Daughter making no progress - help!

[fizzybizzy]

I’m looking for a bit of advice from any secondary teachers out there. My daughter is about to go into year 10 and I’ve been looking at her attainment/progress since she started. In a nutshell this is where she is now and where she started in year 7.

December 2020 - Year 7
English 3+
Maths 2
Science 3-

June 2023 - Year 9
English 3
Maths 3
Science 2

So, maths and science attainment have both gone backwards. To give some context, she had a troubled start and missed most of year 7 due to a mental health illness (on top of covid closures). She had some schooling provided by the Local Authority and by the beginning of year 8 she was well enough to be back at school.

I’m wondering if her lack of progress is enough for me to be asking school to be putting anything extra in place for her..? They haven’t raised any concerns in year 8 or 9.

Thanks in advance for any insight/advice.

It depends what that data shows. What are her targets?

Her end of year 11 target is always the same on her reports.. 5 for all English, science and maths. This has been the same since year 7..

You need to know what those numbers mean. Is that "GCSE 3 now" (which is a nonsense in year 8) or "on track for 3" or something else.

The current attainment is the GCSE grade as if they’re taking it now.

What do the numbers mean? I assume they are not GCSE grades? Are they an "on target for" or something else?

At DC's school the numbers are unrelated to GCSE grades and 2 is better than 3.

Hard to advise without any context.

Even if the numbers are going down, this doesn't mean no progress, it just means less progress than whatever they are tracking against suggests. Or it may just mean this year's teacher is marking more harshly :)

OP I'm sorry but a GCSE grade as if they are sitting it now is bloody stupid. In year 8 and even 9 you haven't even covered GCSE content.
Honestly I'd take no notice of that if that's the system the school are using?? Are there other grades like Effort, Attainment, and Behaviour which you can focus on to support your DD?

Cros posted - but I doubt this. Or if your child actually would get a 2 or a 3 at the end of Year 9 were they to take the GCSE, I'd suggest they are well on target to get a 5 in 2 years' time.

If she's a "GCSE 3" now, I'd say she's going to struggle to be a 5 in year 11 in English. But on what basis are those grades derived?

However you look at it, she’s doing fine!
The expectations in Y7 are lower than those in Y9 so her grades show that she’s keeping up if anything.

OP I'm sorry but a GCSE grade as if they are sitting it now is bloody stupid. In year 8 and even 9 you haven't even covered GCSE content.

I know of a couple of schools who seem to do this, seems really weird and pointless to me. DD just had either 'Exceeding expectation', 'Meeting expectation' or 'Working at below expectation'. Presumably it did involve some comparison with expected GCSE grades but grades weren't mentioned until Y10.

Thanks all for your replies. The notes with the reports states ‘current level of attainment is their current GCSE grade based on internal assessments….’

As her English and Science ‘current level of attainment’ has gone down in 2 and a half years isn’t this something I should be worried about?

I would book a meeting with Senco when she returns and ask advise .

I would also look at a tutor if funds allow

Science, a worry yes. The others make it look like she’s keeping up with the expected level for her age and stage.

I’m very surprised they’d be giving the children past GCSE papers. Surely they won’t be teaching Y7 children GCSE level maths, science and English?

You need to email the head teacher and copy the governors in,(to ensure you’re not fobbed off) asking them to explain these outcomes to you in laywoman’s terms.

Thanks for the replies. I will get in touch with the school abs ask for some more explanation.

Send an email. I'd say the teachers are just drawing those numbers out of thin air. There is so much content in science how on earth could they say what the child would get if they haven't actually been taught the material? In English (I'm an English teacher), that is roughly on track for the end-of year-11 target grades.

But always ask for more information if you're worried.

@fizzybizzy I think what you have been given is meaningless. She hasn’t covered the syllabus. You need a better explanation of how well she has made progress on the curriculum she has been taught. Have they given you what she’s been taught? What topics were covered this year? Have they given you any info on how they assess progress? If not, ask for all this info. This is what matters. Not a hypothetical grade based on teaching she hasn’t had.

Progression is not always linear I.e grades will not necessarily always go up in the earlier years as your child may find the new work more challenging.

If worries speak with the school.

Think I’ll ask for a meeting with school so they can explain a bit more.. thanks again.

That is a truly nonsense system of grading, assuming your daughter isn’t in a school that starts GCSEs in year 9.

If we put our Key Stage 3 kids in for GCSE in my subject they would all get Us with maybe the odd lucky grade 1 thrown in. They haven’t studied the course.

Trying to guess what grade they would get on a course they haven’t started studying seems a very silly way to judge attainment.

I think it’s worth talking to the school to get a sense of how she’s really doing but you should also bear in mind that these are made up numbers and not sweat the figure too much if the feedback is good.

Really? That surprises me as we regularly have kids on 3s in end of year 10 mocks who end up with 5s or sometimes better in summer of year 11 in English.

I had kids in history this year get 5 grades better than their March Year 11 mock, one went from a 4 to a 9 and one from a 2 to a 7.

Year 9 to year 11 feels like a really long way to go to me and the end of year 9 tests that we base any year 9 grade on are nowhere near as high-stakes so often not taken that seriously. I barely glance at KS3 grades for my GCSE classes.

Yes, given that she's apparently been there since year 7 and made no progress!
Of course, as I said earlier, that data is nonsense.

Well in some schools the Progress 8 figure is a minus. They don’t make enough progress! However that’s an outcome after y11, not in y8.

I think DD's school has had a slight negative Progress 8 score for as long as I can remember! (But the GCSE and A levels results are pretty good.)

But I also remember that one of DD's friends in another primary school to her said that her teachers were helping kids in their SATs exams so I tend to be cynical about SATs results. Plus I don't understand how (for e.g.) a maths or English SATs result can be used to predict for e.g. a PE GCSE result.

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees Its Progress 8. Not all subjects are necessarily included. Progress 8 will indicate if some DC should have done better. Plus schools can set up their own tracking systems. They should!