W levels?

[emd4]

Can someone please explain to me the W levels. I understand that they are before level one?
Ds has just finished year 1 and had all wc's and wb's in his report, not sure if c is good or bad?
I also understand they are using p levels for him but there is no mention of them in the report and wonder if they are the same thing as the w levels? It's hard to work out how far behind he is when I don't know what his current levels mean.

Thanks x

I don't know if this helps, but if a child is "working towards" level 1, then a school can put a "w".
The p-levels were then developed so progress could be shown for those children whose difficulties meant they may never attain Nat Curr levels, but were still making progress at their level - ie they were developed in special schools, alothough some mainstream schools use them too now.
Sorry, don't understand the 'wc' or 'wb's though.

I am a teacher, but have never come across WC, WB etc!

However, the 'W' stands for 'working towards (level 1)'.

I am guessing that the C and B have been used to indicate how far along the W level the child is. When children reach level 1, teachers use A, B and C to show whether the child is only just working at level 1 or has almost completed level 1. (These are called 'sublevels').

An 'A' is better than a 'C', so if I'm correct with your school's W levels, the progression would be as follows:

WC, WB, WA, 1C, 1B, 1A, 2C, 2B, 2A etc.

To give you some idea of how quickly a child is expected to move through the levels, schools aim to move children up two sub-levels each year e.g. from 1B to 2C. The national average level for a child leaving Year 2 is 2B.

I would say that a child working below level 1 at the end of Year 1 is below average.

Hope that helps!