Does Prep School have authority to prevent tuition

[LondonParis]

My son si preparing CE and has had poor mock CE Maths results 40%. School does not propose any action, I am asking for help but they won't do anything. I have decided to try additional tuition for my son, but the tutor is telling me to organise "during the holiday". Does the school have legal authority to prevent me from organising private tuition for my son during the week, given he is at boarding school ?

[annh]

Are the school really not doing anything or are they actually doing everything they can and maybe your son is just not up to the demands of CE Maths? Was his result in the mocks a surprise or does it reflect his actual ability?

I don't know about the legal position of tutoring during term when your son is at boarding school but would imagine that the school would be within their rights to either refuse to allow an external tutor on school premises or to arrange for your son to travel off the school site to tutoring. It's not clear if you have actually asked them or if you are anticipating a problem that may not arise? Maybe it is the tutor's wish to tutor during the holidays because of his own workload/travel arrangements?

[homebythesea]

Presume you are talking about 13 CE?

This will have been the first Mock exam they do. There will be another formal test in about March based on my recent experience. In the meantime they will go through zillions of practice papers. Honestly I would not get on your high horse about this at this stage. Prep schools in the main are extremely experienced in geting the kids through the CE at the right level at the right time. 40% at this stage is not "poor"

And as for getting a tutor in to a Boarding school. REALLY? You envisage a stranger going in to a residential setting? What if everyone wanted to do this? Can you not see the chaos this would cause the school, let alone the Child Protection issues arising. If you feel your DS needs extra help of course get a tutor in the holidays but to talk about the school "preventing" anything is barking

[Annelongditton]

DS just sat his 1st lot of CE mocks. Some of the boys didn't do well in maths, but this was the first time they had sat a level 3 exam for all 3 papers, and the school hasn't finished teaching the syllabus yet.
There are 2 further lots of mocks before CE next May and a lot of maths teaching time. DS's school has an excellent track record for CE results and nobody is worried, everyone was told that the 1st mocks are to set a benchmark and you then target higher for the next lots of mocks.
If the school doesn't think there is a problem, then there probably isn't one, but tutoring will probably make you feel better! You can always but the ISEB practice papers (and answers!) from the Galore Park site and practice with DS during the holidays.
It must be difficult worrying about it when he is away at school, and you feel you can't do anything to help, but he is having maths lessons everyday. I think you need to speak to the school and ask if he is on course for his CE mark, how did he do against his classmates looking for similar CE scores etc. It is probably the lack of information that is making you nervous and you need reassurance, or you need to know what their action plan is.

[trinity0097]

Can he have extra maths lessons through the learning support dept in school?

As a teacher of CE in a prep school, 40% is not awful now, he should improve enough to get at least 55%. The iseb practice exercise book is great, far better than the iseb revision guide as it full of CE style questions, buy this and get your son to do some over Xmas with you.

[happygardening]

I dont think the school has a "legal authority" to prevent you from doing anything, although obvioulsy logistically its harder when your DC is at boarding school. What CE mark is he required to get? And at what level as far as I remember maths like Latin is in levels? If you hoping for 70%+ at the higher level then I think you are right to be worried if you only need 55% then I think you will find that it will all be ok. What have his previous marks been? Does he have a problem with maths? Whats the school saying?

[Mutteroo]

Shouldn't worry about it OP.

DS did badly in his first mock. He'd moved from a state school to a prep in year 7 so was unprepared for the amount of testing preps do. Final maths CE score was 90 something % (I forget exactly the score offhand). He flew through the rest of the CE papers and happily accepted his non selective senior first choice school, picking it over his second choice selective school. DS is now studying Maths & further Maths A Levels which kind of proves his weak Maths CE mock was just a blip. I'm sure your son's school know what they're doing, because as you say, they've a good track record.

[LondonParis]

Thank you all for your input. Never studied maths in English system myself so best for me to get help. Will try to find tutor through other mums at school, or ask formally that support is provided by school itself. Minimum required 65%at level just below scholarship so he needs support.

[homebythesea]

Is his CE requirement 65% in all papers or an average of 65% across all papers? The latter clearly gives a little leeway!