Query about predicted GCSE grade for Textiles

[bellinisurge]

Apparently DD's predicted grade for GCSE textiles is based on her Year 6 SAT results. She's a strong student across the board and is predicted either 9 or 8 for all her other subjects including triple sciences. She always gets great feedback on her Textiles work from the teacher. Can anyone decipher this for me? Why isn't it teacher input?

What year group is your daughter currently in?

Target grades are generally computer generated from SATs or CATs but she should also have a predicted grade based on her current level of attainment given by her teacher. If she hasn’t got this, ask the school for more info.

In my school target grades are usually nothing to do with the teachers and all come from some formula. Mainly as they are used extensively to judge teaching standards so you can’t be judged against something you’ve set yourself.

Im assuming you think it’s too low? Just ring school and ask to speak to the head of technology and ask if it’s accurate and if so what can she do to improve it.
Textiles is a funny one that doesn’t always correlate to how bright you are in other subjects, but she should have a good chance of doing well in all the theory and exam aspects.

Thanks. She's year 11. I've actually got a call booked in with her teacher who says she will explain more. Hopefully I'll get answers but it just seems odd when the rest of her GCSE predicted grades are teacher assessed based on ongoing performance.
She's about to apply to 6th forms and wants to do a Textiles Alevel (two local colleges offer it) alongside Maths and a science (also possibly further maths). Her Maths and Science grades are all great and I'd hate for her to miss out because her Textiles predicted grade is 5. She's hedging her bets in what higher education courses she does and I'm keen for her to follow what she loves.

As I said, I've seen her teacher feedback and it's always really positive

This is very odd as she would have done tests and exams throughout her time in secondary school which should indicate predicted grades better. Has she sat her mock exam yet?

Not yet

I was wondering if DD was trying to hide something from me but she's totally relaxed about me talking to her teacher (I'd do it anyway, obviously).

Just wanted to see if there was some MN wisdom on a topic I know nothing about. It's 40 years since I did mine and they were called O'Levels

It may be an error but what marks had she had in textiles up to now. My dd did textiles and art, and she found it much easier to get a good mark in textiles. She did have a practical element, she made a dress, and an exam but she was able to get a high mark without a lot of revision, whereas the art coursework was very time consuming.

Did she do end of year 10 mocks? What grade was she given for textiles then?

Ask her teacher for specific targeted feedback on what she needs to do to increase her grade up. Does the teacher know she is looking to carry on textiles to A level?

It's been difficult to work out actual grades - her feedback is generally stuff like "great work ". Her Year 10 was a bit of a disaster with a flaky teacher who has subsequently left. The new teacher has been giving this positive feedback

She didn't appear to have specific year 10 mocks for Textiles as far as I can gather.

The school hasn't yelled at me and it's pretty good for that. I was just wondering if there is something crucial I am missing

If the Y11 teacher has just taken over the class and the Y10 teacher was crap then it's entirely possible that the Y11 teacher hasn't wanted to predict quite important grades based on the short time she has seen them, or the Y10 data, and so has reverted to the target grades while she gets more data. I suspect she'd be happy to up the predicted grade for college applications if it's going to be an issue.

Thanks @noblegiraffe . I think that's what I'll need to do

@littlemissdizzy00 year 11

UPDATE: spoke to teacher who will give an updated prediction later this month and will speak to DD. She was gushing about how good DD is which was good to hear.

Thank you everyone