level 6

bexley mum · Post by **bexley mum** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:17 pm

Do any primary schools do level 6 in maths anymore? I know mine does not. It seems odd that so many do not when it really isn't that unusual to get level 5 in year 5 nowadays. When I asked what my child would be aiming for, when I was told she was level 5 in Jan. they told me that they do not work towards level 6 but offer more complex problems and ask for more explanations on how answers were found. What do other schools do?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:32 pm

No. Level 5 is the highest you can get.

solimum · Post by **solimum** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:04 pm

Level 5 is certainly the highest test level you can achieve in year 6 now, but that doesn't prevent a teacher from assesing a child's work as being at level 6. The top maths set at my daughter's primary school were doing year 7 work in year 6. My daughter was annoyed she couldn't take the level 6 paper to catch up with her older brother (who was in the last cohort to take the extension papers I think and has now just finished year 12 doing Maths & Further Maths AS)

bexley mum · Post by **bexley mum** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:52 pm

can a child actually achieve level 6 without being taught it? Also having looked at 11 plus maths questions I'm amazed at how many things haven't yet been covered in school. My daughter takes 11 plus in November and I'm gradually going through the Bond book making sure we've covered each subject.

Bexley · Post by **Bexley** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 1:22 pm

I think they can be assessed as working beyond the level they are being tested at. I know in the yr4 optional sets I was told in one paper that my daughter could only be given a level 4 as that was as high as the paper went, but that she actually achieved beyond that. I could never quite work out how, but it seems it can be the case!!

Guest55 · Post by **Guest55** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:02 pm

There are extension tasks on the QCA website for the more able - the level 6 paper went some years ago ..

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:08 pm

Son came home from school one day in the last week and said they had done another test at school to see if they were working at Level 6. Have no idea what the test was - do QCA have any such optional test? Son said quite a few of them scored well enough to get level 6. However, I don't think as many as "passed" this test have done the amount of extension work that would have been necessary to pass the Level 6 test as it was before it was scrapped.

Guest55 · Post by **Guest55** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:17 pm

Could be the school kept a copy of the old paper.

Did you ssee whether it was one of the optional tasks or was it like an exam with lots of questions?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 2:41 pm

Was apparently like an exam with lots of questions - but I don't think it can have been an old paper - I seem to remember that these were very difficult to pass, with very few children each year succeeding, whereas it seems quite a lot of the class passed this test! Perhaps level 6 "ain't what it used to be"!!

Guest55 · Post by **Guest55** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 2:44 pm

I would suggest it was not an 'official' test as none now exists