Year 7 report

[Chocdrop01]

Hi just got my ds report yesterday and not really sure how he is doing. The school have used the new gcse 1 to 9 system. Does anyone know what level he should be at in year 7. Thanks

No, it’s all guesswork, you can’t apply GCSE grades to students in Y7 who are not following a GCSE course and haven’t sat GCSE papers, especially when those GCSEs (except maths and English) have only just been sat for the first time by Y11 and standards haven’t been established.

The school should have sent home something with the report to explain how they are using the grading system (and it will be individual to the school), have they not?

If they are using GCSE grades are they quoting them as 'current achievement' or 'on track for?' For current achievement I'd have no idea what is expected in Y7.

Hi no they just sent home a chart with an end of year target as a 4 for everything and his grades he did get a few 4- but the rest were 3s and 2+. Am really just wondering if I need to be concerned?

A level 7 is equivalent to the old A grade.
A level 4 is equivalent to the old C grade.
The level shows what the pupil is predicted at GCSE of they continue to work at the same level. So, for example, if the pupil is predicted a level 7, to be on track in year 7 they would be level 7.7, in year 8 8.7 etc

Sugar That is specific to your school.

Schools invent their own systems.

OP Contact the tutor and ask for more info. (And have a moan at the sending home reports with no clear context).

Sugar that sounds like a school-specific system which may not be the same as the one at the OP’s school.

choc I’m assuming he did pretty well in his SATs if he’s targeted at a GCSE grade 4 by the end of Y7?
If his end of year target was a 4 for everything, then the question would be ‘would he pass (old GCSE grade C) GCSE in this subject if he sat it this year?’. For subjects like maths that’s entirely possible. For subjects that he might just have started at secondary, like a language, product design it’s obviously not going to happen, so his grades should be lower in those subjects.

Look at his effort grades, did he get a good parents evening? If there were no concerns at parents evening, then the grades are probably lower than his target because the school’s system is rubbish.

I don't think you need to be concerned OP. The system sounds like the one DS2 has at school. I think 2 is the average in Y7 so anything at or above that is good. I have no idea how they arrive at the levels though because as noble says they can't really correlate anything against the new GCSEs until the levels have been established.

The information comes from the department of education.

OP. The thing is though, if the school have said end of year target is a 4 for everything, and he appears to have got lower than that, then either the school target system is rubbish, or there is something for you to be concerned about. You won't know which unless you ask.

Sugar I think you must be misled/mistaken.

DS3's school and DD's school use completely different numerical systems for reporting progress and they're part of the same trust! Neither of them use the scale that Sugarhunnyicedtea posted.

sugar the DfE scrapped old national curriculum levels and said it was up to schools to come up with their own methods for assessing and reporting progress at KS3. This has, naturally, been a disaster.

Sugar some schools give grades that children would achieve if they sat the exam today. Others give the grades that they are on track for. Others use entirely different reporting systems.

So although the grade equivalents come from the DfE, you really have no idea which system the OP's school is using and they need to ask their child's tutor to explain.

I second the suggestion that you have a moan about reports being sent home with no explanation. Ours come with two pages of small print to explain the grading structure (which could arguably be described as overkill!)

Yeh we had good SAT results and a great parent's evening and his main school report was excellent I just got a bit of a shock when I saw this report. As he didn't achieve the predicted target in a few of his subjects so you immediately think he must be falling behind

Then it could be a predicted grade for end of key stage 3. In which case he is well on track. Because they are saying if he sat all his GCSE's at the end of year 9 (two years early) he would still pass.
In which case he should be a lot better asy the end of year 11 when he actually suits them.

Sits them - my predictive text hates me

Thanks everyone for the advice. Think am going to phone the school on Monday just for some clarification.

Schools all do it differently

DS (grammar) school set them a Minimum Expected Grade, which is equivalent to what they would achieve at GCSE if they continue to work at this level . So a 1 - 9. If they are 2 or more grades below that they switch into intervention mode. Plus a complex matrix of scores for how well they demonstrate good learning behaviours. (It comes with a 2 page explanation document)

In one of his friends schools get a 1 - 9 based on what they would get if they sat the GCSE now which seems like a brilliant way to demotivate people tbh but they get good results.

Another school gives them all a "flightpath" so its banded into expected grades and they get a report on whether they are exceeding/achieving/falling below.

So yeah, they make it all up - but they usually explain their method.

At our school the year 7s have predicted end of year 11 grades on the new 1-9 system, which are based on their Primary SATs and CATS scores.

This information is then used to calculate where your child should be in year 7 in order that they’re showing to be on track for the predicted GCSE results in year 11. Eg (very basic example!) predicted 8 grade in year 11, so tests results in year 10 should show grade 10, test results in year 9 should 7-8 results etc. Teachers will complete assessments throughout the year to see whether students are achieving what they should and this then helps them with report writing, but to be honest at year 7 level of je isn’t achieving certain predictions I really wouldn’t be worried.

That’s at least how it’s done at my school and some others in the area. But remember this is the first year of the new grading system so to be honest all teachers are cautiously doing their best with predictions and it’ll get much easier by the time your son is in year 11.

If it makes you feel better we cap our year 7s at either grade 2 or 3 (on Mat leave now and can’t fully remember!!) so none of ours will have even got a grade 4 prediction - I think if your son is achieving this he is doing very well and you don’t need to worry. Enjoy the summer holidays!

In one of his friends schools get a 1 - 9 based on what they would get if they sat the GCSE now which seems like a brilliant way to demotivate people tbh but they get good results.

Bear in mind that most 9-1 GCSEs have never been sat before this year, so a school getting good results in Y11 will be working with students who never had this reporting system.

Sorry muddled up my grades in the example I gave but hopefully it makes sense!

then either the school target system is rubbish, or there is something for you to be concerned about.

Teen you know I would place money on the school target system being rubbish

Agree it’s worth phoning the school, but I would bet a school that has targeted all 4s at the end of Y7 has just looked at GCSE target grades and subtracted 5 or similar, which is obviously nonsense.

Thanks Dorellaella yes it makes sense. Its good to have a teacher's opinion am not panicking as much now 😂😂

How clever is your son? I think the 4s would be considered 'high' levels in Year 7, not low at all? DD is on the second of five sets. She is quite clever but doesn't do any work and seems switched off academic work at the moment. Her end of year target grades range between U2 and U3 I think. I would think the top set would be achieving U3-U4 grades (and some possibly even 5s if they're super smart).