Can a year 7....

[Sonnet]

Whose academic performance is towards the bottom if the year (10%) turn that around?
Or is that just the order of things and I have to accept that decent GCSE's are going to be almost impossible to obtain.
Has anyone out there successfully helped their child to exceed the teachers expectations?
No real LD's except mild dyslexia and slow processing/working memory issues. A questionnaire showed a very strong right brain thinking style
All advice gratefully received

[BooksandaCuppa]

Well my initial response is 10% of what kind of cohort? His position in his year group is irrelevant really. What kind of national curriculum levels are you talking about?

But, yes, of course he can exceed expectations of him at this point. Hard work and determination will be one thing - the main thing.

Focussing on key subjects when it gets to options will be another.

Making sure he has all the support he is entitled to in class and out (looking at strategies to improve his areas of weakness; can he word process better than write? can he have notes copied for him? can he sit nearer the front? or whatever helps).

Maybe try a training programme for working memory issues (see recent thread)?

Is behaviour/attitude an issue? Work out some appropriate rewards for improvement.

Does he have an idea at all of what he would like to do later on? Focussing on a goal can make lots of people improve their attainment through sheer determination as well as interest and passion.

Make sure school know you are a committed and interested parent and they will meet you halfway (I'm sure you already have!)

Really, I think knowing where he's headed is the most important thing. Say, he doesn't get brilliant GCSEs but still goes down an academic path onto A levels - some students do do lots better at just four subjects than ten. Or if he chooses another path, he could be much more successful in the mature environment of college, work or apprenticeship.

Nothing is set in stone, I absolutely believe that (and really have to cling onto that hope for my own ds, honestly - bright as a button and doing very well academically but with his autism he has his own difficulties of socialising and meeting expectations of behaviour that I have to believe will improve slowly!)

[HabbaDabbaDoo]

In my Year 7 end of year exams I came near the bottom (27 out of 30). Year 10 was the last year we had EOY exams but I was 5 out of 30. Today I am a manager at a multinational company. Not exactly Alan Sugar but I'm doing ok :)

Some kids can coast and still be 'clever'. Others need to put in extra effort in order to be 'clever'. If both of you are prepared to put in the effort then I don't see why your DC can't improve.

[BooksandaCuppa]

Good post, Habba. This ties in a little with what I just posted on the 'small fish in a big pond' post.

I'll be more candid than I've probably been before on here - simply as a contrast to what you've posted.

I was top of my primary school all the way through. Top of my secondary school all the way through. Got a first at a good university.

But: I earn little enough now that I don't pay income tax (ok I work p/t and I do love my job...but still).

Being top is not the be all and end all. And being top - or bottom - is not a fixed position .

[JRY44]

sonnet many children move through the ranks, as children all develop at different times. I have had pupils with expected grades of D/E getting Bs and pupils with expected Bs getting Ds. Problem with using primary school data is that children change with age. If your DC gets the right help at home and at school, with the right attitude to learning then they will achieve the best grades they can.

[poppydoppy]

Focus on his/ her strengths. I know lots of hugely successful people who left school without any exams. I really believe that drive and determination will get you more places than a string of A*s

[Sonnet]

Thank you all . Didn't want to read and run.. Just taking a friend to hospital and I will be back!

[Amber2]

of course they can...i know many who have learned from failure and then turned it around to be very successful ...but it usually took a huge wake up call....one I remember well was a very academic post grad at Oxford who then managed to get a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard for a Phd...he had confessed to me he had failed the equivalent of his A levels in Holland and had to re-take them all...i also know others who hated school and left with paltry qualifications only to go back to a part time degree for the love of it ....it would be easier of course if success in life were linear ...but for many it is a meandering path and they may be stronger for the learnings that can be experienced by failure along the way..it's just too bad our exam system has gating milestones that don't seem to make allowances for the fact that people develop in different ways...and for some the teenage angst gets in the way during the critical year of GCSE or A levels


i also interviewed (and turned down) someone recently for a job who had scholarships at school and a first from Oxford...but discovered since leaving he had been in a string of jobs each lasting a year or two and seemed to be trading down with each move and was earning far less than others who had left school with a mediocre degree at a redbrick...sometimes success at uni does not always translate into success in the commercial world. I helps you get your foot in the door initially but once you are in, after that you get judged how senior you are in your last position, and how successful you are in your job, and how you present yourself, and except in a few rarified places or perhaps when changing jobs, no-one really looks back to see what class of degree you had or where it was from - and as you go on I find it becomes more secondary to your experience.

[Amber2]

i also saw a program with a Cambridge don who was talking about what it takes to do a maths degree at Cambridge...and he said they have some who get all As at A levels but can't do the Cambridge level of maths ...others who are useless at A level because they find it boring grunt work but make the cut at maths degree work ...and that's why they rely so much on interviews also and set their own maths exams

[Porka]

Sonnet, would it be possible for the SENCO to test your son and if he is not working to his potential to put strategies in place to help him.

I am also wondering if confidence is an issue here? What we tend to do with my own dyslexic daughter is to play to her strengths, art, music etc but at the same time try and ensure she is getting support in class - the latter with various degrees of success.

[Madmog]

I really struggled at school. Up until Year 6 I was taught separately from the rest of the class and things did slowly improve during secondary school. I was lucky to get a job as an office junior, and at that point became determined to succeed so I got myself enroled for evening classes. At the age of 23 I was secretary to the senior partner of a law firm with 4 branches. What I'm saying, is that if it doesn't happen now, when he comes to leave school if he really wants a job in a certain area he can get there.

When he gets to Year 9, he may become a little more focussed on what he'd like to do in the future and that may help him, might be that he's more of a practical person than academic. My niece was told she would be likely to get a D in English, she wants to be a local course on journalism which requires a B pass. She wants to do it so much, she's spent time trying to improve and she is now capable of a B pass next year.

My daughter likes to do most of her homework on the computer, but I did let her choose a few books with lots of basic info and pictures in as a back up to help with some subjects. I'm sure you do, but try and show a gentle interest in what he's been doing, his homework, and encourage him, you like the say he described something, the colour he choose.