Yr 7 DD's sets - should I query?

[jennieflower]

My DD did pretty well through primary school, she had a slight blip with her maths teacher who predicted her a 4 in her sats, but she actually achieved a 5b, which apparently was a big surprise to the teacher.

I've checked her high school timetable and she's been put into set 3 (of 3) for maths, I suspect her set placing was determined by her predicted sats grade and not the actual grade. Does this sound right? Should I question the schools decision to put her in set 3 or wait for them to evaluate her themselves? I don't want to come across as overly pushy but also don't want her to waste time doing work that doesn't stretch her in the right way.

There are a number of ways to set y7 children.

start with mixed ability and then sort them later
start using primary predictions
start using SAT scores

The one important one though, that not all schools do, is to put some children with a particular teacher, regardless of their score because some teachers are particularly good with some students.

So sometimes a child is in a set with a teacher who is good at boosting confidence or helping a child believe in themselves.

This is why sometimes a child who appears to be at the bottom of set 2 can be transferred to set 1. It sounds counter intuitive but if the child and the teacher of set 1 are a better fit then it can be the right thing.

circular

are you sure they are not parallel sets within the top band?

icymaiden definitely not parallel sets - set 3 of 4 in top band.

Based on school testing only, which DD did not appear to do very well in. Down as working at 5c, not sure what went wrong.
BUT latest test, DD scored 85%, and apart from one other getting 68%, rest of set got less than 50%.
Hoping she will at least get moved up to set 2.