Deciphering Year 8 interim results

[GoingForTheGold]

Hi,
Dd is in year 8 and we just received the interim results so far, in relation to GCSE targets.
I am not at all familiar with these, can you tell me what does it mean, in terms of the predicted GCSE grades?
We will have GCSE selections meeting in a few days, in the meantime I'm trying to understand it so I will not be completely clueless at the meeting.
On the first picture i scribbled EM for EMERGING and GR for GROWING.

So; the second picture where it details in colour, the expected GCSE results i have the following question;

Let's say Maths: at the moment her grade is Emerging.
Year 8 result : Emerging
Year 9 : Non-GCSE course Emerging
and GCSE course 1. what does this 1 mean? Is it the GCSE score? which is berween 1 and 9?

Expected result on GCSE on year 9 is 4.
since Maths is a GCSE course i take it that at GCSE exam her predicted grade would be 4?

Another subject, Arts. Again as above she is Emerging at the moment. It's a non GCSE subject(?) So:
Year 9 Non-GCSE course Emerging
Expected result on GCSE on year 9 is 4? Which is the minimum required score to pass GCSE? Am i correct?

So how does it look to you as far as overall grading is concerned?
She is not sure what she wants to become but leaning towards science, especially biology and chemistry she absolutely loves science practicals and loves history.
Many thanks in advance.

So how does it look to you as far as overall grading is concerned?

It looks like a pile of nonsense made up by a school that knows it needs to report something to students and has cobbled something together with no evidence or data behind it.

Possibly not what you want to hear but reporting is all over the place in secondary schools at the moment.

Oh. I'm not in any better position in finding out, then. I haven't studied in the UK and need to understand it pretty quickly. Thanks for the reply anyway noblegiraffe.

How do i find out the data or evidence? That's another question.

It looks like if they say she's emerging they'd expect her to pass GCSE, but as the new GCSEs haven't been sat by anyone yet, except in English and maths, what they would expect her to get at the end of Y11 is just guesswork.

If you've got a meeting soon, then I would ask the teachers themselves whether they would recommend your DD take GCSE.

Thank you noblegiraffe. I do appreciate your reply. I will ask her teachers.

I agree that it's confusing. Trouble is, as noble says, universal levels have been abolished so schools have to make up some nonsense.

yy I would ask teachers. The way I read it is that she is growing in French, which means they are saying she will get a 3 at GCSE.

How you can predict GCSE grades at this stage of year 8 is beyond me, but I guess if you are picking options now they have to.

Grade 3 at GCSE is not a high grade, but it may be what your DD can achieve, in which case it's fine. Talk to teachers, pick a spread of subjects (so not drama, art, music and dance ) and let her do things she likes.

When I say not drama, art, music and dance. I mean not all those four, obv. My DD did music and drama but also geography and French.

Thank you Clary.
How reliable are these estimations? If she works hard, gets tutored for instance, she can get more than expected level? She is quite young in her class so I'm sure these are not set in stone. They must be averages.

How reliable are they? I have no way of knowing. How able is your DD? The GCSE grades predicted are below average - is that what you'd expect from her?

Does she work hard? As hard as she can? If not, then if she puts in more effort she will improve.

No grade is set in stone in year 8. Not sure what you mean by "they must be averages" tho; if these are yr DD's current grades then that's what they are.

Was there no explanation sheet with this glorious humbug?

How accurate are they? Probably a little better than rolling a dice.

Teachers can't predict the future, a lot can happen between now and Y11, and if what happens is a lot of work, then of course your DD can improve her grades. There are threads at the moment about Y11 mocks where parents are reassuring each other that kids can go up at least a grade between the mock and the real thing.

At best what your DDs teachers can do is look at roughly where she is in the year group. Is she struggling, doing ok, or really well? That would be your 'Growing, emerging, secure', but they will be subjective, inaccurate and with overlap between the groups.

I had a similarly pointless report for my DTDs (yr 7) this week. It’s all bollocks. I’m thrilled to know that DTD1’s average progress mark for French is 3.50, am told that her maths mark of 2.50 is potentially a concern and that her English mark of 2.67 is fine. Her target grades for GCSE are all 7/8 or 8/9. It’s a pile of pants. And I’m a teacher. No idea how anyone is supposed to interpret it.

