secondary school teachers please help yr7 3c in geography?

[alittletreat]

Is this normal? My dd s just started year 7 and has done all sorts of tests in the last couple of weeks. Today she was told that her geography score is 3c. This is unexpected as her yr6 report stated that her geography and history are above national average so now I am very confused.

Her literacy was level 5 that's why I am a bit disappointed.

That would surprise me too, to be honest. DD1 is in year 8 and her geography and history levels were very much in line with english last year. The only things that had much lower levels than she'd been getting at primary were subjects where she was starting from scratch - chiefly MFL.

Equally, maybe the score was just for one isolated piece of work, which did involve geography skills where they were starting from scratch? DD1's school is quite obsessed with allocating a level for every single task. Don't know what they're going to do now that they have been scrapped!

Seems a bit early for them to have assessed their geography abilities in much detail. Perhaps they score them all low at the start so it is easier to show 'progress'.

I am hoping it is the case that coolas suggested a 'school level' rather than a ' nc level'. But a bit worry. At I know my dd did not join any yr 6 booster groups so the ks2 sat results are all her own effect.

Sorry about typos. It s hard to use smart phone. Effort not effect

Anyone else has similar experience?

Hi alittletreat:

I'm also brand new to Y7 with DD1 (state comprehensive in Birmingham) - but my understanding was that they only have previous KS2 SATs scores for English/ Maths/ Science and that all other subjects would use NC L3 as the starting point - with many pupils swiftly moving well beyond that. So at 3 weeks in - I'd rather expect DD1 to be 3c in French/ Food Prep/ ICT/ PE/ History/ Geography/ PSHE/ etc...

SATs are just for English and maths these days. The geography level will have been based on what her teacher has seen so far, so I wouldn't expect any higher so early into Y7. Modern foreign languages would likely be lower still.

MassaAttack:

Maybe it's just Birmingham - but Science is Teacher Assessed and the LEA does regularly randomly select primaries to sit at KS2 SATs paper in science. So some schools are passed actual KS2 SATs results and others are passed Teacher Assessed scores.

I think writing below NC L6 (so Levels 3 - 5) is teacher assessed - I don't think there is a formal paper to sit - but hopefully you or someone else will be along to correct or confirm that.

HTH

Dd decided to do Spainish for the first time she only got 1c. So don't know how is she going to cope.

They start MFLs at 1, assuming they've not been doing that language properly at primary. To put it into context, L8 is native speaker standard iirc!

Having the first meeting soon but only got five minutes. What should I ask?

Past While some schools do get selected for Science sampling, the results are never reported back; neither to the school not the secondary.

School really ought to be explaining this either through booklets/website or in a presentation. I wouldn't waste my five minute slot on a full explanation of how they level pupils (unless they don't explain elsewhere, in which case I'd be asking why).

Bigger school bigger worry.

Dd has got ridiculously high levels I suspect based on CATs tests so it hasn't been the same here. I would have preferred realistic levels, even low levels rather than dd feeling under pressure to perform.
The school don't seem to have taken into account her SEN at all which is ridiculous when she has a statement of SEN but seem to have calculated levels based on her performance in three fifty minute tests completed in her first few days in secondary.
Admittedly the tests were something she found easy but that's probably because they suited her way of thinking and working but they aren't really an indicator of how she will fare in a class of 25 with a noisy environment, lots of change and high stress levels to contend with.