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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

your Y8 top set children - what levels?

93 replies

kitnkaboodle · 29/12/2014 00:29

... in maths, English and science? ? Finally dug son's Christmas school report out of his bag. He's been coasting since starting secondary and is happy to do the minimum to get by. He did great at primary and got the academic prize when he left. Did level 6 ks2 sats etc. Current levels according to report are English 6a, Maths 7b, Science 7c. I know these are all really good, but I would have predicted him being a real high flyer and I think these are not exceptional for top sets. Please don't flame me. I can't exactly go around his peers' parents asking what they got - so trying to get a perspective on it here. He is very bookish n bright n I just want to be sure he's fulfilling his potential

OP posts:

merlehaggard · 03/01/2015 10:08

My daughter is year 8 in a decent comp. and is all top sets. Left year 6 with 6b maths and a scraped 6c in reading. I thought the level 6's to be quite pointless though at this stage as she clearly wasn't a solid level 6 in maths.

Her latest report says Maths 6A Science 6A English 6A and I know (from her because she is very competitive) that these are pretty much the top marks, although there might be some 7C's.

Takver · 03/01/2015 10:10

DD is definitely among the top 3 - 4 pupils in the top set in her school - she says this, and came home with a sheaf of 'best in year' certificates at the end of yr 7.
Her end of term report levels - mix of level 5 & level 6 (no sublevels here). So as others have said, it really depends on the ability mix in the school!

I also think it depends how they level. I know they won't in maths say 'level 7' unless they are level 7 for everything they need to know, IYSWIM, so regardless of where they're working on probability, if they've not covered algebra or whatever yet, they won't be 'counted' as lvl whatever.

I reckon the effort grades are more to the point - too many 'b's and I would be having Serious Words . . .

OccamsLadyshave · 03/01/2015 10:25

My dd is in top set for all subjects they are setted for, but there are 2 top sets as the year group is split in half iyswim.

The school is an average comp. No selection and a fairly mixed intake. 60% or thereabouts a-c.

She is second highest in maths with a level 7c, doing ok in science with 6b and not so good in English at 5b/5a.

i expect she won't make top set in English next year when they combine the two halves of the year. We're working on it.

Chandon · 03/01/2015 13:09

Wow at all these high achievers!

I wonder how many lurkers there are, who like me have more "average kids" and decide to keep quiet...

Gunznroses · 03/01/2015 13:14

Chandon

merlehaggard · 03/01/2015 13:30

And wonder how much difference it makes long term. A child might not excel in English, maths or science but excel in other areas.

TalkinPeace · 03/01/2015 14:49

Chandon
Statistically most posters avoid these threads like the plague

catslife · 03/01/2015 15:10

dds school gives out termly Grade sheets which list the child's level in each subject. However it also gives information about the school average for each subject and the expected national average for each subject.
If more schools did this, there would be less need for this type of thread and people like the OP would have more info about how their child is doing compared to the rest of their peer group.

katrina81 · 03/01/2015 16:11

Crikey my dd is top set in year 8 and her levels are no where near as high as these levels, she is mainly level 5s and one 6.

She is very bright, but she does go to just a standard comprehensive.

Philoslothy · 03/01/2015 16:20

Maths 7a
English 5a
Science 6a

Takver · 03/01/2015 16:56

katrina, that sounds much more like dd's school, I think a lot of MNers have dc at selective and/or big city schools with a large intake, so top set is likely to be higher ability on average (compared for example to dd's school, where there's only 3 sets across the year).

katrina81 · 03/01/2015 17:09

Phew Takver, I did wonder why it was so different, there is about an intake of 120 per year at my dd's secondary, there are 6 sets but the bottom two have very small numbers.

Takver · 03/01/2015 17:28

Makes a big difference - dd's school has an intake of around 80 per year, plus it's not a particularly high achieving school anyway.

MissMillament · 03/01/2015 17:34

It does make a big difference, as Takver says. I teach at a school with a 12 form intake - obvious our top set is going to be different to that in a three or four form intake school. Our y7 classes are mixed ability and have a very wide spread of levels.

18yearstooold · 03/01/2015 18:16

My dds school is a 10 form entry of 300

It is a non selective school but has a couple of 'selective by income' feeder primary schools which tend to bump up the top sets until yr 9ish

idsavol · 03/01/2015 21:03

I thought schools were supposed to have got rid of levels now?

MrsJuice · 03/01/2015 21:06

7c -ish, but they are getting rid of the levels, anyway, so it's a bit pointless.

TalkinPeace · 03/01/2015 21:20

Levels will go and another form of angst generating measurement method will replace them.

Levels of some sort are incredibly useful in the modern age when kids change schools a lot more than they did 30 years ago.

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