I’d be grateful of some help with setting targets for pupils taking a course I’m not familiar with.
I need to reset End of Year 11 targets for current Year 10 pupils taking ICT, as we’ve changed the course from GCSE (9-1) to the OCR Cambridge National Certificate.
I believe the points values of 9-1 grades are the grades themselves (with gaps of 1.5 higher up), but they don’t help with a conversion. I’ve found that 4Matrix gives points that are more in line with A*-G points, ie. 9 = 60, 8 = 56, etc. down to 4 = 44, then 3, 2 and 1 are 34, 28 and 16.
Using these points I can easily convert 9-1 targets into the Cambridge targets (I have points values from OCR), eg. 5 (44 points) = Level 2 Merit (42), 6 (48 points) = Level 2 Dist (48), 8 (56 points) = Level 2 Dist* (54). All targets in the class are currently 5, 6 and 8, so this fits perfectly.
However, the course leader says the targets are now far too high. The deputy head says I should use points, regardless of whether it means targets look too high, though he thinks the points values given by 4Matrix have changed, so maybe updated points would bring the targets down.
I’d prefer to set targets from scratch rather than do a conversion from 9-1 grades, but FFT doesn’t seem to allow this, giving only 9-1 or A*-G options. Interestingly, if I ask FFT for A*-G grades and convert those (A*=Di*, A=Di, B=M, C=P) the targets are all one grade lower than when converting from 9-1. Maybe that’s the answer, though it seems less technical than using points.
Are the 4Matrix points relevant, meaning the new targets are correct even if they're high? Is there an argument for using the A*-G conversion I’ve mentioned? How else can I set targets for this course?
Many thanks.
Steve
