So relieved DS is back in school, and the nightmare is over, but is he making progress academically....bit of a long post

[Faigle]

My son is in year 8. He is one of the youngest in his year-won't be 13 until the very end of August.
He had a lot of problems settling into year 7/Secondary school, and was almost "permanately excluded" by the end of that academic year,due to disruptive behaviour. However, because he was receiving therapy from CAMHS for "social & emotional problems" they decided to give him "one last chance" and instead of " permanent exclusion" put him in a unit for the first 9 weeks of year 8 where he had a shortened school day-finishing at 2.30, and concentrated on behaviour/ rather than academic stuff.
The school's Pastoral Manager told me that because of his behaviour he wasn't able to "fully access the curriculm at the moment" anyway (he was always being timed out etc) and that concentrating on improving his behaviour was more important than being in lessons. While I agreed with him, I was still very concerned about my son falling behind in his work and not being able to catch up if/when he was allowed back into the main school.
The only real school work/learning that they did in the unit was working through Key Stage 3 workbooks in English,Maths and Science.
The people running the unit were not, it seemed to me, qualified to teach academic subjects- their skills lay more mentoring and in dealing with children with "severe" behavioural problems. Despite my worries, I went along with it as I had confidence with the abilities of the people running the unit and hoped it would help improve my son's attitude towards school and learning- and hold him in good stead were he to be admitted back.

Anyway, he finished the 9 weeks in the unit and they said they felt his behaviour had improved and that he had demonstrated that he was ready to go back into the main school. So, he has been back in for 9 weeks(they divide the school year into 4 curriculum units of 9 weeks each) and he has just had some assessment tests- he got 6B in Maths and 6C in Science.

What I'd like to know is,(so maybe there is a Secondary school teacher who could answer for me ?)
are these reasonably good marks for a child halfway through year 8- considering he missed a lot of teaching/learning at the end year 7 and the first part of year 8?

By the way, the school is an Academy, non-selective/mixed ability which admits on local catchment area criteria only.

He got all 5s in his key stage 2 Sats, so is going up just one mark in a year and a half good progress or not? My gut feeling is that these are pretty good marks considering the circumstances.But I don't won't either him or me to be complacent about it, especially as he is very lazy about school work and has a
tendancy to do the mininimum he can get away with!
Thanks to anyone in the know who can answer.

TBH though, whether the marks are good or not, I'm just so relieved he is back in main school and "learning" again. He seems to have matured a bit and gained some skills in how to cope when things start to get difficult for him. I so hope he can sustain it.

[cornsilk]

It's great that your child is back in school. I wouldn't put too much importance on his year 6 SATS results - secondary schools do their own assessments. IME staff in pupil referral units are very well trained in SEN issues including behviour. It's great that your child is doing well - well done! (Am an SEN teacher with a child with similar diffculties so know your pain!)

[MmeBlueberry]

Level 6 is very good for Year 8.

[Feenie]

Good progress (as opposed to satisfactory) woul be 2 sublevels per academic year. Supposing your ds was a 5b in Maths in Y6, then he has moved 3 sublevels in a year and a hlaf - that would be good progress without all the problems! He is doing v well.

[Feenie]

half

[Goblinchild]

Feenie is right. And you were right to trust the unit staff to know what they were doing. And they did it right, and your son cooperated.
pats on the back all round. An unhappy, stressed, frightened, in pain or disruptive child can't access learning effectively. You have to sort out the primary problem first.

[Faigle]

Thanks for all your positive and re-assuring comments.

[circular]

The levels are very good.
Generally a level 7/8 at the end of year 9 is considered G&T.
We were also told that a level 4/5 in year 7 is different to the same in Yr 6.

Has anyone suggested that the behavioural problems could have been due to him being bored - if he found the work too easy?

[activate]

The marks are very good. In general end of KS2 SATS are rather ignored by secondary schools IME and it is common for children to make what seems like no progress through year 7 as they encounter different expectations and coursework.

So I would be pleased and extremely happy that the unit staff have provided him with the pastoral support that could help him trhive in secondary.