Does anyone understand Yr 9 levels?

[VelvetHeart]

DD has just finished her end of year exams in Yr 9. Maths and chemistry are definitely her weakest subjects and she does struggle with them, and isn't very confident.

For both subjects she has scored a 7c in her exams. But I don't really understand if this is okay for her or not.

DS is in year 10 and with the new 9-1 GCSE specification I no longer have a clue what 7c means!

Sorry, no help at all, am I?

If it's new GCSE grades it's amazing, if it's old National Curriculum levels it's pretty good and if it's a new internal grade of the school's devising, then who knows.

Sounds like my younger DSs school report. A string of numbers and letters with no key to deciphering them .

Not trying to sound sniffy but why don't you ask the teachers? They put the grade there so ultimately know what it means.

Our school is an academy and has defiantly kept the old level system until the end of this year. So our son's year 9 report is a mix of old levels and new GCSE levels. From next year it will all be the new GCSE grades.

BBC schools says that at the end of KS3 (year 9) "most pupils are level 5/6) although they can achieve between 3-7 which is the old levels system. This follows on from year 6 SATs and the level 4 average grade.

This is not a stealth boast but Ds1 has achieved an 8B for maths but he was told is that he is the top achieving student for maths in year 9. (DH's DNA definitely not mine.)

I was shocked as I thought the top grade would be a 7A. Correct me if I am wrong noble as I bow to your knowledge in this matter rather than my parenting knowledge (which is slim to none.)

Our reports come with an explanation of the grading system, always have. I would contact the school and ask for guidance. You cannot be the only parent wondering this in your school.

In the old SATS at KS3 the Maths exam went up to 8 and English and Science 7 (before that there was an extension paper where you could get 8 or Exceptional Performance in English and I assume Science and Maths were similar). Teachers could award 8 or EP in our teacher assessments which had to be reported centrally. However, now, who knows? Different schools are doing different things.