Don't really know what to make of year 7 short report

[Matlow]

Does anyone have a moment to glance over my sons short report and tell me what they think? It doesn't look great to me but perhaps I am not interpreting it properly. Any honest opinions would be great. Thanks.

It's worth seing if you can find out what the range of scores are though. Because you could find that in some subjects they don't expect to be scoring very highly at this point.

Dd1's school does a sort of marks system and tells you what the range of the year (large comprehensive-13 form entry, so pretty big) is: So you might get her mark 21 in a range of 9-22, and then 21 looks fairly impressive. But when you see 32 in a range of 30-40, you can see she's struggling more.
Because it does depend on the subject as to where they expect to be at this stage, plus a bit on the teacher/marks given at the school.

It is worth seeing if there's an issue with the science. Whether it is that that teacher only gives C and below, or whether he's just not interested, or that there happens to be someone/a group in that lesson for whom he's reacting to.

See now I know what I think about that report and none of it is based on the levels columns. He needs to sort himself out for the c and d effort grades and focus on his organisation. All the rest will follow once he sorts those out.

Were you given a matrix to explain what results in a good effort grade? If you were, go through it with him. If you weren't, tell him to stop staring out of the window, put his hand up more, remember all his books and get his homework in on time. "scatty" is no excuse. He has to get his act together!

Absolutely right Georgethesecond. I have spoken to his science teacher who says that it's mainly his class work ( homework is fine) he writes too slowly and holds everyone up or simply misses chunks out so his book is incomplete. He perpetually forgets to write the date at top of page which drives teacher mad and is generally too casual. This sounds about right and probably accounts for the C's as well.Anyway he has promised to try harder and I have promised to stop going on about it. Thanks for all wise words.

OP - suggest that you tell your DS that in 3 weeks time or something (2 weeks after Easter hols?) you will be checking back with science teacher that there has been an improvement, and then do so.

What a mindlessly complicated report. I couldn't be bothered with it tbh, I'd just put it aside or in the bin and wait until the parents' evening and then ask them to explain how DC was doing in plain language.

That said, broadly it looks ok. Science possibly iffy.

Thanks Callooh. I have given him clear targets for the C's and D but hadn't thought about his other effort grades slipping simultaneously. As parents we are not good disciplinarians and have been lucky enough to get away with it till now. We have a younger child with SEN and tend to concentrate on her needs. I think it's only fair that we now step up and be very clear about our expectations and support him to achieve them.

Don't forget the shading - I would expect green to mean no worries and amber that maybe he is in danger of slipping behind his target.

I would also be concerned about the level in maths. Low effort and teacher predicting no progress in the next 4 months would concern me. Maths needs strong foundations from year 7 and 8, so any gaps now could prove costly later. Particularly with the new gcse in maths. Always difficult to interpret the truth from a piece of paper though.

I am going to speak to his maths teacher as I am concerned that my DS seems to have stalled. We have agreed a point system based on effort levels alone. 4 points for A and 3 for B etc with the expectation that he ends up with more effort points and no D's in his next report. All comments have been really helpful. Thanks.

OP, I've just looked at my daughter's report and it also shows no progress expected in a few subjects, for example where she's met or surpassed her target, they haven't adjusted it. In another subject she seems to have stalled too, but her workbooks haven't been marked for quite a while so that makes sense. She assures me that the teacher asks questions in class all the time though. I have been assured by a secondary teacher friend that this normal as it's very difficult to assess kids all the time, so they make levels up a lot of the time.

As others have said, the effort and organisation are more important than the levels, which are largely meaningless. (Levels for PSHE! Oh really?!)

It doesn't matter what method is used to asses current attainment (e.g. the old A+, C- etc vs Levels). What's actually important is effort and behaviour.