No progress in year 7 - is this normal?

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Dd is just completing her first year of secondary school. We have just received her fourth school report which shows that she has made no progress in four key areas - maths, science, art and English - in the year she has been there. In all others areas her progress has been just one level. Her school reports are 1 for effort across the board.

Dd is a bright girl but does sometimes lack motivation. She has enjoyed her year at school but has a history of coasting if not pushed. I'm feeling a bit guilty that I haven't jumped on this before but wanted her to have a positive first year settling in and didn't want to be a pushy parent.

Parents evening is approaching and I intend to bring this up and ask what we can do to help move Dd on. Anyone have any useful advice, please?

On the scale the school use is one for effort at the top or the bottom?

No recorded progress in Y7 is fairly normal, they are pushed so hard at SATs there is a bit of a bounce back once that pressure is off. There is also a lot ot get used to with a new school and all that brings.

Just mention at parents evening that she has made no progress and ask what you can be doing to help. As long as you don't go in all cross with the school about it I am sure they will suggest things to help and/or reassure you.

One is the most effort. I will take into account what you've said and have a gentle word. Thanks.

don't worry too much. In secondary school there is a lot more jumping between topics, so every new topic is starting at the bottom again, if you see what I mean. For example, she might have worked well and learnt a lot in "electricity", then worked well and learnt a lot in "cells". then moved on to another topic, but good learning in all those topics is too wide a base to represent one level of progress. progress grades are a very crude tool at the best of times, and just a rough guide.

Thanks, Charis.

SATs results often misleadingly high as they've been taught to the test.

I'd be impressed with any teacher these days who has the balls to put down the correct level for a pupil. At my last school the pressure to show continuous progression meant that many teachers just lied on reports because that's what everyone wanted to see. It did the kids a massive disservice and caused no end of problems for the teachers who had those kids the following year. Madness.

wHAT ARE HER LEVELS?

Her levels are:
English 6c
Maths 5a
Science 7c
History 4a
Art 5c (4a)
French 4a (4a)
Geography 5b (5c)
PE 5c
RE 4a
Music 4b (4a)
Tech 5a (5b)
Drama 5c (4a)
ICT 6c (5a)

I'm not overly worried about the actual levels just that she makes some progress really. It was the maths, science, history and english that concerned me (not art -sorry!) .

Would be grateful for any comments or observations really.

Grades in brackets are her levels at the beginning of the year by the way.

Are you sure the levels at the start of the year weren't target levels? I'm not sure how she'd have a level at all for history otherwise, as it's not normally assessed as such at primary school.

My DS's school gave them all target levels at the start of Y7. Would explain why her end of year ones weren't any higher. But I agree with what a Pp said - the teachers at my DS's school have clearly made them up some of the time trying to show progress even when it meant giving him a level that he clearly wasn't at, so I wouldn't read too much into them.

The initial levels were given in January after one term's work- she only had levels for maths and English on joining year 7. As you said, I shan't worry too much other than to mention this at parents evening and ask if they feel we can do anything to support her learning. Thanks for your replies.

DS's levels have stayed the same in yr 7 too. It's clear from his books that he has progressed a lot, particularly in ability to analyse and argue. So I think primary inflated his levels perhaps. But I will ask at parents evening too, as he has good effort grades from secondary too.

It's not really a year then is it? Initial levels in January, and current levels presumably produced not much after Easter? So scarcely more than a term. Given they shift topic regularly in most subjects you wouldn't really expect them to start getting higher grades each term. So I wouldn't worry. Those are good grades for Y7.

welll, those grades just looks like she is achieving with minimal effort. (if 1 is the highest effort?)
If she is achieving mostly a/b for attainment ... what more do you expect her to achieve, really?

Sorry, I don't see the problem, it's only year 7 and she is getting good grades?

7c is very high for science given that she has only just completing one year and has not been taught everything.

It looks to me as though they have reported that she is getting 7c in each unit she does, as another poster has suggested. If this is the case then she is doing very well indeed and means she is making excellent progress each time she does a unit of work.

Keep in mind that levels in science only go up to 7a.

Als, it's worth keeping in mind that she is being taught the new science KS3 curriculum that came in from last September, and levels were scrapped for this. Schools have a year's grace to use levels to report to parents but then they really have to find a new way of reporting. Old levels do not necessarily fit with new curriculum.

Have just come back from parents evening. Clearly nothing to be concerned about - quite the opposite in fact. She's doing really well - teachers seemed to really know her character and state that she's really engaged with all the work. It all goes to show how confusing these levels are for parents with no education background who are in the system for the first time.
Whilst I wasn't worried about the actual levels - just wanted to make sure we weren't missing anything for subjects which she, on paper, didn't appear to be moving up a grade in. Science was exactly as someone up thread suggested, that she got a 7c in each topic she studied and high marks in the tests which, for a child genetically related to me, is amazing!
I was really impressed with the teachers too - how different school is to when I attended. Dd clearly has a lot of respect for the people teaching her and as a parent I'm really grateful that people are still going in to teaching in spite of all the extras they now have to manage on top of the classroom learning.