Is anyone with a year 9 prepared to post a few of the NC levels they got this year? I need some points of comparison!

[seeker]

That's it really!

In case anyone's interested, mine got a range from 6b for Citizenship to 8c for History (obviously better at the past than the future!

Last Year
Maths 7c, biology and chemistry 7c, physics 6b
English 6a, history and geography 7b
Teamstuff and communication-based activities, he's around a 4b. Just don't ask about MFL

Last yr

Biology & Physics 7a, Chemistry 8c
Maths 7c
English 7b

These were the SATS levels, not sure if they're the same as the NC levels. The school were doing their own SATS, even tho' the govt had scrapped them.

Isn't it more important that your DC has improved on his Y8 levels, rather than comparing him/her with other people?

Sorry if that sounds a bit blunt - it wasnt meant to

Absolutely. But I think it's also interesting to see where your child is in relation to others at the stage of theri education. Apart from anything else, if your school were to be telling you that your child was doing incredibly well, and you discovered that practically every 14 year old in the country was doing better, then you minght want to have a word with the school. or if your child was worried about their own progress, it would be helpful to say "Well, I've done a bit of research, and other people in other schools are getting the same grades"

I also don't think straight nosiness is a bad motive , either!

I like a bit of nosiness myself too, Seeker. Ds's school is a high performing Grammar and v high grades are just ho hum to the school. In a comp, there would be much more of a spread of results so more a feeling of achievement for doing well. Yours is at a Grammar as well, isn't he, Seeker?

My boy is at a comp and has Asperger's, so the teacher he has makes a huge difference to his ability to focus and learn.
Disorganised, over-colloquial and woolly and he either crashes and burns or goes into standby mode.

Our KS3 results in Science went from a level 7a to below level 3. That's the spread across the cohort, across the ability range. So other people in other schools will be getting the same levels, whatever the level...

Our brightest students get levels 6-8.

Yes, she is at a grammar. One of the reasons I asked was that this time we were given a table showing the % of girls at each level - for a high performing grammar there seemed to be quite a lot of level 5s and not many level 8s. I wasn't really asking in relation to dd - (although the opportunity to boast about her 8c in History did not pass my by!) - I was just interested in quite how much value the Grammar added. Assuming that most of them would have been on 3 level 5s or at least 2 5s and a 4 at the beginning of year 7, I was a bit surprised to see quite a few still on level 5 in year 9.

I am very ambivalent about grammar schools - so I do quite a lot of pondering about them!

Well to add to you ponderings, DS scored level 7s in English, History and Geography, and level 8s in Maths and science - at the local comp

I still maintain its about how your child progresses that's the issue - what does it matter how the rest of the year group do?

Or what type of school they attend???

Grammars have no monopoly on bright kids - only the most tutored!

ds1 is in yr8 (non-selective comp), but his targets are for end-of-year-9. He is on target or above target for all subjects (because he has achieved his yr9 target already in some subjects.)

He has targets of L8 for quite a lot of subjects: English, Maths, Science, History, Geography ... etc.

Quite a few of his (top) set Maths have achieving L8 this year and some got L8 last year.

MFL is definitely a lower target - 6 or 7 I think.

'I still maintain its about how your child progresses that's the issue - what does it matter how the rest of the year group do?

Or what type of school they attend???

Grammars have no monopoly on bright kids - only the most tutored!"

Absolutely. And this thread isn't actually about my child. If you live in an 11+ area it is the received wisdom (not, I hasten to add, received by me!) that it is all important to get your child into Grammar school.However, it is obvious that the grammar school is really just the top set of a proper comprehensive school, and the high school that the rest of the children go to is a comprehensive without a top set - in other words, not a comprehensive at all. People look at the high school, and congratulate themselves on not sending their child there - forgetting that IF their child had gone there, they would be getting the same results as they are getting at grammar - the reason the High school results don;t look so impressive is because the kids who would have got the good results are in the gramamr!

