Some of this you'll know, but it's not always explained at some places.
Primary schools are currently organised into three stages. Foundation Stage, formerly called nursery and reception. Then Key Stage 1 covering years 1 and two. Then yrs 3 to 6 are in KS2. The big numbers as far as the schools are concerned are the SATS at the ends of KS1 & 2. To keep things even more confusing the Foundation stage and Keystages are measured against different scales. Basically though, once into keystages you'd expect a progression from level one through to (if you're at the top end) level 5 at the yr6 KS2 sat tests. The national standard at KS1 is to aim for a high percentage of your class to achieve levels 2b and 2a. Getting a 1 or 2c is below average, P is basically working at foundation level.
So at halfway through term 2 of year three, an average pupil would have attained maybe a level 2b in the sats in the previous year, and would then expect to move up a fine point (ie a letter) every couple of terms, bring them up to 2a or three about now. At parents' evenings and the like, the actual levels achieved and working towards ought to be explained, and put into local and national context.
There is a huge gap in time between KS1 and KS2 SATS, and schools can't afford to lose track of where kids are in between, so pretty much every year there will likely be a series of mock sats, basically bought in tests, marked locally. This sounds like what your girl has just been through. In the real SATS, pupils with particular needs are supposed to have these met, for example by allowing extra time, by using a quiet room, by having written questions read out etc. It would seem sensible for the same assistance given in real sats to be offered in the intermediate tests.
It sounds like you could do with finding out explicitly where your girl is at, and what her targets for the year are. Your class teacher should have this at their fingertips, possibly in their head if they are on the ball. Since you are concerned, I'd ask for a short meeting with the teacher, and if you are already involved with the SENCO have them sit in too, ask for a copy of your daughter's IEP(individual education plan) in advance. Every child the Senco deals with should have one.
Despite all of the above, most of this is meant to happen in the background, although it is common practice for children to know what levels they are on and their target, and to use it in day to day work. Aside from the actual test times, all this stuff happens in the background through teacher assessment, and shouldn't take the fun out of school. Today I've been volunteer driving and accompanying our KS1 visit to the BBC dinosaur exhibition and we had a great time (it's a long way to the Natural History Museum from here). Hope it goes well, but it probably will now that you've decided to get to the bottom of it.
