Year 7 end of year exams

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DS has been talking about his end of year exams he’s had this week. He had his maths one yesterday and he told me that it was easy, I said to him that either he either got given the wrong paper or he just thought he was correct on every answer.
After a bit more questioning it turns out there are two papers for year 7 - foundation and higher, just like in GCSE - is this a common thing in high school? Are they already segregated for exams at such an early age? I know he’s not an academically high flyer, it’s a good comprehensive school with a grammar school in the same town. Of 6 sets he’s currently in set 4, got 103 in his sats….but this just doesn’t feel right to me. Why couldn’t they give 1 paper for all students with a mix of levels of questions?
His sets are a bit all over the place, he’s been bumped up to set 1 in maths, and set 2 in Spanish, but the rest he’s still in set 3 or 4 - which isn’t exactly low set…..or is it? But for him to say the exam was easy, it must have been. Time will tell when results come out I’m sure and the parents’ evening in a few weeks.
But is this normal??

Sorry, bumped up to set 1 in SCIENCE!!! Not maths.

Pretty unusual to be setted for 6 subjects in Year 7 in a comprehensive school, I'd say! And I've certainly never heard of tiered exams in Year 7 either, and I've worked in quite a lot of schools.

Yes, pretty much all of the subjects have been put into sets. They say that sets 1-2 are the same, 3-4 and then 5-6. Which if that’s what they say, then there would just be 3 sets in total. Around 300 in a year group. Trying to get my head around it.
They completely split the year group in half into two streams - and these aren’t split by ability.
But then they do set within each stream, so 2 top set classes, 2 middle set classes and 2 bottom set classes and each level is apparently taught according to ability.
Therefore in maths he would be considered a middle set student, but in class 4 (which is equivalent to class 3 apparently).
So why would he be given a foundation maths paper? And why would they not let everyone sit just one paper??

I know I will get answers at parents’ evening etc, but it just seems so odd!

We tier maths exams from Y7 but there is a lot of crossover. However we need to assess the stretch content for the top, and also make sure the bottom students aren't disengaged. It works well and means we get approx 30 marks of crossover then 20 of either core or support.

Being set for so many subjects is unusual however if it works for the school who are we to judge.

Different schools do it differently, all do it informed by assessments, so if he did find it too easy he'll be moved up a set...so either way it's fine.
Sets can also partly be based on behaviour and other factors than academics though, eg school houses, and in Yr 7 they may also set different selections from different primary schools in order to give children greater chances to mingle and create new friends.

Staffing can also affect it, eg who is going on Mat eave or supply staff, which sets will have teaching assistants and which won't...you have to trust the school know what they are doing.

They may do 2 papers because some children's ability level is too low to justify putting them through the upset of sitting a harder paper that they get zero marks in. A better use of time for those children is teaching to plug the gaping gaps in their understanding and recapping core skills and hopefully close the gap with their peers.

Sometimes it's the opposite, everyone sits one paper that covers everything, then the lowest children have a second pper that focuses in on key foundational skills which the other paper merely touches on, in order to better inform the teachers of which gaps to plug etc.
Trust the process.

DS is year 7 at state school and they set them from day one onwards off their SATS scores.

He is in 2nd from top set (out of 6 sets, but im hoping he'll move to top set after these exams) and he says at his school he thinks everyone sits the same maths paper at this stage.

It can be really demotivating for the children in lower ability sets to sit a paper where they can only answer a few questions.
If he has scored well then he will likely be moved up and sit the higher papers next time.

Oh yes, I’m not going in on a war footing, I was just bemused by it all and didn’t want to upset DS by questioning him too much about it, so decided to Mumsnet it instead!
He’s on catchup anyway with an adhd diagnosis at the start of year 6 and meds a month or so after that. So hasn’t really been able to concentrate much in class before then, but did manage to pass all his sats - which wouldn’t have happened without the meds. He’s not hyper or disruptive, just cannot focus for any length of time. It just doesn’t feel right to not have an all encompassing paper with varying levels of difficulty.

It just doesn’t feel right to not have an all encompassing paper with varying levels of difficulty.

This doesn't happen at GCSE either, there's tiered papers.

