11 Plus Exams Forum

Apologies if this has been discussed before...

We have just received my daughter's predicted GCSE grades - year 10, girls' grammar school.

KS3 results: Maths - level 8, English & Science level 7. Yet she is predicted B/C for all three subjects.

Does this sound odd to you?

Thanks.

In reply to your question your DD's grades do sound odd - but maybe there is method to this? - are they trying to spur them all on? I would definitely ask the teacher/school.

Our school uses target grades rather than predicted grades - the first time they use the word predicted is for A2. They then tell you whether you are on or off target. Of the 18 GCSE's my DC have sat so far I think all were on Target except for 1 that exceeded the target (Target A got A*). The year 10 targets were "upped" in Year 11 so maybe that will happen.

At my DCs' school the GCSE targets are set based on Yellis (sp?) tests taken at the beginning of year 10. They are largely expected to exceed those targets. The targets can be adjusted, but as one of DD's teachers explained to me, it is not in the teachers' interest to change the target as they are judged on how many achieve/exceed their target. I suspect that targets may be set lightly low on some occasions because of this.

I would expect a level 8 in Maths to get an A or A*, ditto level 7 in Science. These are the targets my DC was set and most GS would do the same.

Not very stretching imho .

Sorry, I meant to say, Ito s possible at DCs' school to perform poorly in the Yellis tests and have the target set too low (this has happened in English for DD).

YELLIS doesn't give very stretching targets - some schools use YELLIS plus one.

Many school use FFT (Fischer Family trust) to set targets -

YELLIS doesn't give very stretching targets - some schools use YELLIS +1

That makes sense - DD has been told that the targets are a minimum. Sorry to hijack the thread OP, but could this be the case with your DD?

Thanks for the replies.

I have spoken with the DH (Deputy Head not Darling Husband!) and it seems that the school have used a computer based version of Yellis for the first time this year which has thrown up some very odd results. They are are currently assessing whether this is the best method of target setting.

Some children appear not to do themselves justice in computer based tests (particularly those who don't spend their whole lives online) and can be phased by the speed with which others around them are zooming through the questions, resulting in rushed answers and low predictions.

We have told her to ignore them.

Thanks again.

DD got v odd Yellis results in year 7 - school set target grades and resolutely put them on every E&A report. DD consistently exceeded them from day 1 - I have given up trying to get teachers to recognise this.
She tends to explain to new teachers that she usually gets higher grades

Lol

What made me laugh today (or was it cry??), was that she came home from school very happy because her teacher had congratulated her (in her Physics book) on meeting her target grade. I then pointed out that her target grade is B/C - not A as she had thought, which is her current 'working at' grade.