What are learning pathways and what is predicted 5-7 mean?

[BatFaced]

He's only in year 7 but I've had his first assessment back. He's doing so well but I just can't fathom what 'LP2' is (and four subjects were LP1) and predicted for KS4 is 5-7 and 7-9 in four subjects

Anyone point me in the right direction please?

Best ask the school to clarify, as they vary. Is there a Parents' Evening scheduled in the next couple of weeks? If not, you could contact the individual class teachers by email or the Head of Year.

However, all things being equal, it suggests that he is a student who appears to have the potential to get good - excellent passes at GCSE. (with a qualification of terms&conditions vary, mortgage rates can go down as well as up, teenagers can decide to be utter idiots, etc, etc).

@MitziK thanks for that. We have a parents evening in March so I will certainly ask. The explanatory booklet said that 'we've been given free reign basically so we've come up with these four pathways which a student will generally stay on throughout their whole time at school' - and then it said no more really!

I long for the days of A B C etc. Knew where you were then

Most likely A~C in some and A~A in the four. Grade 9 is essentially A*

Ok that's a bit clearer thanks. So annoying that we now have to basically decipher all this stuff!

7-9 is roughly A/A*
5-7 is C+- A

So I imagine LP1 (learning pathway 1) is top set and LP2 second set.

I would say it means your son has the potential to achieve very well at GCSE, with the proviso that all of this data is largely nonsense!

I meant caveat, not proviso - sorry!

It means exactly what it says on the tin.

Students at their current level will most likely end up with GCSE grades in the range 5-7. Which is old upper-C/low-B - A. Nice, solid GCSE results. Some will do better (if they work hard, have some lightbulb moments or are late developers), some will do worse (if they slack off or hit a mental barrier).

Staying on the same pathway throughout just means that generally students don't generally go from being solid to being super, or from solid to shaky.

@noblegiraffe will come on and tell you it's mainly made up rubbish, though at least your school is using a broad brush and not trying to say grade 5+ or 6-.

You also need to be wary of how they come up with their assessments. Is it based on classwork, homework and assessments. Or is it all derived from 1 single test. One is likely to be more believable than the other. (DD2 has just jumped for one subject from 4-5 to 7-9. I don't believe it for a minute!)

@Baublebauble @TeenTimesTwo

Ah that makes a lot more sense! He's top set for a few and 2nd set for the remainder.

I don't think that's too bad for a boy who couldn't read until he was 8.5 and who was on SAP until he was 9. He then suddenly seemed to 'get everything' and became some sort of model pupil He's always just so keen to do well and he's pushing me to explain to him exactly what all this LP1 and LP2 plus the headings mean and I'm not very clued up on it

And my now 20 year old DD went to this school but back when it was all just A /C etc. She was always predicted straight A's and let's just say that didn't happen! Not even close. She had a right old battle getting to go to university as she basically took her predicted grades to mean they were a given and got quite a shock when she learnt she'd have to work to get good grades

Did it really say "free reign"?? Worrying!

Ha ha no- that's me. But yes, they said they're now able to set things how they want to and they relish being able to do this

With regards to learning pathways it might be worth taking a look at the school website.

Some schools offer different GCSE option pathways to different students. For example highly academic students might be expected to takethe Ebacc subjects or they might be expected to take triple science or a compulsory language. Lower ability children may have more btec/vocational options on their pathway. At my son's school there is a group of children who do a reduced number of GCSE's but take a princes trust work skills programme and extra numeracy/literacy instead.