P.E. assessment.

[Fresta]

Please can you tell me how your school reports your childs progress assessment in P.E. ? How do they make judgements about the child? What criteria do they use to make an assessment?

Mighty pissed off with my childs assessment report - it's always the same- not reaching expected standard but top marks for effort- she is a great swimmer and dancer out of school!

Agree with others. I taught MFL and if a year 9 child didn't use three tenses in a written piece (just one example) that would suggest they were below the expected standard.

Seems like this is your DD but in PE. You say yourself, not everyone can be good at sport. Well quite. Does that mean that despite this, they should all be assessed as achieving the standard? PE is an examined subject like most at school and as such has to have levels to assess. PE teachers look for a range of skills, just like English teachers or Maths teachers. What's the issue?

BTW dance is sometimes taught as a separate subject (was at my old school) and swimming is tricky if school has no pool.

I'm not expecting to be told she's high achieving in P.E. I expect to be told she's below average. Below average is not the same as 'not age expected standard'.

If I think the teacher is wrong shouldn't it be questioned? If I disagree with a school policy should I not express my opinion?

Children achieving below expected standard in Maths and English at KS2 would be on the SEN register and receiving extra support. That's not the same as being below average.

Why do people think P.E. is not something anyone should be concerned about?

OP I don’t think anyone is suggesting it shouldn’t be complained about just gently trying to suggest that maybe your daughter is below the expected level for that subject. That doesn’t mean she’s not fit, healthy or good at swimming and dance but it does mean she’s not hitting the standard for what is being assessed!

Ok well you need to ask for extra support. I actually think pe does matter. I agree that below average and below the standard expected are not the same, but both re possible, no?

If most of a group were below standard someone might be above average in that (weaker) group!

Well that's why I'm asking what the national curriculum standard is but there doesn't seem to be one- it's just vague statements in the National Curriculum which mean nothing to me in real terms of what a child should be able to actually do.

Other subjects have clear criteria and success is not based on the judgements of a teacher but on achievement in measurable tests.

So, you need to ask the teacher - please can you tell me the sorts of things that DD is not doing / not doing well enough in order to be at 'expected standard'.
Then you need to ask the school whether they can provide support to enable this, or decide what you will do out of school to support this.
Would you & your DD actually be willing to do extra PE to get to 'expected standard'? If not then the whole discussion is moot.

Kids get extra support for Maths and English because getting passes in those at GCSE matters tremendously to their future. Not being able to play netball very well, frankly, does not matter one jot.

So it's the words expected standard you don't like? To be fair I think they mean the same as average and it wouldn't bother me but you can only ask the school to change it. An age related expectation would be based on average achievement at that age.
What are you hoping will happen?

I don't have a problem with the use of the term 'expected standard' if that is what they actually mean. However, if they mean average then the terminology needs changing. For example- in our Y6 SATs all children except 2 achieved the expected standard or above. Therefore the expected standard was below average (for our school) and the average score was far higher than the 100 needed to be expected standard. I believe this will also be the case nationally. So a child just reaching the expected standard will not be average, they will be below average.

What I would like to see happening is if the teacher means a child is below average ability in PE then they are graded in the band which indicates this. Fine- if there is a set measurable age standard then I can accept that she is not achieving it. However, I believe she is just below average, not 'not expected'. Of course only the teacher will be able to tell me this for sure.

My issue is I don't believe my dd is performing at such a low level she is out of the normal range of abilities expected for this age range.

I haven't seen the PE teacher as you don't get to see all teachers at parents evening- just a select few, and we had other priorities at the time.

Ours get a mark out of 9 for attainment and then graded for attitude to learning same as the other subjects. We used to get comments on the report but they stopped this. I assume there are criteria they use to give a grade like the other subjects although i don't know what this is. What did they say at parents' eve?
I think it would be fine to email and ask what your dc needs to do to improve their performance

Hadn't seen your latest post when i typed that

I, like others, really think you're finding problems where none exist. My DS is below expected standard in art and drama, I'm not bothered in the slightest and it would make no difference if it said below average instead. I assume she's year 8 so choosing options soon? Is that why this is so important?

There are very definite age related standrdas
She sounds as though she hasnt met them in the sports the school is doing this term.

As others have said one of my dcs came second in great Britain at one sport but got below average at school when they did dance and gymnastics. It didn't bother her, me or the teachers!

You're quite right OP, average and expected standard are very much not the same thing and you explained it well - all can achieve the expected standard but obviously all cannot be average or above!

I really wouldn't worry about this as you say she is fit and healthy, unless she is planning to do GCSE PE, in which case you need to look carefully at what sports she would do.

None of mine achieved expected standard in art, or textiles, I don't suppose, but it wasn't really an issue as they all planned to drop those for KS4

Ours assesses on the sport they have done that term.
Dd who has Dyspraxia had done baseball so had no chance.
Her report commented that she could sometimes be found eating biscuits in the corner of the pe changing room.

She is fit and healthy and does sport out of school so I'm not worried.

Surely in this context "below expected standard" and "below average" are pretty much synonymous?

Not in the UK, but PE is graded by the teacher's assessment of key skills needed to succeed in the sport being played each term. So serving, back hand returns and sustained volleying for tennis, for example.