Percentages on assessment - how to gauge if DD1 is struggling

[blackeyes72]

Just came back from parents' evening for DD1 who is in Year 8 and as she is my first going to that school I don't know whether she is doing well or not.

One subject (physics) she is averaging 56% in her assessments and I have tips on how to help her, most of the others hovering around 70% and the teachers didn't say whether it was good, bad etc, just focused on what to do to improve and the fact she is bright and could do much better.

One or two subjects were at above 80% so clearly those are strong and realise I don't need to worry for those. But should she be at above 80% to achieve decent GCSEs?

Now I am worried e.g. if she doesn't improve where will this take her, is she on track for 4s/5s or are we talking 6s or 7s? I felt stupid mentioning GCSEs at parents' evening as the whole point was to talk about areas she is struggling, etc...but now I am not sure whether I should panic or not, as she is keen to do well and want to continue on with A- levels.

She does revise but still working out techniques and they say she concentrates well in class and always does her homework.

Any thoughts?

Assessments like this aren't at all uniform across schools, so it's really hard for people on the internet to tell what they mean. I would email your DDs teachers asking some follow up questions, such as a rough idea as to what exam grades they might expect of her if she kept progressing in the same way.

However, do remember that the system has just changed (this is the first year with number grades for subjects except English and maths), so even teachers only have a "best guess" at what is required for Grade 4/6/8.

Are her lessons in sets? How does her school do generally in exams? If the school usually gets decent exam results and she is in set 1/2, then she will probably be aiming at 6-8 grades. If she is in a middle set she is more likely to be on the 4/5 borderline (but her teachers will support her a lot to help ensure she gets the passes she needs).

It sounds like she is working well and trying hard which is a great start!

Hi LadyLance,
I probably need to go back to the teachers.
The school only sets in maths, she is set 2 of 5. The school is selective and gets high results, but they don't set in any other subject, which makes is much harder to gauge.
I am worried as the teachers were "concerned" with her assessments, but I don't know whether this is because they thought she could do better or whether it is because they thought it would lead to poor results.
Thank you for replying

I assume they are raw percentages, which means in one subject she is only learning/understanding around half the content. In another only two thirds.

Whether or not this is good or bad, DC depends on how able she is. If she is capable of getting 7,8,9 then they are not good enough. If she is a 'C' grade student then they are ok.

If the teachers said they were concerned, that will be because her marks were below what is expected of her. Schools and teachers are judged by the progress made from starting data to result. If a student's target grade (in old grade system) is an E, then a D would be a good result!

That's what worries me too, although they said they are awarding marks like in exam, e.g. with points for key words etc....

I don't think the problem is understanding the content or even revision, but exam technique, as the assessments are mirroring exams. So for example even though she knows a topic, she is not aware she has to add keywords, or add references or explanations, which where she is losing the marks.

I suppose the good thing about doing it this way, is the fact that hopefully by the time she is getting there she will have grasped what she needs to demonstrate..

For Sciences the grade boundaries for GCSEs tend to be slightly lower for Physics than for Chemistry or biology so that sounds normal to me.
As others have said the new 9-1 grading hasn't been round long enough for teachers to be sure how marks in Y8 correlate with those in Y11.

The bottom line is you need to recontact the school with specific questions such as:

• teachers said they were concerned - is that because you think she didn't do her best or because she is not on track for high results - or both?
• can teachers please go through exam papers with DD and explain where she is missing marks and what she needs to do to rectify this?
• can annotated exam papers be sent home so I can gain a better understanding
• ...

(Could be just for 2 key subjects, or all)

I would really not stress about it, it is only year 8, so plenty of time to pick up exam technique. The scores sound Pretty good to me, and it all depends on how difficult the tests were, and that will differ! (37% or 97% are perhaps easy to interpret, but 67% all depends)

In your shoes I would not bother individual teachers with further questions, but perhaps instead tell her form tutor (or someone else you find natural) that you found it difficult to interpret the barrage of percentages, and whether there is a way to tell how well she is doing overall. What do her reports say?

In my DD1's school we only have parents' evening once a year - and yes those can be confusing, but the purpose is to meet the teachers for a quick exchange, perhaps some colourful anecdotal praise or a specific piece of advice - and the opportunity to ask questions and discuss potential actions/concerns. But it is quick; pick your focus!

In our school the answer to the question "how well is she doing" comes primarily from the twice-termly progress reports (ratings on 4 effort-measures + achievement per subject) and especially the year end exams where % score is provided together with the median % for the year group - per subject - a crucial comparison, as a for example 63% score in chemistry might be above a 58% median, whilst 82% in French might be below the 88% median!

And we typically then praise both the above-median chemistry and the good (absolute) score in French!

I do tally up (to myself) how many achievement scores are above and below median respectively, to get a rough steer on where she sits in the year group - and as we know that the (also selective) school does very well in exams, we express our pride (as long as the effort grades are good) and stay calm and thank our lucky stars that DD is enjoying school, is (mostly) doing her best and likely will do well when the time comes.

In selective schools I think we parents need to be really quite careful not to be too greedy for those short term golden eggs.

You are right, I will not stress out!
The teachers all said that she works hard but the marks do not always reflect what she is capable of, so we can just keep plugging away.

I will wait and see what she gets for her end of year exams and then evaluate