Year 7 at 7bs?

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DS recently brought home spring term report saying he achieved a 7b in maths. Is this a good level as most other subjects at 4 5 or 6?

Schools differ with grading and reporting and the correlation with, for example, gcse targets. So a 7b would mean nothing to me. Depends entirely on what it’s reporting - could mean is at approx level 7 gcse now, or maybe that if continues along this path, will get there at end of KS4. Both my dc’s seconaries have moved to gcse equivalence I.e. the 1-9 grading, with a plus and minus if they’re exceeding or just about getting to that level.

The system their using i think is called nc? and they are the current grades they received in their recent tests.

I'd ask his teacher. All schools now have different assessment policies. As pp said, a 7b at your child's school would possibly be different to a 7b at my school. As what his target is, and if it's 7b or above - happy days!

I didn't think there were NC levels for secondary schools anymore? It probably means your ds is doing better in maths than the other subjects, but, as there are no national standards, you'll have to ask the school what they mean.

ok thanks for the help :).

If they've carried on with the old nc levels then yes, that is theoretically a very good grade for year 7. BUT take with a pinch of salt, it could be high because they are teaching different skills in year 7 to fit into the new GCSEs, which wouldn't have been done til later with the old GCSEs and therefore wouldn't have been in line with the old nc expected levels for year 7... does that make sense?

Essentially you want to ask two things:

1. Where does this put your ds in relation to the rest of his year group? (Which they may not tell you)
2. Assuming even, sustained progress where would they expect him to be at GCSE? (Which they should tell you, but be aware it is not a guarantee!)

Under the old system (so old nc levels at ks3 and old gcses) I would be predicting someone getting level 7 in year 7 would be walking an a-star at GCSE. I teach English not maths but I would expect the same to be true. Unfortunately all the old systems have been scrapped and we haven't had enough cohorts through the new GCSEs to be sure of anything there, so it's all pretty much just guesswork for the next couple of years now.

Strange. They use the nc levels for year 8 and 7 but the new gcse levels
9-1 for years 9, 10 and 11. But thanks for the info will ask the teacher.

Schools set their own grading systems now, no one can tell you what another schools grading means, you have to ask the school

Oh, and they predict him to reach a level 7 new gcse from his sats score (around 116 i think i remember).

Oh, and they predict him to reach a level 7 new gcse from his sats score (around 116 i think i remember).

These predictions are pointless and meaningless, ignore

Ok, thanks for the info.

Putting a number to the prediction is seriously inaccurate but a kid who got 117 in their maths SATS should do very well in their maths GCSE if everything continues on the same trajectory. GCSEs are a long way off though and a lot can happen in that time.

I think it’s all a bit rubbish that it’s all changed and makes little sense, why fix something that ain’t broke? At least a*- f wasn’t understandable for everyone, parents and future employers etc, now it makes little sense and seems to be different/mean different things up and down the country. I assumed that the predicted grades now(from sat score) were what he would get if he would get now if he sat the GCSEs now, but apparently they are predicting what he’ll get in 5 years time...lol...🤣
Which I can’t see being particularly accurate!

At parents evening one teacher said one of her pupils had been predicted 4 and came away with a 9, so seems like they can be way way off and need to be taken with a very large pinch of salt!

Its because we don't have the data to work from. In the old system we had years of data to look back on that enabled you to say, Ok, most kids who got a level 5c in their ks2 sats went on to get a grade b in the GCSE. It was by no means perfect but it gave schools something to work from. We'll need another 5 years + to start doing that with the new GCSEs and new sats, by which time they'll have got bored in Westminster and change it all again.