english results

[ConcernedMum]

They will probably assess them again as they come into year six but I'm afraid both of my elder girls just "trod water" really as the teachers concentrated on getting the whole class through the 4 barrier and the ones that were level 5 in year 5 were not really extended.

This seems to be built into the system
A year 2 pupil of above average ability will be assessed as a 3B.
Children advance on average at 2 sublevels a year so that child would be
4C in year 3
4A in year 4
5B in year 5
6C in year 6
Given that on average, brighter children progress faster, anyone who gets a 3 in year 2 would expect to be a comfortable 5 in year 5 and a 6 in year 6.

At my son's school no-one was assessed by the form teacher as a level 6 (spookily, her assessments exactly matched the SATS results, both for my son and the percentages for the class!). The reason being they hadn't done the level 6 work. In common with several others, I suspect, DS was assessed as a 5B in year 5 and a 5A in year 6 having learnt nothing new all year!

Unless a child is obviously so exceptional that they are getting taught separately (which applies to 1 child out of 120 juniors in DS's school) there is no scope for children to move on beyond level 5; even though in my son's class, for Maths, about 60% got 3s in year 2 and 'should' by my reckoning, be level 6s by now.

[Guest55]

When there was a level 6 paper then the 'level 6' they got was nowhere near a KS3 level 6.

The vast majority of children just do not have the maturity to be level 6 in 'using and applying' - they will also not cover anything like the full range of level 6 topics.

Why the rush to be level 6? There is FAR more benefit in broadening by entering the Primary maths challenge - a gold is that is worth far more. NRICH also has a very wide range of rich resources.

[ConcernedMum]

Why the rush to be level 6? There is FAR more benefit in broadening by entering the Primary maths challenge - a gold is that is worth far more. NRICH also has a very wide range of rich resources.

I couldn't agree more! But in my son's school's case they didn't do PMC or anything from NRICH - they just did endless practice on the level 5 work.

[Guest55]

Perhaps the PTA could offer to subsidise the PMC

http://www.m-a.org.uk/education/primary ... challenge/

It quite cheap.

perhaps your child could have a go at the questions on-line?

[Chelmsford mum]

I agree Guest 55 that getting a level 6 is of itself of no special value.I did suggest maths challenge to the school, no reply.It is always possible to extend children at home but sometimes this just makes the situation in school worse, as the children get even more bored.Both DDs really spend yr 6 waiting for the class to all get to 4+ level and not learning anything new.

Ah well maybe next year when both are in secondary they will feel more challenged and hopefully re discover a liking for maths.(They both liked it once ).

[Guest55]

I think that sounds very sad ... in my DC's primary they aspired to get about 66% level 5s ... made Y6 such a different experience.

[Tolstoy]

I think CM has the same problem we have. The school my children go to has a high proportion of slow learners as the area we live in has above average social deprivation.

Like CM's school the main aim is to get everyone at level 4 hence the problem with DS1 not getting the support he should have had. They knew he would cruise a level 4 so even though he had what I preceive as a genuine need it wasn't addressed.

It is one of the reasons I support Grammar schools and I am sure I am not alone in this. Much as the government seem to be trying to address the issue of ensuring every child acheives what they are capable of I still think that all the support goes to the children who are learning at a slower pace. The fact is that for many this is not due to any specific need but they still get extra help rather than just accepting the fact that they will get lower SATs levels. Anything higher is really just diguising the fact that they are a slow learner.

I asked for extra support for my son but was basically told that I knew the score and it couldn't happen i.e bright child coping fine.

[Guest55]

The village school where my DC went had special needs children too - they just set across some year group to get the brighter children the right amount of challenge.

Try quoting the ECM agenda and personalisation ... they cannot ignore the more able. If the KS1 level 3 children don't get level 5 then 'average progress' measure will not be good either. Ofsted are also increasingly interested in provision for able pupils.

[Tolstoy]

The problem with DS1 was that he did not do a key stage 1 english test but a welsh test. He got a level 2 in welsh but as we do not speak welsh and very few children in the school did this was to be expected. At the time I was worried about his spelling but had been more or less assured by his then teacher, also the head, that this would not stop him getting a level 5 in key stage 2 SATs she felt that he would do well enough in the other areas to compensate.

Unfortunately he switched schools and hence no level 5. Do you know, Guest55, if his secondary school will be given the full picture of his education up to date? Throughout his time at his english primary I just didn't seem to be able to get them to understand the situation with catagory A welsh primaries. I seemed to have to re-explain at every parents evening why their written work wasn't of the standard they expected and found it very frustrating.

For DS2 it won't be a problem as he was taught the basics when he switched schools, better teacher, and is already level 5 in writing.

[Guest55]

Tolstoy - I don't know what is transferred in your LA. I would write to the new school and give the facts - this should ensure they are well-placed to understand.