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Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:20 pm
by chris2020
What attainment level should my son be now to have a realistic chance of passing in Sep 2016? Read some place that they should be level 5 but not sure if that's at the end of year6 or at the time they take the test ie at the end of year 5. Any views anyone?

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:33 pm
by nsh34
From previous experience, your son should be aiming for level 6 or above by the end of year , as a guide if he is hitting level 5 in year then he should be on track. encourage independance and get him to read everything !!

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:37 pm
by moved
No levels anymore. Old money, level 5 by the end of yr 5. New money, exceeding in both maths and English.

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 9:31 am
by Settembrini
At the end of year 4 my son was 4b for reading, 4c for writing and 4b for maths, and he passed the Redbridge test comfortably. Hope this helps!

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:19 am
by chris2020
Settembrini wrote:At the end of year 4 my son was 4b for reading, 4c for writing and 4b for maths, and he passed the Redbridge test comfortably. Hope this helps!
Thanks for sharing. I suppose the CEM test is quite different compared to the tests they do in school. I'm starting to think that it's the children who put the most effort into learning rows and rows of synonyms,antonyms etc without necessarily understanding it all that pass the 11+ and not necessarily the smartest.

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:29 am
by chris2020
moved wrote:No levels anymore. Old money, level 5 by the end of yr 5. New money, exceeding in both maths and English.
I'm not keen on the new levels. Been told that son exceeded in maths. Only after pressing the teacher told me that he's level 5b. Given that he's only 2 months into year 5 I take this as I don't need to focus too much on his maths.

I do however need to focus on his English as he only got an achieved (teacher wouldn't tell me this exact level in old money). I'm hoping it was a high achieved which would indicate that there's hope that he could reach exceeded by the end of the year if he put his mind to it.
So in summary for me a more detailed system to measure attainment would be much more helpful.

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:50 am
by Tolstoy
I like the new system. Many DP still don't understand the old levels and sub- levels. This new business of
A = Below expected level
B = Expected level. (Average then)
C = Exceeding level ( Above average then )
D= greatly exceeding ( speaks for itself, extremelly gifted in that area)

When I was teaching that was all DPs wanted to know. The rest they left to us. :)

With CEM if they are good at maths then just wait until a couple of months before exam and then work on speed. Same goes for NVR.

VR, then yes, start building up their vocab now and work on spelling. Also make sure DC is able to do Comprehensions at speed, so reading with understanding at pace is an important skill to acquire. Interestingly my DC could do this whilst reading aloud but not in his head and I didn't pick up on it in time.

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:06 pm
by chris2020
Tolstoy,

Your point about comprehension is a good one. My son is relatively weak in that area compared to his maths ability. And I too noticed that he seems to understand a lot more what he's reading when he reads out loud. So when you realized this with your child did you change anything in terms of his/her preparation for the exam? Surely they'll not be allowed to read out lout even if they try to do it rather quietly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:56 pm
by PurpleDuck
Agree with the posts above - you need to get to a good level 5 (so 5b/5a in the old system) at the end of year 5, so most likely your DC would finish Y4/start Y5 with level 4 (DS had a mix of 4a and 4b).

I am not that keen on the new 'below/as expected/exceeding' grades, the old levels and sub-levels were by far more clear to me. In our school, there are just three different grades, there doesn't seem to be an equivalent of 'D=greatly exceeding', as mentioned by Tolstoy, so you can't tell whether a child exceeds expectations by a tiny bit or a wide margin. Another thing that bugs me is that I don't know at what level the expectations are set! How does the 'expected' level compare to what you need to be potentially considered 'of a selective ability'? This is all a bit of an academic discussion for me, as we are on a way out from a primary school, but I can see current Y4/Y5 parents struggling, trying to figure out where their children are vs. what's expected for 11+ :?

Re: Attainment levels at start of year 5

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:34 pm
by Tolstoy
chris2020 I didn't really come up with an answer as he only had a week to go till the test and DC completely bombed the VR section.

If a DC is exceeding expectations then I would assume they are of selective ability. Isn't that the whole point of Grammars, to gear teaching to these DC? I can't see why one would need more info than that. Yes some of the super selects may require the brightest of the bright but many DP will train their DC to sit the tests which bare little on no resemblance to SATs levels anyway.

Maybe ditching levels et al will prevent parents obsessing about them and prepping DC unnecessarily and then complaining DC is bored in class. :lol: