My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Secondary education

Sets in year 8

5 replies

Storminateacup74 · 11/01/2019 16:50

My DD is in year 8 and is at an outstanding over subscribed secondary school. In the latest league tables it was "well above average". Unfortunately though my DD isn't particularly high achieving so she is in the second to bottom set. She works so hard though and finds being in a low set distracting and she says she doesn't learn anything. She is naturally much better at english and history and excels in French and Spanish. But the setting is done on averages of english, science, and maths and because her maths and science are so low under 20% it pushes her other averages down. In the December exams she has done really badly in both science and maths despite spending hours revising. I wish her school did a seperate set for maths and english. She works so hard but just doesn't get the results. The teachers say she is so hard working and a credit to them but my worry is in the lower sets they don't care as these kids are never going to get them the results. If she moves down to bottom set her confidence will hit rock bottom and along with being in a class with kids that don't actually want to learn I feel she will just give up and I wouldn't blame her as she tries but doesn't get anywhere. How do other parents deal with this?? Everything is always done on results and working hard but what if your child just isn't academic.

OP posts:
Report
sleepismysuperpower1 · 11/01/2019 17:24

my daughter is the same as yours, she is naturally better at english and history, rather than maths and science. as it is only year 8, i would try to ignore the groupings, they aren't too important at this stage. also, how is she revising her maths and science? my dd was spending hours slaving away but getting nowhere, but she has gotten better at studying now and her results have improved, although it still does not come naturally to her. i would be happy to share revision tips my dd gives me if you think it would help. all the best x

Report
HazelFox · 11/01/2019 17:31

Can you afford to get a tutor for a while and see if it makes a difference? In my experience (a yr 11 and a yr 8) not much happens in year 8, so it could help your dd get ahead of her set and then you could push for a move?

Report
ShaggyRug · 11/01/2019 18:35

In DD’s school they set Maths separately and then set the test based around English. I think this is better as DD struggles in Maths but is too set in the rest.

Perhaps talk to the school and ask if there is any flexibility in her English and History classes?

Report
ShaggyRug · 11/01/2019 18:36
  • rest

  • top

    Clearly I need more schooling today
Report
TeenTimesTwo · 11/01/2019 20:12

So your problem is that they have streamed the kids rather than setting.

As she is skewed, then you might want to consider moving to a school that sets rather than streams.

Do you know whether her 'hours revising' were productive hours? My DD is also not academic and has limited stamina for after school work as she is exhausted just from the school day. So we do her science revision with her so she gets maximum benefit from the time she does have.

The school should care about all the kids, as the progress they all make is important, and getting them to the magic grade 4 (or 5) is also measured.

It is imo more important to be set correctly for maths & science than for English and humanities.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.