Question about predicted levels

[insanityscratching]

Dd has just started secondary school. She has a statement of SEN because of her autism and so receives support for her lack of organisational skills, her slow processing and her anxiety. Academically she is doing well, secure level 5s in SATs.
She did CATs the first week and has since been streamed for maths and is receiving predicted levels for yr9. She has been put in top set maths with those from her primary who she calls "the clever ones" (sat level 6 papers) and her predicted levels that she has got so far for yr9 are 8b. Is this because of CATs? They seem ridiculously high to me and I'm concerned that she will be under enormous pressure to perform when so much of her energy goes into coping with the environment.
Do schools really level children on three 50 minute tests in the first week? I can't imagine her primary sending those sorts of levels as they bear no relation to the levels sent to LA at Annual Review. Do they not have to consider the whole child? I'd say dd is bright enough but not exceptional so don't really understand where the levels are coming from tbh.

They probably are generated from the CATs but are average targets, and shouldn't be shared with students. It's a bit silly to be setting targets for end of y9 as that's so far away and levels have been scrapped anyway, so by the time your DD gets to y9 there will probably be something else going on.

Kids are expected to make 3 levels of progress from ks2 to ks4, so five years. Expecting your DD to make 3 levels of progress in 3 years is pushing it a bit!

My concern is that she will be put under pressure to perform if they are predicting high levels and she will crumble. So much of her energy goes into coping, I thought the school understood that.
Dd didn't sit level six papers because the pressure would have been too much for her. I'm the parent who had her put in second set in primary to avoid pressure. I just worry that it will be too much.
I know dd1 got great CATs scores and was given high levels that she met but dd2 is a different kettle of fish. The school told us dd1 CATs scores at parents evening so I'll see if we get dd2's then, she said they were easy so I suspect she probably did well too.