School targets destroying dd

[Emochild]

In their wisdom, dd's school have targeted her with making 4 sub levels of progress this year

When she was given her targets at the beginning of the year she was told they were aspirational and just to do her best

In her mind she's been set up to fail -she's got no hope of achieving these targets in some of the subjects, particularly geography and history as the targets were set based on a general knowledge quiz in that subject at the start of the year which has no bearing on the curriculum

She now has stress levels through the roof and every day is a battle, her sleeping and eating are all over the place -she's always been an anxious child but I've never seen her this bad

I've obviously spoken to school and the doctors and they set that setting lower targets sets a ceiling for expectation and they stop trying once they have achieved the target

Why can't they see that for some children, setting too high targets has a horrible effect

Dd starts her GCSEs in September and at the moment i'm worried

Government software wouldn't have set a level 9 target. This is something else.

Possibly, but govt approved software is more than capable of setting complete gibberish.

No- the software might set inappropriate targets- often in my experience too low rather than too high- but it won't set gibberish.

ours sets gibberish

emochild have a look at the most recent ofsted for Ely college, Cambridgeshire. They were setting targets that kids couldn't ever meet, and it is one reason that they are now in special measures.

You could probably use that report to bolster your position that they are acting inappropriately. And if they won't listen, you could always complain to ofsted.

Wow, that is one damning report.

Emochild If you can persuade the school to alter your daughter's targets, will this solve your daughter's anxiety levels? I'm just wondering if your daughter needs a deeper level of help now to reduce her stress (i.e. whether changing her targets will be sufficient).

I have experienced similar issues - overly high targets for all subjects based mainly on SATS results for English and Maths. It's a ridiculous system when individuals and the different ways in which they are motivated are not factored in. If a child is predicted overly high targets, it can destroy any sense of ownership in making progress, because it's expected, and slower rates of progress than the target are sometimes seen as failure rather than a positive step in the right direction.

Can you talk to the school again, and get them to reduce the targets to ones which your daughter is comfortable with? It's very wrong that your daughter's health and wellbeing is being undermined by the school's crude system.

I know leccy. There's a new head been brought in with experience of turning round bad secondaries, so maybe things will improve. We've been hoping for that for over a decade though...

I know of local parents who have removed their children from grammar school because ridiculous targets were beginning to affect their mental health. Many schools are simply exam factories, unfortunately.