KS3 English... my son seems to be regressing. What to do?

[Heartboy]

Hi everyone

My son is in Yr 8. His initial assessment in English at start of Yr 7 was 5c with a Yr 9 target of 6b. Last year for the first time ever he showed an interest in English, loved his teacher who was enthusiastic and clearly motivated him. He progressed to 5b (ahead of the Yr end target of 5c) so was doing ok. He was mid class.

This year he's had a change of teacher. He's not keen on her, dislikes English now, is struggling with the comprehension work and demotivated. His December assessment went down to 4b. This term's gone down to 4c.

Last term I contacted the Head of Dept as I was understandably concerned (it took several attempts to speak to her in the first place). She was due to call me back once she'd spoken to his teacher, but mentioned that he'd be "on the radar" because of the dip in his levels. I didn't get a call presumably because we attended parents evening and his teacher spoke to us at length. We came away with lots of things we could do to help but next day both my husband and I still hadn't any idea of what the school would be doing to help. Feedback on the content of his homework has been non existent since then, focussing entirely on his poor layout and messy handwriting, so I'm at a loss as to how he (and I) is supposed to know how to improve the content. I'm not a teacher but his ability to organise and plan work seems poor and he doesn't appear to have been given any strategies to help improve this. I've tried my best to help but again this term he's gone backwards so I'm not much use either.

I really don't know where to go from here. What help can or rather should the school be providing to ensure he doesn't get left behind? Help!

[Heartboy]

Sorry not sure this is posted in the right section but all help gratefully appreciated

[DriftingOff]

hopefully some English teachers will be along with some ideas, but I would contact the school again. Say to them that you want another discussion with the english teacher (with perhaps the head of english as well, or his teacher from the previous year - who seemed to know how to improve him) about how he can improve on content, organisation and planning of his work. When organising the meeting, say that you want the outcome of the meeting to be some strategies for you to try at home, and an action plan that the school are going to follow. Then at the meeting, don't leave until those two action points have been agreed. Don't worry about feeling like a pushy parent. Teachers see hundreds of pupils a week, and it's not easy keeping on top of all their needs, so when a parent does ring up, concerned and offering to help, it puts that pupil onto their priority list.

[ElTombo]

I'm a secondary English teacher about to complete my NQT year. If your son is struggling to organise his content the following might help:

1. Mind map the subject. Get your son to write down every relevant idea he has about the subject. After this he should pick what he feels to be the top 3-5 most important ideas.
   

1. If the essay is creative writing then he should arrange the events in chronological order, if it is persuasive then he should focus on most to least important arguments.
   

1. Paragraphing. I teach TiP ToP which stands for Time, Place, Topic and Person. Every time your son's essay moves on in time, changes location, begins talking about a new subject or introduces a new character he should begin a new paragraph.
   

These are simple ways to organise his content - hope this helps.

[awfulomission]

That is a dramatic drop and one that should be raising alarm bells with a HoD.

I would ask for a meeting with the HoD and teacher. Find out about the school's strategy for him and ask to go through his books together. There should be a clear deterioration in his work since September.

In the meeting, arrange a follow up for, say, a term's time. So the summer term's really long. Perhaps if you meet at the start and end there should be time for the strategies to have had some effect. If you look at his books then you'll be able to notice any changes.

Whether or not you include him in this would be up to you.

[Heartboy]

Many thanks for your help

[MsFiremanSam]

I'd say it's unlikely he's actually dropped so much. More likely it's an issue with assessment. The levels aren't used any more in many schools and there have been widespread issues with their use. How experienced is the teacher?
I'm an advanced skills English teacher and in our school we use GCSE grades from year 7 for this reason.