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Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school?
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 2:50 pm
by fantasyvn2008
Could you pls advise?
There is a primary school that I hope my child will study there.
Normally the level 5 achievement at that school is very high. However, in 2013, its level 5 result decreases very significantly.
Does it mean that the school's quality is not as good as it was?
My sincere thanks,
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:14 pm
by Tinkers
Could be all sorts of reasons.
Teacher leaving or off sick long term. Can cause disruption.
Children all came down ill during the week (that happened one year to a school near me, lots of children were ill the week of testing or were recovering), so not at their best?
He's thing to do is ask if there's a reason. Then take it from there.
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:55 pm
by anotherworriedmum
How big is the school? A couple of children can make a big difference to a small schools data.
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:22 pm
by moved
A couple of special needs children in that year. Check the surrounding data (years before and after). If that year was an anomaly then don't worry.
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:18 pm
by Minesatea
From experience I would say the time to worry is if the drop in results coincided with a change in headteacher and subsequent retirement or leaving of significant numbers of the teaching staff.
If the staff has been relatively stable then it is probably a blip. Can you find the 2014 results?
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:14 pm
by Guest55
Could be a weak cohort; what is the progress data like?
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:08 am
by fantasyvn2008
Thank you for your kind replies.
I don't have enough data to understand the situation better. I know that the head teacher had left one year before and it is a small school (around 220 pupils). But apart from that, I don't have other substantial information.
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:03 pm
by Guest55
Look at the DfE tables and check the progress % in Maths and English. Are they over 90%?
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:08 pm
by magwich2
Could be that the poor teachers are spending most of their day cutting up little bits of paper to "track" children progress and attainment - in my view EVERY primary school classroom should have a HUGE poster on the wall with the slogan "NOBODY EVER MADE A PIG FATTER BY WEIGHING IT" Even level 5 isn't really very high.
Re: Reason for lower Level 5 achievement at a primary school
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:32 pm
by mystery
fantasyvn2008 wrote:Thank you for your kind replies.
I don't have enough data to understand the situation better. I know that the head teacher had left one year before and it is a small school (around 220 pupils). But apart from that, I don't have other substantial information.
What do the DfE performance tables say for KS2 2014? They're reasonably detailed and there must have been about 30 children in year 6 (ours had under 10 last year so the results are going to be much more unreliable than yours). Are they way off national average for level 5s in all the subjects quoted? What is progress like? Have a good read. Doesn't sound as though you are looking in the right place if you have so little information.