Help with year 7 results

[Takingaleap]

We received dd1 result and I am a bit anxious. Has anyone's dc been predicted an average GCSE score and they exceeded it? Looking at her result do you think she's on the right track or struggling? Parents evening is in June so a long time to wait before I can ask those questions.
I didn't do my secondary in the UK and we moved here and she joined year 5 so I know little about grading system. Some parents..well 2 are over the moon there children are expected to get all 8.
Is my daughter struggling? How worried should I be? She is first set maths and science and English she is second set (but English is her second language and started speaking/learning 2016).
To be honest I thought she was doing okay but this result and other parents says about there DC has got me concerned.

She is above target almost across the board, doing better than KS2 results would expect.

Targets of 5’s are based on KS2. The fact she is mostly above that and her behaviour attitude is outstanding would say to me she will do better than 5’s. Work ethic matters most.

The targets on that report are dreadful. Maintain standards in RE when that is almost the only one where she isnt beating her target? Participate on class in geog when ber behaviour is outstanding, so a comment on her personality???

I think I would ask to speak to head of year to better understand your dd’s circumstances. I’d think it would be unusual for top set children to have GCSEs predicted at 5. I’m wondering how her Y6 SATs results were. If she underperformed there (country move related maybe?) then the predictions may be created by a formula from that. A teacher who knows her may be able to say what their real sense of her likely performance at GCSE would be.

C0unt thank you for responding.
How do you determine shes doing more than key stage 2 will expect? I thought the target was set by school... The more I look at the result the less it makes sense. And she loves geography. She was a bit disappointed about geography to be honest because she thinks it's her favourite and she participates more in class.
But how do they determine expected score for GCSE? Is it from her year 7 work? She just started year 7 in September. Am I missing something here?

Madrush key stage 2 results were maths 118, reading 102 and Spag 110. And the report from primary was expected standard met.

When she started year 7 they took a baseline test and also what they call cat. They used that to out them un sets..

GCSE targets are based on SATS. Setting might be altered due to CAT tests, which are more of an IQ test (Cognitive ability test).

Only look at them as a guide.

Also some departments might have a HOD who states students are only to be given their expected at any point. They might be playing the game. They might be in a school where target grades are put up if students start to approach them. The geography teacher might just right click copy the expected column and paste it into the current attainment column on SIMS.

Has she done any assessments in geography and RE and if so what did she get?

What are the marks in her book like?

Schools use data as a stick to beat staff. Some departments are playing the game.

What’s importantnin helping her succeed:

Her home-life. Supportive parent with high expectations.
Her work ethic.
Her classes.
How happy she is at school.

This thread might reassure you that they can't predict gcse grades in year 7. English is a second language might have given a falsely low target. She may well do far better, especially as she is well behaved

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3538779-Flight-paths-in-secondary-are-nonsense-and-demotivating-for-pupils-SAY-OFSTED

Looking at that reinforces my opinion that their system is crap. How can she be predicted 5 across the board? Even just based on SATS scores she did particularly well in maths. She is exceeding their Y7 target in most subjects and her behaviour is exemplary so I'm sure she is fine. My son did very well in SATs and based on tests of maths and literacy is now predicted 8+ across the board, so is being told he is 'inadequate' and 'failing to meet his target' in art, PE and subjects in which he has no apititude. There is no way he will be taking them in y11 and we have said we know he is doing his best but it just isn't helpful. Focus on effort/participation/behaviour. Your daughter has done amazingly well to swap school systems and language in Y5 and be doing so well.

C0unt.. she does well in her tests, as I said earlier she loves geography and puts more effort in revising for geography test as she likes studying it. What do you mean by departments playing the game? We definitely support and encourage her to do her best and she's also a determined child so it makes it easier. She does struggle with friendship at school, so we've been focusing on how to get her to find her feet.. she thinks she is socially awkward...Thank you.

Tansy thank you for the link.

Thank you Patchwork. What worries me is how is it all 5s. She does well in most tests she does in school. I mean if the GCSE targets are mix of 5s, 6s, 4s and 8s then it may make sense but I'm totally lost.
Happy for your ds. Was he predicted any target when he was in yr 7?

I'd ignore those targets as they have clearly been set by some automatic method. Our school wouldn't even tell you that kind of thing.

She is above or equalling expectations in every subject. Her behaviour in lessons is outstanding. She is doing very well.

Many of the targets are dependent on English grade. I believe that this is true for subjects like Science and Maths.

Based on SATS my dd was predicted all 6 in GCSE. She's doing GCSEs this summer and expected to get 7 to 9 in all subjects. The GCSE targets based on SATS results are not very accurate in my experience. They are used by the government to judge whether the school is educating your dd well and right now in y7 it's impossible to know her aptitude in new subjects like Geography or Physics. Your dd is exceeding with a great behaviour score so I'd be happy with that report.

Thank you Teen and Goldengummy. I also think she's doing the best she can at the moment.
You maybe right I think the target is automated too. I remembered the school showed us a power point on how they grade during parent evening in September so I went to their website and found the power point. How would you compare my dds results and this review results? I believe my dd is doing well but how can so similar result give two different GCSE targets? I'm just trying to get head round this.

I would say it shows that the targets are based on y6 SATs rather than any level of performance of your DD at secondary.

So if someone got 115, 115, 115 then they might have targets of 7/8s.
They might have come from a very pushy primary where all of y6 goes towards SATs.

Another child might get 108, 108, 108 and have targets of 5s. They might have gone to a more relaxed primary who do practice for SATs but don't run booster groups and keep up the rest of the curriculum going.

Both those DC might actually be equal ability.

In KS3 I'd ignore targets, I'd look at attainment and attitude/behaviour.
In KS4 I'd also ignore targets, but look at predictions as well as attitude/behaviour.

Wow, that report is unhelpful. Given that her maths teacher has given her a grade 3 and her target is a grade one, I think you can safely assume that her GCSE target grade (and her Y7 one) is bullshit and can be ignored.

Pupils who have English as an additional language often well exceed their GCSE targets, especially if they only started learning English shortly before their SATs, so don’t worry that those GCSE grades are accurate in any way.

Your DD is behaving outstandingly, in top sets and doing well. At parents evening you will be told to ignore the targets because they are too low and don’t represent your DD’s actual capabilities.

It's impossible to judge without the GCSE and CATS score of child 2.

Teen thank you. We will just focus on her doing the best she can and on her attainment /attitude. Wonder why they needed to include the GCSE target in pupils report. It just makes people like me anxious.
Nobel yes the report is very unhelpful and more I look at it the less it makes sense. So I'll just pretend the gcse target isn't there.
I read a thread posted by tansy and it is helpful in gaining different insights on opinions on targets. That's a really helpful thread.

Goldengummy it is a report review the school used to explain to parents the grading system.
I think we'll focus on improving on the subjects she's just meeting target and not get overly concerned with GCSE which is 4 years from now.