Year 7 Levels and Targets , not quite on top of it

[2Girls2Souls]

Hi All ,

Forgive me if there is already a thread about it but I didn't find one .
What are expected levels in Year 7 and what are expected targets by year 9 ?
I know every child has different abilities but what is an average and what is highest possible ?
I see from my dd that she is able but slightly relaxed about it all and has no clue about all the targets and levels .
Many Thanks

There aren't any levels any more and schools have been told to make up their own stuff. Thus there are no national expected levels or targets for KS3.

Blame the government.

nobles comments notwithstanding. I know DDs school is still using level indicators for the moment as it is something parents and the teachers understand.

A child going up on 4s would be expected to be on 6s by the end of year 9.
Under the old system KS2 level 4 would be 'targetted' a C at GCSE.
An child on L5s -> 7s -> B, and level6s at KS2 should go on for A/A*
(I don't know about highest levels as not relevant for my DDs)

Expected levels in y7 aren't going to be too much different from your y6 ones, maybe up 2 sub levels. English. Maths and Science levels may be higher than others as they have been more formally taught at primary. MFLs will start lower (e.g. level 2) but will rise more rapidly catching up with the others by end y9 hopefully.

(Also always some argument about whether a year 6 level 5 is the same as a secondary level 5, just to add to the confusion. Initial levels may therefore dip in y7 from end y6).

Schools are using different systems. Some are still using grades similar to the SATS, some are still using grades similar to old GCSEs some have moved onto grades which are intended to equate to the new GCSE grade that the child would get if their exam or test was a new GCSE. However given that no new GCSEs have been taken and there is still ambiguity over curriculum and boundaries these may not be entirely accurate. probably better to ask you child how they are doing compared to the class they are in or other children who you know are likely to do well, middling, badly.

Its really tricky as when dc comes back and says 'I got X grade in my test' you are not sure whether you should be saying 'that's really good' or 'what do we need to improve etc etc.'

Thank you ! when you added C,B,A... it kind of gave me clearer vision .
DD's Secondary school still use levels and sub levels but I wasn't sure what is expected at their age and was more confused bacuse dd finished Primary with all 5's and 6's but started Secondary with some levels below that she had at y6 .

Eyebrowse I had the same feeling when dd would come home with some results after the tests and I would be like " Are you happy with it ? " not knowing whether it was great or not that great :)

Thanks all

If you get termly reports, don't expect everything to go up every term.
You are looking for an upward trend but things may stay stable for a few terms and suddenly jump.

Do you get 'attitude' or 'effort' levels? They are more important at this stage in my opinion. If they are OK then attainment should follow (learning difficulties aside).

TeenAndTween yes , we do get termly reports and of course the "main" subjects levels won't change much and often but the language has changed significantly since she has started , my main concerns were I could not figure out the "future" of those levels 5,6,7 but you put it more clearly for me referring to them as possible B,A ...
They do get effort and attitude and we work on those mainly at the moment , where she has everywhere highest for the attitude some efforts could be improved :) but that's her showing me what she has interest in and in what none hahaha
Thank you once again

I wish all schools should have something like this on their website.

I have got used to the way my DD's school grades but only after lots of questions, searching and reading. When I asked why DD's school don't put that sort of information on their website the response was basically "Most parents just aren't as interested as you Mrs Barmy" (I suspect this was code for "Oh good grief woman, not you again." ;)

Official advice used to be to expect between 2-3 sublevels progress per year.

But the numbers are all nonsense anyway. Talk to the teachers for feedback on what is achieved well and targets for improvement.

My Y7 DD achieved a range of 4c - 7a in her Autumn Term report, and ironically it was her 4c subject that was one of her 'best' grades because all but 3 students had achieved lower than this.

Children who work hard, study regularly and who are taught how to do these things properly will achieve well.

Ds school are using numbers. So 20-26 for example will equate with old level 4 and equate to GCSE grade 3. (No idea of exact match but to show how it's worked out!)
There are boundaries like 20/21 will be a 4c, 22/23 and 4b etc.

I got DS end of term report with target of 29. This allowed for difference in year 6/7 level descriptors and expectations theoretically because his average point score from ks2 was 30.
It then showed his targets for end of each term between now and GCSEs.

The system was very clearly explained and made sense. His end target across the board is 50 points, new grade 6, old grade B. Ds got level 4,5,6 in sats.

however DS also had 15.5 hours support in juniors which secondary suddenly decided to stop 3 weeks after he started. He was much below his target at end of first term. I asked for a meeting re support being reinstated and school removed data as a response. They now refuse to discuss academic acheivement and want to discuss progress and individual cognitive scores.

However DS current acheivement against target with expected rate of progress show he's likely to get 7/8 in ,at his and computer studies. and not pass anything else

,at his = maths!