What does a "working at" grade mean in Year 7, 8 or 9?

Why does every school report Years 7 to 9 differently?

Because nothing national tells them how. The tests at 14 were scrapped in October 2008, and the national curriculum levels that primary and secondary schools used to share went with the 2014 curriculum, with nothing put in their place. Since then each school has decided for itself how to measure progress in Years 7 to 9 and how to report it, which is why two friends at different schools can bring home reports that look nothing alike.

Most reports use one of a handful of shapes. Knowing which one you are looking at is half of reading it.

Is a "working at 4" in Year 8 a GCSE prediction?

No, and schools themselves disagree about what such a number is. One school says plainly that its KS3 grades are not equated with GCSE grades; another reports 9 to 1 targets and predictions. A Year 8 graded against an exam three years away is being measured against content they have not been taught yet, so the number tends to look low and then climb, which can worry a parent for no reason.

The idea underneath many of these numbers, a steady "flight path" from primary scores to a GCSE grade, does not hold up for individual children. The government's own data advisory group said in 2018 that flight paths for pupils with similar starting points "are not valid, because they understate the variation in student trajectories of development". Real progress comes in bursts and plateaus, and a single report catches one moment of it.

What is a target grade, and why can it feel unfair?

A target is usually calculated, not observed. Schools feed Key Stage 2 results or a Year 7 CAT4 score into a model that says what students with similar starting points went on to get, and that becomes the target. It describes a group of children, not yours, and it was set before your child had been taught most of what the GCSE covers.

That same 2018 report warned that "targets can be limiting as much as they can be motivating", and that students need not be routinely told what they "should" achieve. If a target is causing worry at home, it is reasonable to ask the school how it was set and how much weight they put on it.

What should I ask at parents' evening?

Five minutes per teacher goes quickly. These questions get past the number to the part you can act on:

• What is this grade or score measured against: the work so far, or a target?
• Which topics are going well, and which one or two need work?
• What will the class cover next term?
• Is homework being handed in and done properly?
• What would actually help at home in this subject?

When does a report tell me something worth acting on?

Patterns tell you more than single numbers. A drop in one subject across two reports, a comment about missing homework, or a teacher naming the same topic twice is worth a conversation. A lower number than a friend's, or a grade that looks low against a GCSE scale in Year 7, usually is not.

The most useful thing on any report is the topic-level detail, when the school gives it. "Fractions and negative numbers need work" tells you what to practise; "working at 3" does not.