End of KS1 teacher assessments - good, but how good?

liubeliu

My DS got Level 3's across the board but now he is KS2 it has been a struggle to get teachers to give him the extra work he needed to stretch him. We looked at other schools, one head left us gobsmacked. His response was,

"His ability to bank Level 5's or above in Year 6 is assured. We would not do any more with him and I have to focus my teacher resource to those that are borderline 4/5 so we can get those into the Level 5 category for our stats as this is what our Board of Governours expect this and we are not alone in this endeavour within the area" He did say that if we wanted more there were two independent prep schools he could recommended

Having a G&T child is a struggle and difficult not to look like a pushy parent instead of one that is only after the best for their child. I feel for you all as I have been there.

The Year 2 in DS school got 53% Level 3 in Reading, 20% in Writing and 47% in Maths. Speaking to parents who had Children in Year 2, indeed the brighter kids got left to themsleves, the middle got extra help and lower achievers spent more time with TA. Looks like postcode lottery has created this competitiveness locally :-(

peachyprice

I do find it quite frustrating that they drop the a, b, c, sub-levels when it comes to SAT's results.

DD go a 5c for reading at the end of year 5, her SAT result at the end of yr 6 is 5, but that gives no indication as to whether she's progressed to 5a or stagnated at 5c over the last year.

Maths is her weakest subject, at the begining of yr 6 she was still only achieving a 3b. She's had alot of extra help this year and her teacher said if the gods were with her, the wind blowing in the right direction, she was having a particularly good day on the day she should get a 4c, possibly a 4b, well she got a 4, but there's no indication as to whether she scraped in by the skin of her teeth or it all suddenly clicked.

JodyBPM

jellyhead wrote: »

If your daughter is exceptionally clever then the teacher would tell you at parents evening.

I'm not sure if they would? They seem to carefully use the same language at parents evening that they do in the reports "working at well above the level expected for a child of his/her age" is the phrase that I hear repeated over and over about both my children. The student teacher who was sitting with the class teacher let "he's an exceptionally clever boy" slip out about my DS at the last parents evening, and the teacher gave him such a look, that it was clear he shouldn't have said that.(perhaps because its opinion rather than fact?)

I only found out that DD was in the G&T programme for maths when she told me she'd been going up to the junior school for extra maths lessons, which concerned me as I'd been told she was "working at well above the level expected" so I couldn't understand why she'd need extra lessons. When I asked them even then they were quite coy about it, before they admitted it was a G&T programme to stretch them. I actually think her maths levels will be quite high, as it was only 4 out of the year of 90 that were selected for this programme (and she was the only girl!) so that does suggest to me that she's right up the top with maths. I've no idea if she's on any G&T programmes for any of the other subjects though, or even if they run them.

It's clearly not the school's policy to tell you if they have identified your child as high perfoming, over and above "he/she is working at well above the level expected..."

Anyone know why the school would have such a policy? Presumably its related to them being so young, and I appreciate its entirely possible that a child who was performing very highly at 6 or 7 may well have "normalized" by the end of primary, but at the same time, I think I would be better placed to support and encourage my children if I had a clearer idea of their abilities.

peachyprice

JodyBPM wrote: »

Anyone know why the school would have such a policy? Presumably its related to them being so young, and I appreciate its entirely possible that a child who was performing very highly at 6 or 7 may well have "normalized" by the end of primary, but at the same time, I think I would be better placed to support and encourage my children if I had a clearer idea of their abilities.

I think there's an element of that, children certainly can learn in fits and start, a child who is potentially G&T at pne point in time can peter out and end up nearer to average.

Unfortunately there is also a proportion of parents who, given such information, will then push their child to achieve even higher. I have seen it with several parents in DD's school. One girl in particular has had hardly any childhood, all her spare time has been spent with tutors of one form or another, and still she didn't pass her 11+ even though she was predicted to do wonders.

Not telling parents I guess gives the child the chance to show their full natural potential rather than one that has been forced out of them.

