Levels/ Sub-levels etc!

[fatbananas]

Hello, I know I've seen discussion on this subject in the past but can't find it now. I've got parent/ teacher interviews next week and want to try and assess how much progress (or not) DS has made. Is it 2 or 3 sub-levels that a child should expect to have made over the course of a year? So if a child was 3b would that make the expected level of progress 4c or 4b? Does it go: 3b-3a-4c-4b etc?

I also read on here somewhere about sublevels being abolished. Has this happened yet? And, if so, what other means do teachers use to determine where within a whole level a particular child is?

Thanks for any help anyone can give!

[moved]

The average child should make two sub-levels of progress each year.

Levels will be abolished from September 2014; however, they will still be tested at the end of each Key Stage until the summer of 2015.

The reason for the test to remain on the old system is two-fold. First, it would be unkind to the year 6 pupils to examine them on a curriculum that they have not been taught throughout upper ks2 and secondly the tests take over three years to develop completely. Questions were commissioned for 2015 a year ago, prior to the curriculum changes. The curriculum is also still in draft format.

[fatbananas]

Thank you, Moved. So a 3b child could expect to be 4c by the end of a school year?

[Kingfisher]

That may be the case for Maths - I do not know this area well so I am not an expert. For English, however, it is the piece of work which will be awarded a sub level; a student will not necessarily achieve the same sub level for each piece of work as different factors will apply. The whole level is a much better gauge.

I am glad they are going.

[fatbananas]

Ah, thankyou, Kingfisher. This explains a comment by DS's literacy teacher last year, about 'nudging' levels in some pieces of work.