premature children

capers123 · Post by **capers123** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:04 pm

Guest87, perhaps you could forward some pointers to Etienne for inclusion in the next Q&A's.

Katie · Post by **Katie** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:27 pm

Brilliant news for you. Best wishes.

Marylou · Post by **Marylou** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:19 pm

Just found an article about prematurity and school performance:

http://education.guardian.co.uk/earlyye ... 36,00.html

watdad · Post by **watdad** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:36 pm

I donâ€™t get this whole standardisation thing. I understand some kids have been at school longer than others, but surely that is only applicable to the reception classes.

My understanding was the 11+ is based on KS2 havenâ€™t all kids been doing KS2 for the same length of time? Therefore, why the need for standardisation?

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:29 pm

watdad wrote:I donâ€™t get this whole standardisation thing. I understand some kids have been at school longer than others, but surely that is only applicable to the reception classes.

My understanding was the 11+ is based on KS2 havenâ€™t all kids been doing KS2 for the same length of time? Therefore, why the need for standardisation?

My son is a July-birthday and started reception class 1.5 terms later than the September-Decembers so by the time he entered Y1 he was already half a school year behind in terms of formal education. KS1 is then spent playing catch-up.

Yes all children spend the same length of time in KS2 but the older ones can have 10 or 11 months extra "life experience". That sounds weird when talking about a 10 year old but if you spend an hour or so with a Y5 class you can pick out the Autumn birthdays and the Summer birthdays without too much difficulty.

My Y5 son is still only 9 and the concept of secondary school i.e. life beyond primary is just too abstract for him. His friend who was 10 in September is much more able to grasp the implications of 11+. Hopefully it is this maturity of thinking (or lack of) that will be addressed by standardisation.

Incidentally, I think 10 year old girls are significantly more mature than 10 year old boys so the boys should be given a little more just for being boys

AndyB

capers123 · Post by **capers123** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:30 pm

watdad wrote:I donâ€™t get this whole standardisation thing. I understand some kids have been at school longer than others, but surely that is only applicable to the reception classes.

My understanding was the 11+ is based on KS2 havenâ€™t all kids been doing KS2 for the same length of time? Therefore, why the need for standardisation?

The effects of age / position in class last well into secondary school.

11+ is taken in Key Stage 2, but is not based on KS2 work.

The statistics when analysing the 11+ exam results does show that the younger children get a lower score. Sure, this could be ignored, but then an elder child would be more likely to pass. So the weighting is applied to even it out, to give all an equal chance (and not give the younger ones a better chance either).

Marylou · Post by **Marylou** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:02 am

andyb wrote: Incidentally, I think 10 year old girls are significantly more mature than 10 year old boys so the boys should be given a little more just for being boys

AndyB

This did used to be the case (and I was talking to someone recently who assumed it still was!!!) - no longer though as it's technically illegal! I think there are some figures somewhere that show the breakdown of 11+ qualifiers into boys/girls. Might be worth digging out at a less ungodly hour