It also eleviates the gaggle of Alpha mothers with their superiority complex strutting around the playground looking down on everyone else's children who haven't made it into the G&T elite

patchwork_cat

Ah good old G&T!

At primary my DS was not picked for G&T in Maths even though he got level 3 at KS1 and went on to get level 5 in KS2. He got level 8 at KS3, an A and A* in stats and maths at GCSE and an A at A level! He was recognised as G&T at secondary.

He did better than a lot of the ones sent to the high school for G&T in maths!

jellyhead

I'm not positive but I think that in our school they would ask parents permission before transporting them to a different school?

I also thought they asked permission to put a child on the G&T register, but I don't know because my children aren't G&T.

I had to give permission for mine to go on the aimhigher register (it's for children who could go to university but their postcode suggests that they might not get the required support at home - they go on council estate postcode alone, so they miss out children who are in private rentals).

jellyhead

peachyprice wrote: »

I do find it quite frustrating that they drop the a, b, c, sub-levels when it comes to SAT's results.

DD go a 5c for reading at the end of year 5, her SAT result at the end of yr 6 is 5, but that gives no indication as to whether she's progressed to 5a or stagnated at 5c over the last year.

Maths is her weakest subject, at the begining of yr 6 she was still only achieving a 3b. She's had alot of extra help this year and her teacher said if the gods were with her, the wind blowing in the right direction, she was having a particularly good day on the day she should get a 4c, possibly a 4b, well she got a 4, but there's no indication as to whether she scraped in by the skin of her teeth or it all suddenly clicked.

Oh, that is frustrating! At our school you'd have been told the sub-level for the level 4 result.

Also, new for this year, we get told how many sub-levels they have progressed over the year, with 2 being the expected average.

So, you'd have been told how many sub-levels your daughter had progressed in reading and would have been able to work out which level 5 sub'-level she'd achieved.

room512

jellyhead wrote: »

I'm not positive but I think that in our school they would ask parents permission before transporting them to a different school?

I also thought they asked permission to put a child on the G&T register, but I don't know because my children aren't G&T.

I had to give permission for mine to go on the aimhigher register (it's for children who could go to university but their postcode suggests that they might not get the required support at home - they go on council estate postcode alone, so they miss out children who are in private rentals).

You don't have to have permission to put children on a G+T register (I'm the G+T coordinator at our school). You do need permission to transport children to take them to a different school. We have recently had a few sessions for some Y6 children to go to a local high school after school to receive some masterclasses and had to have permission from parents.

JodyBPM

jellyhead wrote: »

I'm not positive but I think that in our school they would ask parents permission before transporting them to a different school?

It's a separate school, but part of a federation, with the same head, and although on a different site, only a 2 min walk away. Its quite usual for the infants to use the facilities of the junior school for various things, they are probably over there at least once a week. I may well have signed a general consent for them to walk the children round there at some point, although I don't recall. I have no issues with the staff walking them round.

I also thought they asked permission to put a child on the G&T register, but I don't know because my children aren't G&T.

I definitely didn't get asked permission. I knew nothing about it until DD told me about her "extra maths" lessons as the junior school, and I spoke to the teacher to find out more.

I had to give permission for mine to go on the aimhigher register (it's for children who could go to university but their postcode suggests that they might not get the required support at home - they go on council estate postcode alone, so they miss out children who are in private rentals).

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text above

balletshoes

peachyprice wrote: »

I do find it quite frustrating that they drop the a, b, c, sub-levels when it comes to SAT's results.

DD go a 5c for reading at the end of year 5, her SAT result at the end of yr 6 is 5, but that gives no indication as to whether she's progressed to 5a or stagnated at 5c over the last year.

Maths is her weakest subject, at the begining of yr 6 she was still only achieving a 3b. She's had alot of extra help this year and her teacher said if the gods were with her, the wind blowing in the right direction, she was having a particularly good day on the day she should get a 4c, possibly a 4b, well she got a 4, but there's no indication as to whether she scraped in by the skin of her teeth or it all suddenly clicked.

now thats odd Peachy - I got my DD's report this week and I have received sublevels her year 6 SATS results.