Tell me about the Year 9 Levels

[knittingwithnettles]

Ds2 has an EHCP, he has just joined secondary after a long gap out of school. He has been graded on end of term assessments (which were not scribed - but we hope to have this arranged by next term) as approximately 3 to 3 plus. I've been told they are NOT National Curriculum Levels, but relate to new GSCE grades.

Does that mean he is a D now, and obviously will hope to do better over next few years, and heading for a C or B...or do they mean he is predicted a D...in two years time

when he was last in school (end of Year 7) he was 5A or 5B National Curriculum level in end of year assessments.

Not teacher has yet been able to enlighten me, and I missed the Year 9 Option talk in Feb, so just working off the recorded info on their website.

The school must know whether his levels are current or predicted - insist they tell you. My DD's school actually give us their current assessed level and a predicted grade.

If the grade is for end of term assessments, then I would assume that is his grade now rather than predicted.
It's all a bit of guesswork really isn't it though?
Dd's year 8 report just came in.
To me, it looks like they have projected her sat level forward then turned it into a 'new gcse' level and then just plonked her somewhere on that trajectory so it looks like it's achievable by the time she gets to yr 11
Until they know what a new gcse grade 5,6,7,8 (or the magic 9) looks like then how can they know she's where she really is?
I don't believe it . But then I wonder what they can really do at the moment ?
I just feel frustrated for them to be honest.
Is your ds happy to be back in school? And settling in ok? Good luck to him

My daughter's school will be introducing a new system next year. It will be based on predicted grades. So for instance, if at the end of Year 8 they feel that she is working at a standard which if continued will result in her gaining Level 7-9 at GCSE she will be given a Level 7. It doesn't mean she is currently working at GCSE Level 7. Obviously there is an element of guesswork here, especially as the new GCSEs haven't come in yet.
A school shouldn't really ever be able to predict a Grade 9 however since Grade 9 is going to be awarded to (I believe) the top 2.5 % of those taking the exam.So there's no way of knowing whether a particular paper is going to get a 9 or not as it will partly depend on the other people taking the exam. Although over time a school should be able to say "Students working at this standard usually obtain a Grade 9"

I think it is definitely a grade based on the marks they have achieved in a particular exam, so it cannot be a predicted grade. I certainly haven't heard of any of the Year 9's getting an 8 or 9 when quite a lot will get A's presumably at the end of Year 11 GSCEs.

Ds2's twin, Dd's school is still using the old grading system, presumably because they are testing them using the old exam papers...So she got a Grade C in Foundation Maths paper in Year 9, and is hoping for a A in Year 11 (at least her teachers are hoping she will be one of those who get an A) But they are still using National Curriculum Levels in all their reports so it would have been incredibly confusing to start putting numerical levels based on new gsces on the reports.

Until you ask the school to clarify if it's current or projected, no-one knows.

But my DS has just done his end of year 9 tests, and for Maths and sciences, they have used real GCSE questions from past papers. They've been doing GCSE work this year, so have been working to the GCSE level. So, the test results in sciences are real GCSE grades, as if they'd taken proper GCSE exams, so actual, rather than projected. In years 10 and 11, they'll be doing other sections and won't be coming back to the sections already done and tested (except for revision).

Obviously, different schools and different subjects will work differently. In other subjects, such as English, humanities, etc., they will not only be covering new subjects in the next couple of years, but they'll also be working on other skills, such as essay writing, comprehension, etc., so it's not as simple as it is for Maths and sciences.

But, at the end of the day, you need to insist that the school tell you exactly what the marks mean.