Trying to make sense of year 7 results!

[PantsOfGold]

I am trying to work out if my Dd has had a good year grades-wise. She has finished her first year at a very high achieving state secondary school. She has had issues with concentration in the past, in particular, with maths. As a result she was put in the 5th maths group when she started this year (there are 7). She ended year 6 (SATs) with a 5C in English and a 4A in maths and science. So, her results at the end of this year are 5B for maths, English, Science. Her lowest are 4B for French and Spanish. Her two best friends seems to get mainly level 6, but I think they are quite high achieving. I am thinking she seems to have made quite good progress - especially with the maths and science. Have I got that right?

I'm in the same boat. I didn't understand what it meant at all!

ThatAnneGirl - I wish they could just give an A/B/C/D - it would be so much easier to understand!

She has made good progress in Maths and Science and ok in Maths assuming she is closer to a 5A than a 5C. Saying that, it is not uncommon that progress is not as sharp in Maths in Year 7 because many primary kids teach them to do well at SATs rather than giving them a well rounded base, so a lot of Year 6 material is revisited.

Some kids will be at level 6 at the end of Y6 and indeed are usually high achievers.

Thanks swingofthings - do you mean ok progress in English?

Is the level 6 that some kids get in year 6 the same as the one in year 7 or do they change the grading? I hope that makes sense .

The level 6 should be the same, but the grammar school I used to work in would completely disregard the levels a child came to the school with and essentially start again, so some kids even looked like they were going backwards! They weren't of course, but some school interpret the levels slightly differently so it can be difficult to tell progress properly from one school to another, in my experience. (I also much prefer grades!!)

Thanks HostaFireAndIce - it does all seem to vary a lot. I would love to know how she is doing comparatively to the other kids in the year - but it's not really a question you can ask without seeming like a pushy parent - and interestingly, it is usually only the level 6 parents who seem to speak up!

Do the new levels start next school year?

DS1's school still use levels for this year 7, and will use them again next year when they are year 8. They are changing them after that.

The old rule was they wanted at least 2 sub levels per year - so if your dd had a 4a in maths in year 6, then a reasonable target would be 5b end year 7. Next year, an expected target would be 6c.

Languages, and subjects that were not studied at the same depth in primary would have lower targets.

You can see that children with, say, 5b in maths in year 6, would be 6c now, which is where the level 6's are coming from.

And, it is not an exact science - children don't progress in straight lines. Year 7 involves a lot of settling, and different work techniques.

Secondary schools take SATs results with a big pinch of salt because they know how much the children are being taught to the test in year 6.
Your dds results sound fairly average for Y7, it is usual for languages to be lower. My top set Y7s are level 5b-4a.

Some schools will still report in old nc levels until spring 2017 around here, some have switched for English and Maths already and some will switch everything from September. Fun times ahead!

Thanks Sunny and ACopy - that helps a lot. Year 7 has been a very bumpy ride emotionally for Dd. Friendships have been hard and we are looking at a possible class change next term. The school expects a lot from the kids in terms of personal organisation and there are lots of consequences dished out. My feeling is that she has done fairly well all things considering.

I think we are ALL looking forward to the holidays.

My DD's school has chosen to keep using the old levels for now, but tweaked for the new curriculum

• schools are free to use whatever system they want
• the parents understand them (at least at the moment)

OP those levels are fine. They show progress in the key subjects, and a good first year level for the MFLs, which traditionally start much lower.

Thanks Teen - that's very reassuring. .

I think it depends on the school. My daughter has just finished year 7 and they put 7c as the average expected level. She, for instance, got a 9C in Maths and 8b for reading and 8c for writing etc. But then she had reached Level 5B in her KS2 Sats.
I don't know how the new score levels correlate to the old ones...but one teacher did tell me she was well above the expected level for maths at her age.
Hope this helps.

I thought old NC levels only went up to level 8....

And 5B KS2 sats( YR6) to 9C end of yr7.... Jump of 4 levels in a year...?

That's what I was trying to say - think all the new levels are different - not sure what 9c would be in 'old' levels??

This is what her maths report said - her baseline level at start of year 7 was 7B and she actually ended on a 9C.

Oh, sorry. Completely misunderstood.

Maybe level7 means expected level of yr7, so level9 means expected level of yr9, in that case?