Year 7 transitional maths assessment - did your school test above level 6?

[porfavour]

Most secondaries will have done some assessment on their new Year 7 cohort by now, so I'm wondering whether its common to just assess up to Level 6 (or the equivalent in new money), or whether higher level papers are generally given.

My DC got a 6c in his Year 6 SATS, and was given an initial target of 6a for the end of Year 7. In his recent assessment he did a paper that only covered Level 4-6. He got two wrong (silly mistakes, not lack of understanding) and so it was marked as a 6b. His teacher told him he would have only got a 6a if he had got 100%.

However his classmate from primary, now at another school, has been assessed at 7c, suggesting he was given a higher level paper. Should I be asking our school to assess DC at a higher level? I know that he did cover a lot of level 7 maths at his primary school, so feel he hasn't had the chance to demonstrate this yet at secondary.

(And I know levels are "scrapped", so no need to point that out, but many schools are still using them until they transition to something else).

DS is good at math & in yr7, his school still uses levels, but I have no idea on the rest.

If you ask the school to do anything then you need to have a clear picture exactly what follows, too. So if your son gets 7c then you want him to have a high target for end of yr9 and be taught to achieve that target, I guess? I guess you are prepared for him to spend extra time on homework. Or do you know that there are special opportunities only for the kids who get 6a+ and you want him to be included in that group?

DD got a level 6
she is at a selective independent secondary
she hasn't done any maths yet that is new to her
i know you said it but really don't worry about levels. there are 5 years til their GCSEs.

sorry should say she got a level 6 in the yr6 SATS
now in yr7. no new maths yet so assuming they are still working at level 6

Your DS won't have been given a full SATs paper, thus any levelling that was done on the basis of an end of term test is not at all comparable to the KS2 SATs level which came from a more thorough exam.

End of term tests shouldn't be levelled, it's nonsense, because as you have found, if they aren't tested on level 7 topics, they can't be given a level 7, yet a level 7 test might be completely unsuitable for what they've been doing (no point in testing Pythagoras (level 7) if the teacher wants to know how good they are at angles in parallel lines (level 6)).

The classmate may have been taught and been tested on Pythagoras, thus got a 7c, but may not have been taught or tested on angles in parallel lines because that comes later in the year at their school. Your DS may be doing Pythagoras later in the year. They both need to do both topics, but the kid who did Pythagoras first would go down a level in the angles in parallel lines test, not because he has got worse at maths, but because levelling individual topic tests is stupid.

There should be a proper exam covering all topics at the end of Y7 which will give a better levelling comparison in terms of progress from KS2.

BTW if your DS covered a lot of level 7 maths in primary school but only got a low 6 in the SATs, that suggests he was being taught inappropriately quickly, and going through the same topics again at secondary will benefit him.

Thanks noble - that's helpful. Actually he did Pythagoras at primary. He was in an extension group there and I think the teacher enjoyed stretching them. But it does mean he's feeling a little bored of some of the topics in Year 7 because he's covered them before. He's being given extension tasks which are keeping him busy and interested, so I'm not too worried, but I just want reassurance that the school is using best practice for able mathematicians.

"... the teacher enjoyed stretching them ..."

Especially after the Y6 SATs, which are in May after all.

My son got a 6c in maths in the summer of year 6. He was reassessed at secondary and moved up to 6b. Most others moved up one place but he did say that one boy got a level 7 so they must have tested up to a 7.

DS1 has done an assessment recently and it was only level 4-6.

He got 6A in Y6 and got another 6A a few weeks ago.

TBH I am not too worried. He says the pace of lessons is good and I think he is enjoying them so all good so far.

State comprehensive. Excellent results particularly in Maths. Year 7 first assessment only upto level 6. We also view any level 6 from primary whether 6C/6B/6A as a 6C as a baseline as the view is they have only covered a small part of the level 6 curriculum.
My top set are competent in Pythagoras (L7) but doesn't mean they are a secure level 7 across the curriculum.

Oops year 11 not 22!

My DD2 is in the top set for maths in year 7. Her result was a 3- on the new scale. No idea what that means! Teacher said it was the top result she could have got though and that she should be a 5 by the end of the year. he went on to say she would get A* equivalent at the end of year 10 and then do further maths in year 22

OP here with an update. I've been comparing DS's school's Y7 maths curriculum with the one from the school his '7c' friend went to, and verified that noblegiraffe is completely right. Across the whole year the topics in each are the same, but they're done in a different order. DC's school started with a relatively straightforward "numbers" topic, whereas the other school started with algebra. Interesting choice for the transitional term! Maybe to check they'd correctly identified the top set candidates, or maybe just so they get a "we're ahead at maths" reputation from the outset when parents are still wondering if they've made the right choices or getting last minute offers for higher choice schools.