Considering the degree to which grammars select I've also thought some of their results aren't all that special. I reckon it's due to the 11+ not being a very accurate discriminator of raw ability (whether that's due to tutoring or not I'm not sure), but another possible explanation is that at this stage good results are achieved as much by diligence on the part of the children as by ability, so the lazy so-and-sos are going to fall behind those that are making an effort. Maybe the 11+ needs to select on willingness to work hard as well as ability?

As for the year 9 levels, thankfully mine doesn't have any and if she did they'd probably range from really good to really mediocre according to her mood at the time of the assesment as well as the subject. I'm happy she's learning and progressing though.

Well I don't like to boast, but two of the yr 5's I teach have just achieved a 6B on the KS3 maths paper

Girls grammar

English - 8
Maths - 8
science - 7
MFL - 7
DT - 7
Geography - 7
History - 8 (only 3% managed to achieve a level 8 in history)
Art and Design - 7

results for all students at her school range from level 6 to level 8, with most subjects having a majority of level 7.

Hmm, interesting. DD is at the local comp, allbeit in the grammar stream because she just missed out on selective.

Most of the grades talked about on this thread are brilliant. Like Roisins DS, DD is reaching and surpassing her end of year 9 targets. None of which are L8!!

However, she has done her options and a very good, sound set she has and is already working at C's, some B's for all of them. She will be taking 14 GCSE's, the same as the students at the grammar school and is expected (if she works hard, of course) to get all A*-C grades.

Not really sure where I was going with that, but it bigged DD up for a moment!

Sorry for sounding off earlier.

We are fortunate in not living in a grammar school area so our children are spared the pressure of having to pass or fail an exam to determine their secondary education while they are still 10 (or just 11).

However, it does become rather wearing when (some) parents with children at selective schools seem to delight in congratulating themselves that their child does not go to the comp. And then making a huge fuss on how high up the league tables their school is, before their child has even taken any public exams.

Mumblechum - re " more of a feeling of achievement for doing well" at a comprehensive. TBH, the students are encouraged to excel in every area so the academic success is treated no differently to sporting, drama, or music success. In fact, they are all beaten by any charitable work done by the students.

Seeker - I think you phrased your reply to my post extremely well - thank you.

DD went to the same school a few years earlier, but she's a different human.
She was hitting L7a/8 almost across the board with 2 exceptions where she got 7b. GCSEs were all A* and A.
That's the way she's wired, I'm just as proud of my son. He's worked as hard as she has.

I suspect 3% of DS comp got level 8 for history, from what DS says about his class. DS got a level 8.5 (we don't get As or Bs) for maths, level 7s for science & humanities, he has dyslexic problems, so writing a problem, english was a 5.83 and MFL.

local comp.
end of year nine levels given-
English 7C
Maths 8B
Science 8B

Son is in top sets and most of the kids are similar.

My dd entered with 3 L5s

She's now at L7 for most things - some top L7, some L6a/b (including MFL) if that helps. At good comp.

I think Seeker is entirely justified in asking question. Ds has just had his report (Yr 7) and there are all these levels, but you just don't know quite what they all mean.

It's all very well his getting, say, level X for maths, but what if everyone else of his ability got level Y? There was no comment along the lines of "Egbert achieved level 6 but he should be level 10" etc etc.

Most of the teachers' comments were very bland, apart from the science teacher's cryptic remark "Egbert should do much better now he has been moved seat" !!?!!

Does your son not have end of year individual levels set by the school for each subject?

That way you can see whether Egbert is achieving the best he can for his ability level.

We have the end of year target and a termly result on our reports so you can see how you DC is progressing over the year.

As I sad (I think) my question was not Egber-specific. My own particular Egbertina is doing very nicely, thank you.

What I'm wondering about is where they all end up at the end of KS3 - after all the angst and kerfuffle that is secondary transition. I am particularly interested because my Egbertina made grammar school by 1 mark - and many of her friends didn't make it by a similar margin. just mondering if it makes any difference at all, actually!

I think it's a fair question, Seeker.
In a mixed ability cohort you expect a mixed result.
But where the cohort has been selected, if you're not seeing good results across the board, perhaps the teaching needs looking at.