Does he have good friends that can support him in times of trouble? Is he of good character? Does he love you?

Gaining good results is great but they also need to have friends and feel happy.

I say that as in my naviety. I too was a tiger parent. I wanted my daughter to compete on my behalf. To be the best in everything. It nearly killed our relationship. Then when my daughter failed. I wss angry embrassed and unhinged.

It took a very clever teacher to talk to us and made me understand that schooling is not about results only. Its about who your child will be in the future.

Getting a 1st class hons degree from Oxford means nothing if they don't love you at the end of it....

I would like to thank all for their responses, both the understanding responses as well as the offences ones. Like most parents, I want my son to be happy, successful and for us to have a loving relationship, which for the most part we do. My DS is able and got into a selective school and thus the expectations are high but the targets set by the school for him are achievable and my DS has said that he didn't put in as much effort as he could have.

I have no problem with a child who is genuinely struggling and requires support and my DS knows this but I am anxious and desperate for him to achieve his full potential as I've seen too many people who regret not having seized opportunities when they were at school. My DH is a case in point and I will do everything within my power to ensure that my DS doesn't make the same mistake.

Anxious and desperate are very negative words to use about your ambitions for your child.

Please think about what you are projecting onto him about success and failure, rewards and punishments.

Try and relax. He is at a selective school. They will push in school, appropriately. You can support at home, but appropriately.

He is already on target to do well. He might well do even better as he matures and settles in to school.

But don't delude yourself that your DS does not pick up on your anxiety and desperation. He does. Both unconsciously and consciously.

This will not help him in the long term.

I haven't read any offensive comments on this thread

I personally believe in putting the responsibility for learning on my child. Is it up to them. I monitor and make suggestions. I remind them that good grades give you more choices. More choices can make you happy and a success in life. But ultimately it is up to them. My ds is very clever. He also puts in very little effort. However, his grades are good. I do know though that sooner or later he will have to put some effort in so that he can maintain his progress. He is going to find it tough. I will support him and encourage him to do his best. Meanwhile he has a very charismatic character and is funny and gets on well with people. TBH I think this is what will ultimately stand him in good stead for his adult life - more so than A* grades.

Good luck with your son.

Madame DeFarge:

Nothing you are saying in terms of how children learn (different rates/ experiencing plateaus/ suddenly leeping ahead - bit of a roller coaster - is unfair).

HOWEVER my dear I do object to your portraying using a huge amount of national data of years of KS2 SATs results as 'a magic formula'. (by the way my link clearly didn't work previously - so try this: ofqual.gov.uk/documents/analysis-use-key-stage-2-data-gcse-predictions/

I am not saying IT ISN'T POSSIBLE for someone attaining NC L5 end of Y7 to go on to achieve A/ A* at GCSE - I'm saying that the trend in thousands of students data is that it's highly unlikely. Of course there are exceptions.

Now we don't have the raw data (there isn't national testing until end KS4 - end of KS3 testing was abandoned in 2008) - so all that can be done is to track performance end KS2 to attainment at GCSE end KS4.

I accept that comparison of NC LEVELS 3-5 to GCSE letter grades is difficult - but if you look at the table 2.1 (on page 11 - look at top right corner) in the link above will see the percentage of pupils (all English pupils) who achieve A/ A at GCSE after attaining NC L5 at end KS2 - it's ~54%. If you attained a high 4A at end KS2 - you only have roughly a 25% chance of attaining A/ A on present trends.

So again Madame DeFarge NC L5 end of Y7 DOES NOT GURANTEE in any way A/ A* at GCSE and it would be unwise for teachers to be indicating this to parents.

Whilst studiously avoiding any conversation about the OP's decision on punishing her child for what she deems a poor result, I do feel that the OP is not entirely wrong to be disappointed at slow progress in Year 7.

I personally think that some have posted helpfullly that there can be any number of reasons why someone may not be doing well in a new environment: bullying/ slow to settle in/ not making many friends in the new school/ not enjoying classes/ etc...

nonetheless - if OPs son was say a high level 5 end of KS2 and there was a long chat about how they narrowly missed a level 6 last year - and now a year on there's no improvement - that would be upsetting to a parent.

One thing that does occur CLL65 - is if there isn't a current 'issue' for poor performance at the new school - then I think you might want to reflect on how much 'hot housing' was going on at the old primary in the run up to SATs.

Certainly it is clear many teachers in secondadry are not content with the KS2 SATs levels awarded to pupils they receive. This may in fact be a case of preparing a child well for a test, but not in such a way (that old fashioned, slow and cumulative build up of knowledge/ skills) that they could retain that information/ consistently work at that level subsequently.

HTH

What are the Ms and Hs in the OP?

Sigh. Again, PastSellbyDate, do read my posts.

None of which mention the word guarantee.

Do read the posts, there's a love.

What I would say is that a child whose minimum grades at the end of Y7 were a level 5, and we have been told that most of the grades were Level 6, would not be unreasonable to assume an end result of As at GCSE.

Which is the context of this thread, is a good sign for the OP, who should stop being so obsessed and neurotic.

And please stop posting data as if you are the only person on earth able to read and interpret it. It is tiresome.

Your inability to read and process my actual posts is tiresome.

In fact this whole thread is tiresome. Apart from all the nice kind realistic posters, including I must say Kenlee, who has very bravely admitted the poor outcomes for her dd and herself by overpushing.

HTH.

So for the Nth and I hope last time

I NEVER SAID GUARANTEE.

Get a fucking grip.

And again, you are positing A level GSCE results as the same as GCSE year 11 results. Which IS NOT WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.

I don't know where you kids go to school, but all schools I am involved in do indeed track and monitor and publish their end of KS3 results. Just not as SAT exams.

And you can keep your passive aggressive HTH because no, it helps nobody at all.

And do forgive the rest of us plebs for not being party to the long chat last year about the OPs disappointments or not at their end of KS2 results.