Any maths teachers around?

[Supervet]

Dd is at end of year seven and has Sen, she is struggling at moment and is having self esteem sessions. She came home hysterical and heartbroken because she had only scored 34/100 on a maths test. I've just looked at the paper and it says Foundation Stage gcse paper 1. I'm not mistaken that that is a paper for 16 year olds am I? Also what kind of level would 34/100 give her? I'm trying to damage limitate!

That sounds very bizarre. 34/100 on a foundation GCSE paper is about a C grade or a level 7.

If she got that, that would be excellent for Y7.

It says
Edexel GSCE
Mathematics A - 1387
Paper 1 non calculator
Foundation Tier
It's an old paper from 2004

I'm not going mad am I ?

34/100 is a C on HIGHER tier. Not Foundation. On Foundation it's a G or possibly just an F. C is 74/100.

Oh sorry yes I was thinking of higher tier. An F would be a level 4.

Why on earth are they giving Y7 old gcse papers? Old SATs papers would be more appropriate. Y7 won't even be taking GCSEs like that one

Which is fine for an Sen child and pretty much what I was expecting level wise. She thinks she's got 34/100 on a year 7 paper!

can I ask while I'm here what a grade F in year 7 is likely to equate to in year 11?

It is quite ridiculous to give a y7 a GCSE Foundation paper. They won't have covered quite a lot of the material. Also since exams have been getting easier, a 2004 paper would be much harder than a current one.

I would ask the school for an explanation. Their end of year exam should be set to cover the work they have been taught in y7. A lazy teacher perhaps?

Also since exams have been getting easier, a 2004 paper would be much harder than a current one.

No it wouldn't. It would be different because in 2004 maths GCSE had coursework, so there wouldn't be the longer functional QWC questions on it that they have at the moment. I would say that more recent papers would be harder.

A level 4 at the end of Y7 would probably be a D possibly C at GCSE, in old money, but Y7 will be sitting the new GCSE which no one can predict at the moment. It's just silly to give Y7 a gcse paper so I wouldn't really be convinced about any levels produced from it. It would be more useful to look at KS2 SATs results.

I agree with asking the school what the point of the exercise was as your DD has been so upset by it. At the very least the teacher should have reassured the class that such a low score was fine for the stage that they are at. At my school a level 4 student would have sat a level 3-5 SATs paper as their end of year exam which is a much more appropriate level.