It means below the expected standard. It points forwards because the assessment points down.
By Frankie Bexley ·
Working towards means below the expected standard for that age. It is one of the three official labels used in English primary assessment, it is accurate, and it is phrased to point forwards because the thing it is reporting points down.
It is the single most misread line on a report, and it is misread in both directions. Some parents hear a reassurance that is not there. Others hear a catastrophe that is not there either.
Teachers write in a second language, and they have to
A report goes home to a parent who may be delighted or may be furious, and it has to be true either way. One teacher writes thirty of them and every one has to be honest to a different family on the same afternoon.
So a vocabulary grew up for exactly that job. Working towards, greater depth, is beginning to, with support. Nobody is hiding anything. Everybody is being careful, which is a different thing, and it is the thing that makes the language hard to read from the outside.
What to ask, and when
- Ask what specifically is missing. The label is a summary of a judgement, not the judgement. A teacher can nearly always name the two or three things behind it in a sentence.
- Ask what would move it. This is the question teachers most want to be asked and are least often asked. It converts a grade into a plan.
- Ask whether it is the work or the confidence. They produce the same label and they need completely different things at home.
What not to do with it
Do not treat it as a verdict on the child. It is a snapshot of one subject against one age-related expectation on one date, and the expectation moves every year while the child does too.
And do not go in angry. The person who wrote it is the person who can tell you what is behind it, and that conversation goes differently depending on how it opens.
Questions people ask about this
Is working towards a bad grade?
It means below the expected standard for that age in that subject. It is not a failure and it is not a reassurance. It is a position on a scale that is measured again next year, and the useful response is to ask what specifically is missing rather than to read it as a verdict.
What is the difference between working towards and greater depth?
They are two ends of the same official scale. Working towards is below the expected standard, the expected standard sits in the middle, and greater depth is above it: the child can apply the thing rather than only do it.
What should you ask at parents evening?
What specifically is missing, what would move it, and whether the barrier is the work or the confidence. Those three turn a label into something you can act on, and they are questions the teacher can answer immediately.
This is one chapter of What Teachers Actually Mean. The rest of it is the same, at greater length, with the sources in the back.