Y7 reports - GCSE numbers?

[MrsBobtonTrent]

We’ve received a first report for y7. They have been given a score along the lines of GCSE 1-9 for each subject. Any idea what would be “age-related expectation” for this point in Y7?

Trying not to be a nutter, but have a meeting with school about other issues next week and want to be prepared.

Yes this is correct , set 1 is the highest ability set and my child’s end of year target was a 3 + to a 4+ depending on the subjects . I think this was the highest in her class though. She said others had targets of 4s x

My son’s year 7 report at our very good local comp was full of bizarre numbers and predictions - and no writing about him at all. Could have been anyone’s report and neither I nor my husband, who are fairly well educated, could work out what it was telling us.
I much prefer the old fashioned system, where they actually write a few pithy sentences about the child with their wonderful teacherly expertise about how (‘the laziest pupil I have seen for years’ etc etc).
But I suppose that takes a lot of time when teachers are already already spread thinly.

My yr7 ds school has colour codes with the numbers, brown for below target, green for above, it’s pretty disheartening for him tbh, he got x3 greater depths in yr6 SATs and now he just sees brown, he’s expected to get mostly 3+ by the end of the year, in maths and science he’s already above that but others he’s only 1 & 2’s. they really ought to make it easier to read and if they insist on targets they should be for the assessment they’re being marked on so the kids know how they’re doing

noble is correct. It’s a crock of shit.

All you can really comment on is how well a student is able to currently master the curriculum being taught.

Our report had a range of what the year had awarded. Most of the subjects were 1-4, a few were W (working towards) to 4, one went up to 5 and one (I think it was history) went up to 6.

I suspect all the going up to 6 means is that one of the history teachers marks generously But that might be me being cynical.

They do give a flightpath, but only looking at end of year 7, and combined with disclaimers about it being rough/average/only slightly better than sticking random pins in paper...

Its made up rubbish and OFSTED has called it as such.

My dd has this also (y7). Luckily a friend with dc in the year above warned us of the system. So we knew that she’d be ‘failing’ even if she’d be the cleverest kid in the year. The ‘flightpath’ For dd includes sub grades, so 1+, 2- etc etc and the expectation is children will rise 3 subsets per year (one each term - have discussed with her that this is linear and not really realistic across all subjects etc). She’s already got a 4- for music - but of course how could she possibly have the depth of knowledge to achieve this?

At parent teacher evening staff were very friendly and telling us not to worry to much about the system and where she was behind ‘target’ saying that in lots of subjects they have a ceiling lower than expectation - just to confuse it more!

Ask the school to explain their system. Our students are given an expected grade (what we expect them to get in Y11 based on Ks2 data and on what nationally last year's Y11 got). Then for their reports, teachers give them a grade that they would expect them to achieve in Y11 if they continue working like this. Probably not the best explanation but it is pretty straightforward!

It is difficult enough to predict how a student will do in a GCSE that they are currently sitting. To do some kind of magical prediction of how a year 7 student will do in 4 years time on a course they have not even started yet is complete nonsense.

Why can't we just report on how they are doing now? Why can't the work they do now have value- why does it all have to be about the end of year 11?

DD’s school seem to set grades of 1-3 for Y7 with sub-categories of A-C with A the highest, so in PE dD got a 2A which means she is just on the top of expected. The school seems to see 2 as the norm for Y7 at this point.

In her history essay she scored a 4-5 and her language grade seems to be just letters.

I gave up.

I'm utterly baffled by this. I have been given 'results' after first term of Y7, but no reference point. So he is getting a 3 in French, mostly 5s in everything else, and a couple of 6s. But it means nothing to me. I don't understand why its not relating to Y7 work. Why is it relating to GCSE work?

Because the government (specifically Michael Gove) scrapped national curriculum levels which were used to measure attainment at KS3 and replaced them with .... nothing. Schools were told they would still need to report on pupil progress but they’d have to make up their own systems for doing so.

Schools have neither the time nor the resources to create a reasonable system and so most have latched onto GCSE grades as something that will do.

It won’t do though, it’s crap. And Ofsted in their latest curriculum review document have said that they’ll be looking for schools who do it and it will impact their inspection.

I'm not thrilled at the format of reports we've been given.
there's no reference to a predicted GCSE grade (that bit is fine by me), or indeed any objective measure of attainment (that bit no so much). We've been given one of four colour codings for each subject area - progress above expectations, progress in line with expectations, progress below expectations and progress significantly below expectations. Just the colour.

So my year 7 child got" significantly below expected progress" in science (she was assessed as greater depth in SATs), but we have no information about where she is now and what she needs to be achieving next to help her to do whatever it is that the school requires.
If I don't have the information I need to support my child better, I'm not hugely sure what the point of the exercise is.

We have received DD's target GCSE grades this week too which are based of a combination of SATS, CATS and baseline assessments and half termly testing. The report shows whether she is on track to achieve, working towards achieving , of working ahead of targets. Our school don't predict anything above a 7 at this stage but if they think they they the potential to get higher than a 7 they put 7+ (presumably an 8) or a 7++ (presumably a 9). They don't yet predict the 'soft' subjects like Art, DT, Music and Drama

Not sure how accurate any of it really is but gives us an idea of how she has been doing. (she got exceeding in all her sats and all her predicted grades are a 7+.