Year 7 - what the hell do you need to do to get an A?

[DCIJackieDeering]

We've just had DDs report (they seem to be sent at random times). We've never had any information about what the gradings mean, how they're scored. DD is starting to lose confidence as everyone else seems to get an A in something, whereas she's at B and Cs across the board.

I'm beginning to wonder what she needs to do, in history she got 91% in her latest test, class median was around 70%, she got good or exceptional for behaviour, effort, homework and organisation. She was also classed as meeting expectations, after all that she got a B. There were similar results in 2 or 3 other subjects.

I want to encourage DD, I want to help her understand what she needs to do, but I'm genuinely baffled. We haven't had a parents evening yet this year, I tried emailing for support after the last report and got nowhere.

I'm really struggling with navigating secondary as a parent, for those of you more experienced than me, how do you approach them and ask reasonably, what the hell do you need to do to get an A.

Most of the data coming from school at key stage 3 is meaningless BS.

Focus on her effort and attitude scores.

If you're really concerned about a subject send a quick email.

Unsure what the letter grades mean. Is there a key or blurb explanation with the report?
Good or exception effort/behaviour etc I'd be really pleased.

There is no key or guide. The column is headed "attainment", I've assumed it's an overall score. It's certainly the interpretation DD has from her friends (who all share their scores and how many As they've got).

I'm not concerned about the scores, one was a D, but the was understandable. I'm more concerned about the impact the score has on DDs confidence in her own abilities. She has dyslexia, and has struggled to gain her confidence, and I don't want to lose it. It would be easier to explain the B if I understood why she had it, and if she did more homework/ revised more/ tried harder, then she'd get an A, but if you get over 90% and good other scores, I cannot explain what you need to do to get an A.

I agree the data can be BS, in which case I'd rather they'd just given us the test scores, plus the other 4 ratings and not given an attainment rating, which is the one that impacts confidence

She's meeting expectations, not exceeding them, so she got a B. Please encourage your daughter not to compare herself to others, but forge her own path.

No one can tell you as it sounds like an in-house system. For example our school grades kids based on GCSE grades right from year 7 so they would be expected to be between a 1 and a 3 at the end of year 7. Email the Head of year and ask for an explanation.

My eldest always got a in everything . This continued to levels in gcses(9 in all)
She told me ‘there’s no secret-study the mark schemes not the topic itself’ (for things like history /English etc

Every school is different at Key Stage 3 so you're unlikely to get the explanation you need here. Have you asked the school? Just send an email to ask for more information about what the gradings mean.

Our reports come with an explanatory letter. Are you sure you didn't miss something like this, or perhaps you missed a parents information evening somewhere along the line?

Our Y7 reports have come as an assessment against predicted performance.
So, if I've understood it correctly:
Child A is predicted a 9 in a subject. They are currently working at achieving an 8. They get a low attainment score.
Child B predicted a 4 in subject. Currently working at achieving a 5. Get a great achievement score.

So it could just be that she has worked hard at primary, and is predicted to do very well, and lockdown means she isnt quite there yet.
OR, depending on how they assessed the kids on joining Y7 in the absence of SATs, a bright dyslexic could have done very well, and so isnt exceeding expectations when essays/extended writing/SPAG is taken into account.

We are focusing on the attitude portion to reports (we get performance and attitude each term), feeling that a good attitude will stand him in good stead going forward.

My DC school uses GCSE grades too so DS in year 7 which means he’s aiming for 3 by the end of the year, DD in year 9 is aiming for 5.
I prefer it, it’s a much better system, and there is much less stress over grades.

This is frustrating for you and DD.
I would write in again.
Can you ask for an appointment with a form tutor or the head of year ?
I would voice my concerns now as they are very valid. You still have time to address things before the end of the year.

Do check the school website for an Assessment Policy.

My daughters school does a predicted GCSE level and a behaviour/attitude score so the explanation is if they continue improving at the same level by the time they sit GCSEs they will get X grade. I tend to focus more on the effort grade as that is what can be changed but we also get comments with areas for improvement which helps. I think you need to ask the school again.

I had similar questions as DD seemed to be coming home with what seemed like random numbers as grades on her assessments and I had no idea what they meant - turns out our school uses their target level at end of KS3 to assess, so if she came home with, say, a 5 in geography, means she’s expected, based on the results of that test, to achieve level 5 at the end of year 9 . Not straight forward at all and I would definitely not have understood what it meant if I hadn’t asked. They didn’t offer an explanation before. As to how I approached it, I just emailed saying “excuse me, this is my first child in secondary and I didn’t go to school in this country, so could you explain to me what this numbers mean?”, and they explained and directed me to a document in their website explaining the levels.

I would approach the school again, if email doesn’t work, I would give them a ring and ask to speak to someone - our school has a achievement assistant who would be the point of contact, otherwise I would ask to speak with head of year.

I continue to be amazed at the schools that send home reports with no explanations. It must waste so much time answering queries from families who have no idea what they are trying to say.

OP - you'll have to ask your school. No one else can tell you.

I agree with others - schools do their own things re gradings so you'll have to ask the school. Does your DD not get feedback on work she's done? My DC are normally given a thing to work on or a thing they could do to make their work better. But it's perfectly ok to contact individual teachers (or ask at parents' evening if you have one coming up) what your DD needs to work on.

It might also be a quirk of the grading system. My DD has some very high targets (8s) due to doing well in KS2 SATS. She's spent quite a bit of secondary school being graded as "working below expectations" because, although her teachers acknowledged she was doing incredibly well, they weren't prepared to state that a child so far from GCSEs was on target to get an 8. I had a huge row discussion with the school about the grading system where I pointed out that the grading was ridiculous because you couldn't distinguish between a child that was doing as well as they could do, but simply hadn't got to the point of doing enough harder level work to be judged as working at expected level, and a child that was genuinely doing really badly. The school ignored me, so I adopted the same policy towards the grades they provided and focused on effort and individual feedback instead.

Yes, def ask the school as all schools do different things. My ds's school (super selective) only give a proportion of the class the top grade...so basically the kids are ranked against each other. So possible that there were other kids in the class higher than 91% and that determined the 'A' grade???

You really do need to speak to the school. There is no standard A across Y7s. You don't know if they've given out a single A. I've had a child disappointed in their grade only to be told it was the highest one they awarded at this stage of the year.

SATS results were similarly underwhelming - even if they got 120s it was called "meeting expectations". But of course current Y7s didn't do them

It sounds like they are churning out a huge amount of data if they are getting about 5 different marks per subject. There is only so much you can read into 5 numbers generated by a teacher who takes 30 kids for an hour a week.

Definitely go back to school and query what they mean. In DD’s school they give letters for effort and I initially thought E was bad news but it means excellent. Also different teachers grade differently for attainment - her maths teacher was grading her 5’s (her best subject by far) and other teachers 7’s for her really not so great subjects. Incredibly confusing. I called & it turned out her maths teacher was a bit if a maverick. Just the one maths teacher too - not the whole maths dept. All the teachers bar this one maths teacher graded a ‘prediction’ whereas this one maths teacher grades as if they sat the gcse today - in yr8!!