I'd look at it this way, there's 70 marks on a test, we know the children in set 3-4 won't be able to answer the last 20 marks so we'll cut it off and not knock their confidence.
Likewise we know set 1 will answer the first 20 marks with ease so we'll leave those off for them to ensure they have time to attempt the challenge at the end.

Having worked in schools with both systems, I much prefer the tiers approach for children's confidence.

I have (very) vague recollections of when I was at school of having two maths papers on every end of year test - one that everyone sat and then an easier or harder one according to ability. That way there was a good chance of doing reasonably well even if the second paper was the easier one. Or proving your capabilities in even tougher questions.

Yes that's basically what we do now but split over two papers into core and support.
All students have the same 30 marks, the support get 20 easier mrks, and the core get 20 harder marks, to make a total of 50 marks per paper. Then we do calc and non calc. It's the same just looks different.

Varies by school.

At the school I worked at most recently the lower attaining students would get really demoralised if they did the paper that most others did, so we had a system of "foundation" which was easier questions plus the start of the main paper and then the "core" paper that was the main paper plus some harder questions in the end,

The actual maths gcse works the same way - there are "crossover" questions that are in both foundation and higher.

Also, the "expected" result at ks2 sats is 100.

In the transition matrices this gives an expected outcome at gcse of a 4.

(Ie the majority of children who got 100 in their sats get a 4 at gcse.)

He's only a bit above that with 103 so maybe a 5? But that is still the foundation paper (grades 1-5) whereas higher is grades 5-9

So if he makes average progress you would expect him to be doing the foundation paper.

Obviously he might work harder/you might get a tutor/he might develop an amazing ability at maths etc but that's the stats.

My DS's school has set the year 7 students for nearly everything. He is top set and they are already doing maths that I did in year 9 - top set will take further maths and statistics GCSEs so they seem to be romping through the syllabus.
His friend has difficulties with maths (dyscalculia) and is the bottom set of 6. They are working at a much slower pace with a lot of repetition. It suits him very well, and has made him more confident about learning maths. He would not do well sitting the same exam as the top set, and it would knock his self esteem.

Yes, but as I said he’d only just got his diagnosis of adhd at the start of year 6 and medication around December. So for him to go from expected to fail all sats to passing them all (I appreciate that he did just get past the 100) he made up a huge amount of learning in a short period of time.
He may well not improve much and get a 5 at the end of his secondary education, but that really isn’t what was niggling me. It was just the possibility - as I won’t actually know if it’s true or not till parents’ evening - that they just have 2 papers of high and low levels you just sit one of them.
And also, a 5 isn’t a low grade, I wouldn’t be upset at all with that at the end of the day; I just want him to do his best, be happy, be respectful and put the effort in to his studies.

Y7 end of year exams? What fresh madness is this??

It's extremely unlikely they have two completely different papers.

It is likely there is a lot of crossover content with some extension added or support included.

Email and ask, they won't mind.

I took exams at the end of year 7 30 years ago! Certainly not fresh.

In maths there is a vast range of attainment even by end of year 7.
As others have said it is demoralising to give lower ability students tests they can't easily access, whereas upper end students need a challenge at their level.

Parallel sets is usual in large comps. The numbering is probably for ease of identification. DD's comp used R1 R2 R3 and S1 S2 and S3, but 1 2 3 4 5 6 would not be unreasonable.

Exams end y7 seems a good idea to me. I get quite despondent by the amount of y11s mentioned on MN who 'don't know how' to revise.

Yes, it is niggling me enough that I need to know now 🤣 I will either email and enquire or verbally question at parents’ evening. He can’t be the only middle of the road student - so where is the cut off point? What if he does well enough that he could have done the higher paper - and what about those that sat the higher paper and got really low marks? There has to be a decent buffer at either side.
I’d just like all the students to have a decent chance to prove themselves and not be pigeon-holed so early on.

They don't tell them what sets they are in my DD's school. The children just guess dependent on the work and peers in the class.

With regard to your son saying it was easy I would just wait and see what his results are. My DD's comprehensive only sets Maths and English in Year 8 but all schools are different.

If he found it easy and gets a very good mark then that is excellent evidence to move him up a set. Surely that is the point of these assessments? There will definitely be overlap in the exams - if you DS gets 95% and someone in the group above gets 20% in the more tricky paper the school will be able to compare the results even if they are weighted differently.