I'm very confused in all these.
I do not know what to expect.
I'm not from the UK originally and system is completely alien to me.

Apparently she is on the top set in science and maths. She and her friends say so. Unless there is a big conspiracy, i believe she's telling the truth.
Yet her science test result (the tests they do each term) come back something like 28 points out of possible max 60. Or thereabouts. The science teacher sent the test papers home, for us to see after he marked them. When i translate it into the metric points system which i understand better, it is 47%. And Dd says its either the highest or one of the top 3 highest scores for that exam in her class and that everyone else's scores are much, much lower. If no one in the class gets more than 47% how is it top set? The exam system i come from is totally different.

I would like to know what should I expect from her in terms of the level she supposed to be within her age group nationwide to judge her level better.

Her school is a state achool but classed as one of the bests in the borough with good results each year. So it's not a failing school that produces low achievers.

On one hand i don't think she is doing well at all. She is not working hard enough and i don't think she is academic. Yet she is in top set in science and maths. Does it mean her cohort are at that low level and it's acceptable? No idea.

So confusing.

Thanks for the reply again.

It's really embarrassing, but schools don't know how to report to parents with any accuracy at the moment. The government recently scrapped the system that used to be used nationally for pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 and haven't replaced it so schools are having to make up their own systems.

At the same time, they also completely changed the GCSE system, which used to give letter grades but will now be numbers and the exams are much harder.

Schools are trying to replace the scrapped system by new systems that map onto the new GCSE grades, but as the GCSEs haven't been sat yet except in maths and English, no one has any idea what those grades will look like.

In the new maths exam that was sat last June, you only needed just over 50% to get a 7 which is the equivalent of an old A grade, so a lot of schools are also trying to make their tests harder to get pupils used to this. 50% no longer necessarily represents a poor grade, (but it might do depending on the test).

The whole thing's a mess, I wouldn't try to understand it, tbh because it's not worth it. Talking to teachers would be far more fruitful.

Thank you all. I appreciate your replies.
We'll talk to the teachers and possibly look into tutoring at some stage next year, for insurance.

I would guess the test your DD did was a test which was supposed to show what they couldn't do yet.

From year 8 or 9 in quite a lot of schools students start sitting GCSE style tests and exams so that improvement and progress can be mapped and demonstrated. Bit barmy but that's how it is.

I frequently give back test to my year 9 set 2 of 9 with marks like 10/34 , which is actually an OK result in year 9!

Assessing progress at ks3 is a patchwork mess at the moment OP.
Some schools have a reasonable enough system (like ours) but it's not as good as levels. Others have shambolic systems which mean nothing.

It also means there is no consistency between schools either.

I would speak to the teachers and ask:

• is DC doing well at the moment? Could they be doing better?
• if they continued making progress at this rate, what sort of ball park wouls they probably pass at GCSE? (I could probably estimate for most of my ks3 students)

Then keep you and DC focused on acting on feedback and doing what is needed. The gradea should take care of themselves.

Actually the science test she got 47% score, was the usual termly test to see how much they learnt. They do Activate scheme in class for science and the test was the Activate test for higher level. So it's all about the subjects they covered in the class and she got 47% which supposed to be good.
I checked online and got the impression that i could have purchased the Activate teachers set (expensive) myself and got hold of the exact test materials at home. So in other words the test was nothing specially put together.it was the generic test from Activate scheme It worried me that she was not good enough to deduce and analyse and answer questions on the test paper to get higher marks; as she didn't yet develop skills to combine different pieces of info and put together / or compare / or analyse and come up with a unique creative answer. That's the test was asking probably. In other words, no matter how much she studies unless she uses unique certain set of skills she couldn't answer correctly and couldn't get better marks. It wasnt just memorizing what they learnts, it's about using her brain. I hope i am making sense.
So i was demoralised seeing her science test paper because i realise we need to give her those thinking skills but i don't know how.

Some students aren't especially good at new fangled science - but the test score suggests she is better than most of her peers. She is only in year 8... there's lots of time!

Thank you piggywaspushed.