MFL target levels - any secondary MFL teachers care to share their target progress for KS3

[roisin]

e.g. If a child comes in with a L5b from primary, and achieves 3a by the end of yr7; what targets would you set for yr8 and yr9.

etc?

We haven't got formalised expected progress paths yet and are trying to agree on these. The problem is the students tend to make great progress in yr7 and then slow right down.

So based on past years' data the expected progression paths look very odd. e.g. by the end of yr7 all children are achieving at least 2a, and most are achieving 3b. But at the end of yr8 quite a high % are on 3b, and many below.

I think it's a problem with the assessments actually, and they are too generous in yr7.

not sure what they are telling you in MFL, but in science they are saying we have to make 2 levels of progress across the 3 years of ks3.

We have the problem that because they have often been taught to the test in Primary school we get our dip in year 7. Sadly we cannot use our assessments, we have to use the KS2 sats.

so we are saying 0.65 of a level per year.

In MFL the complication is they effectively start at zero in yr7, and the levels don't correspond to the others in Maths/English/Science.

I'm off away for the weekend, but will come back and see if any MFL teachers can help.

At ours the official line is that they should be at the same levels as they are for the non core subjects by the ned of year 9 although the end of year seven target is I think a level lower.

I think, although I am not an MFL teacher that the levels take into account a lack of KS1 and 2 teaching. But I may be wrong.

No, MFL levels are different twinset. The ceiling of our end of yr8 assessment is 4a, and only the brightest children would achieve that.

So not comparable with Maths/English/Science.

In our school for MFL it was 2 levels as MartianBish says. eg 3a in yr 7 becomes 4b in yr 8. However, with our new Headteacher we are given target grades for our pupils to achieve at the end of ks3 based on KS2 data. In my yr8 top set French most of the group have level 7 as their target grade for the end of yr 9! Most of the work I am doing with them is level 5 at the moment.

That's helpful chocolateshoes. Do you set targets for the end of yr7 and yr8, or not?

Our top two MFL sets (of 8) do foundation level GCSE at the end of yr9 (and do well).

a few years back MFL levels by the end of KS3 were meant to have been brought into line with other subjects, as everyone had to keep explaining why kids were always a couple of levels lower in MFL in Y9. Thius means that their progress through the levels in KS3 is much more rapid, esp in Y7 when many can realistically get within the level 4 range by the end of the year so although MFL still lags behind in Y7 and 8 by Y9 they should theoretically have caught up

Oh right, yes, that makes sense. Levels are definitely comparable by the end of yr9.

We still need to educate our students/parents though, because at the end of yr7 they might be getting 3b (and therefore doing well), but obviously this looks poor against Maths/English/Science grades of 5+ (for able children).

No Roisin - pupils in yr 7 are given targets to work towrds for the end of KS3. Their haf-termly grades say wether they are below, on or above that yr9 target.

Agree about needing to communicate Roisin. When, in the past, we gave the levels they were actually working at, we used to have a note to parents explaining that for MFL it wsa 2 levels below.

With the system we now have that doesn't arise. I tell parents that their child is on target (etc) for the end of ks3.

Thanks, that's helpful.

also pupils have a grid where they record the levels (split into a,b,c) for each skill area when they achieve them.