School reports making it look like an '8' is failing!

[hugoagogo]

At dd's school a child that has consistently achieved high grades gets a report that is colour coded to show they are achieving 'less than expected progress'

[Ttbb]

But if they normally have high scores and then get an 8 that is less than expected surely?

[hugoagogo]

Yes strictly speaking it is less than expected, but an 8 is supposed to be equivalent to an A* the guidance is that no one should be targeted 9s.
It just seems to be a disincentive to those children who consistently get good marks.

[Theromanempire]

Is your DD at my DS's school he is in year 7 and just got his first half-term report and was horrified! It was all coloured red (with a couple of exceptions) which was labelled 'well below expected levels..cause for concern'. From a child that scored extremely high in his SATS and every single report/parents evening throughout primary school had him as an extremely capable high achiever, it certainly came as a bit of a shock no covering letter/explanation either.

DS was upset because he says he has been trying his hardest and not sure what else he can do!

I did manage to work out why it was showing as it did (and his form tutor confirmed my thoughts at parents evening) which is basically because his target is an 8 for every subject, anything less will show up as red and there is no grading in the red so an assessment of 7 would show the same cause for concern as a 1

It is a really crap system and I guess you need to focus on what they are assessed at and ignore the colours/categories. DS was mainly 6's and 7's so I am happy but there really has to be a better way of showing it! His teacher agreed with me and said she really wished they didn't colour code it either!

[hugoagogo]

Yep. Surely the idea behind the colour coding is that someone can see at a glance how well a child is doing! It absolutely fails to do this.

[isittimetogotobed]

We have the same colour coding system and I agree it's awful.
Making it look like achieving a good grade is 'a poor' outcome doesn't no ones self esteem any good. I can't understand why schools use it at all

[noblegiraffe]

the guidance is that no one should be targeted 9s.

What guidance? Looking at FFT data I’ve got loads of kids targeted 9s.

OP it’s a crap system, if those target grades are computer generated, they are not supposed to be shared with students as they are average target, only accurate over a large group of pupils.

It’s hard to get kids to believe if their report is full of reds and they’re hardworking and diligent, that it’s the system that isn’t good enough and not them.

[spababe]

My DS once got a red but the teacher admitted he got the best mark in the class and the red was based on that mark. Our reports come by email so I print them out in black and white.

[SnowyBerries]

It is the same report system at dd's school. If a grade is one below target it is coloured red and it can look at a bit alarming if 6 -8 subjects are coloured red. I usually work out the average grade and it's usually less than 1 below her target grade which seems ok considering she'll drop some subjects before GCSE.
The thing is if a child has a low target there's no more reason for them to be marked red for achieving 1 or 2 below that than there is someone with a high target. It's about achieving potential whatever that is. Someone could get 7 without trying who should aim for higher. If schools overlooked it as the grade was good they wouldn't really be aiming to stretch all abilities.
I've tended to take the attitude that if the school isn't bugging me about my child underachieving then it's probably fine. I don't think they'd ever go by the colour only. They'd look at whether the grades are well below or acceptable.
Re FFT. Is this partly based on the house and area a child lives in? This irritates me if so as someone in a small house/cheap area could be very engaged in their child's education and someone in a large house/posh area could be unengaged so i don't think targets should be based on it. I may have misunderstood it though

[Rosieposy4]

Would love a link to the guidance that no one should be predicted 9s.
I have several in both y10 and 11 whose target is a 9.
One of my tutees last year got 3 9s, another 3 got 2 9s, clearly not beyond reach of the brightest, and why should they not have aspirational targets like the other kids.

[hugoagogo]

I'm not really so much against the targets, but 9 is supposed to be an exceptional grade above the old A* we were lectured in an assembly that no one would be targeted above an 8.
Now a child can be targeted 9 in all subjects and the colour coding of their report will suggest that they are underachieving because 2 months into the school year they have only managed to attain the level of an A*/8!!
Madness.

[LaughingElliot]

That is a completely terrible reporting system and I would be raising merry hell and referring them to the mountains of research that show how damaging this crap is.

[SnowyBerries]

Could you ask them to downgrade the target to an 8?