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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

cat target levels explained for year 8

41 replies

GREENTREE · 19/05/2009 16:19

I am unsure of what the levels mean, my child has 4 to 6a, can someone help to point me in te right direction of panic or ease

OP posts:

titchy · 19/05/2009 17:15

How is he with dictating? oR USING A COMPUTER sorry for caps!

Original poster

GREENTREE · 19/05/2009 17:19

sorry for the delay did not know i had to change the page new member today whoops feeling thick

OP posts:

Original poster

GREENTREE · 19/05/2009 17:24

He did try the computer but he was afraid it would get broken, one of his teachers would not let him return it before all the kiddies came out of the class at the end of the day, he tends to get picked on,

Is there any test he can do to analyse his weakness and strenghts in english, he was absent from school when he had some sort of english test in Feb, details unknown of what test that was child does not communicate about

OP posts:

BodenGroupie · 19/05/2009 19:47

Really interested in this. My DD is in year 8, started year 7 as a level 5 but her end of KS3 target (year 8 in her school) after they did CATS was a level 7. She's still a level 5 and they tell me there's nothing to worry about! Same with Maths, started as 5, target was 6 and she's still a 5. They insist that she's one of the brightest kids in her class. They only stream in Maths and she's in the middle one. I'm absolutely frantic but they treat me like I'm worrying about nothing. Can't understand why they give targets which are so off the mark.

She's doing well in MFL (level 5) and ICT (6) but still only 4 in Science.

Good luck with your meeting - I'll be interested to hear the outcome. Sorry, didn't mean to hijack!

MaureenMLove · 19/05/2009 20:18

I'm not sure what they will do in your local authority, but if you are seeing someone tomorrow, hopefully, they'll have some answers for you. Are you having a meeting because of his progress? If so, that's good news. Really, I don't think he's progress sounds so bad though. I'm sure given the right support at this stage, before he gets bogged down with GCSE work (the summer term of Yr9), he'll carry on witht those good grades.

Good luck tomorrow Do post back your findings!

seeker · 21/05/2009 18:28

I should get my dd's year 8 levels tomorrow - if there's anyone still on this thread, I'll post them for a comparison. I hate not knowing how my dd is doing compared to other people!

OrmIrian · 22/05/2009 16:15

boden - similar situation here. DS started at level 5 and is still there at nearly the end of yr 7. But he's doing really well apparently. Have let it go up till now but I need to nail this at next parents evening.

BodenGroupie · 23/05/2009 18:50

OrmIrian - I often feel that my DD's school is so relieved that she's one of the well behaved, polite ones, they don't really pay much attention to the academic side. I just keep reminding myself she's very happy there.Maybe it will all fall into place when they start GCSE work in September.

magentadreamer · 24/05/2009 11:13

At my DD's school they ignored KS2 SATS evels and tested them all again in the first part of Xmas term in yr7. DD's targets were pretty much the same for all subjects apart from PE,Art,DT, MFL and Drama. How they came to set the same target for Science - a subject DD got a level 5 in KS2 SATS and for Maths - where I suspect DD scraped a level 4 I'm not too sure. DD is now a whole level above her end of year target in Science and two sub levels above in Maths -with talk of an extra push this half term and DD might even get another sub level! For Science I suspect the target was a little low in the first place for Maths it was probably spot on given DD's past Maths history. DD's English has remained pretty static and she's a sub level below her target but doing well according to her teacher. What I did find at parents evening the teachers that came across as being fun but firm and enthusiastic were the subject teachers where DD had either met her end of year targets or was above them. My personal opinion regarding targets etc is that if set realistically they can give a DC something to aim for but they must be a right number crunching nightmare. When I read DD's report I was more interested in the effort/behaviour/homework/progress/ involvement etc grades they give and the comments then if she'd got a 5 something or other. DD goes to a bog standard comp with a very wide range of abilities there are DC's there that will be lucky to get a level 4 at the end of KS3 and others who could get a level 8.

bruffin · 25/05/2009 00:13

Science is a funny one as DS(yr8)'s target is 7b at the end of year9. but he managed to get a level 7 in his yr 7 exam and an average high 6 over yr 7. This year he got a slightly lower mark, but his estimated grade at end of year 9 is still higher than his target grade, school are definitely not worried about him.

From what I can gather they teach each science topic sometimes up to gcse standard and do an end of topic test to top end level 7. They then take an average of those tests to work out the level.

For maths it seems to have been more of a growth.
KS2 level 5b,
Yr7 level 6b and
yr8 level 7c
his ks3 target is 7b

English (dyslexic problems)
KS2
writing 4c
comprehension 5b
overall 4a

YR7 level 5b
yr8 level 6c
KS3 target 7

In Humanites he is around mid 6's but teachers say this doesn't reflect his true ability because of literacy problems.

French and German mid level 4's but unfortunately seems to have the only awful teacher in the school, thankfully got him moved out of german class last term and just had a letter to say he will be moved down in French as well

sel1 · 08/07/2009 17:06

hi new to this. just had my sons report. He is only level 4 in the main important subjects (eng, maths, science. He achieved good solid level 4s in KS2 so we are concerned on his lack of progress, should we be? I am waiting for the school to get back to me. We read about the new government thing on one to one tuition in schools to start, is this going to be for everyone? He is going into year 9 in sept which is worrying

magentadreamer · 08/07/2009 17:48

Hi Sel1 from what I can gather a student is expected to move up two sub levels a year so a student on say a 4b would have an end of year target of a 5c. Did your Ds meet his end of yr7 targets? Was this year just a blip perhaps? How has he got on with the teachers teaching the core subjects? I've found the subjects were my DD has had enthusiastic teachers she's come on leaps and bounds but with the ok(ish) teachers she's plodded a bit and reached the end of year targets but not till this term. At my DD's school they ignored KS2 SATS and tested them all again plus did CATS to work out targets for the end of yr7 DD's targets were pretty much on a par to what her KS2 SATS results were.

Hopefully the school will get back to you soon and be able to answer your queries.

sel1 · 08/07/2009 18:03

His targets for end of yr 7 and yr 8 were level 5 but isnt there yet! our school go by 4.50 what he was in science not your usual 4a etc, i think he is slipping back

magentadreamer · 08/07/2009 18:08

I'm not an expert but I'd have assumed that a student who got level 4's in yr6 should at least be getting low 5's by the end of yr8 What have his teachers said in his report?

sel1 · 08/07/2009 21:13

Well good comments but levels still worrying to me, spose ill av to see what response i get. But from yr6 to yr8 same level seems lack of progress to me

BodenGroupie · 10/07/2009 17:59

Just had a phone call from head of maths as I've phoned yet again about lack of progress over two years. He's now admitting that DD has moved .7 of a level in two years which he agrees is unacceptable - she's 5M having just missed a 5 in SATS two years ago. He now implies that there are issues with the teacher which I know already from other parents. He's promised a new teacher in September and says that should make a difference.

She's got level 6 in all the subjects she chose for GCSE (they do condensed KS3 at her school) so I'm not too worried about those, just frustrated that no one would listen to me.

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