To Be Shocked That DS Got A 'D' In His First Half-Termly Report At Grammar School

If we leave aside the fact that accountancy is a profession which covers a multitude of activities from regulation down to book-keeping - most accountants are actually employed in industry even now (in the face of our shrinking manufacturing sector).Those people clearly contribute to the making of money rather than the manipulating of it (although that's a ridiculously simplistic dichotomy anyway). The next biggest group are probably those employed in the public sector, where arguably they are contributing to activities of social worth.

It is impossible to set up as an entrepreneur/inventor without the support of a decent accountant. It is impossible to run a business employing people without the support of a decent accountant. And as I understand it - I know quite a few - most inventor-entrepreneurs have very peculiar brains. In,obviously, a really good way. But none of the ones I have met were ever particularly academic and none of them went to super selective schools.

None of the cleverest people I knew at Cambridge are inventors or entrepreneurs either. They are almost all working in the arts and/or telly. It is possible I moved in the wrong circles though.

Don't panic, he probably needs to work a bit harder. Check his books - are there careless mistakes? He can't get away with that any more (and now he knows!)

Its not whether its boring or not that - joking aside - is an issue. (I've heard that senior financial positions entered via accountancy can be very interesting). What is troubling is that so many of our brightest would not be more interested in making money rather than manipulating it. As in, activities which make life enhancing stuff which creates money for the economy not just for themselves.

Sorry, way OT!

I wouldn't worry about this from the grade POV, but I would check that he doesn't have gaps in knowledge or understanding from primary school - that he never really understood decimals or how to use a scientific calculator or something. They will be going fast so it can get very confusing - and demoralising - if the foundations are not secure. If there are gaps, fill them and perhaps a bit of practise. Then he can fly.

Both my children seem to be strongest in maths on topics mostly just taught in secondary school - I think having specialists makes a big difference in maths. We had to go back and plug one or two gaps (learning a workable, fast method for long division, for example).

It should absolutely be OK to go to the school about anything on a report that is not explained or comes as a surprise. They will want him to do well - and if he can do fractions, he can do it!

Eh, Mord?

Did you actually mean to sound so rude? And, you know, ignorant?

seeker - not academically it's not. Not for loads of kids. They languish and learn very little, especially the bright ones, in unstreamed Yr7 classes.

But to move from state primary to selective grammar, to be suddenly surrounded by pupils who are brighter than you, learn faster, work harder, and to have teachers who expect a lot from you is a big shock to DC who are used to coming top, even when they coast, in primary school.
It's a bigger jump, academically.

You know the Z plane is an actual maths thing, right?
Oh yes - Scientists and engineers do legal things with imaginary numbers

I think you have to come from Croydon to actually get the full, you know, weight, of that word though. Athough I've deployed it literally all over the world with basically pretty good success.

gazza tell your DS to tell his mates (or, as it may be, the fellow students he'd not want to be seen dead with - I guess it could go either way) that if they genuinely want to be accountants - or at least, if they want to do the really properly interesting and well paid stuff - it's their writing they need to focus on.

My dd is at grammar school and the grades in the first two years were based on 5's to 7's
It's only now she's doing options in year 9 and starting GCSE course work that she's being graded a D' to B's
What the D he's getting? Is it his current GCSE level?

I avoided the accountancy thing for fear Mordion might slay me with a 'love'.

You know the Z plane is an actual maths thing, right?

Though you do hear of some who apparently use imaginary numbers...

ha. ha. ha.

Far more distressing is the thought that at 11 half the class want to be accountants!
Why not scientists, or astronauts or engineers?

in a superselective GS that is pretty grim. Does accountancy even need much mathematical ability, its mostly sums isn't it?

Mordion if they're bumbling along and treading water at the school then I feel fairly ok. Esp.with a boy. Better then that and I know to be cheery. We're fairly rudimentary us. I don't think I'd even heard of NC levels when DD1 joined Y7. I've seen Cs turn into straight runs of A*s and a relaxed happy child so I think very little would phase me now in the first half of Y7.

Far more distressing is the thought that at 11 half the class want to be accountants!
Why not scientists, or astronauts or engineers?

Hello gazzalw.

We had this. I went to see maths teacher. Maths teacher shrugged and said: "They all get As or A stars. Don't worry about it. You have to remember that some of these kids are actual genius-level at maths, and they're all above average."

This, gazzalw, is the reality of a superselective (which is what your little one is at). Someone has to be at the lower end of a particular subject, some of the time. but you have to remember that that "lower end" is quite high, relatively.

I do worry that it can be bit demoralising for some of them: they're 12 As students but effectively the "invisible middle".

Weird.

It's just one test though. I'm not going to get excited yet. But thanks. Because we don't get NC levels from DD1s school I have just no idea what is good bad or indifferent so I just nod and smile.

OP - it may very well be that a D at your DSs school is still a very good mark. At some schools, the entire cohort gets A or A for some subjects. So getting a low mark for the school* doesn't mean a low mark on an absolute scale.

That should have read:

Agree with MoreBeta that some of the children may be achieving more highly because they have already covered some of the work in primary school whereas it is possibly completely new to your DS.

Agree with MoreBeta that some of the children may be achieving more highly because they have already covered some of the work in primary DS. I don't see anything wrong with querying the situation with the school - you have been sent a report that you don't fully comprehend, with a grade that has come as a bit of a shock, and it is understandable that you should be looking for clarification.

Mordion L6 in early Yr 8 puts him on course for A/A* at GCSE. There is, of course, many a slip 'twixt cup & lip...

Peaks and troughs is definitely how students make progress in Maths - and it is OK for them to hit challenges, overcoming them is how they learn.

Effort and persistence will see him through. The school isn't helpful in providing you with info re where he is in relation to the rest of his class. What you need to know is where he is in relation to his end of KS3 target and expected outcomes in relation to that - I would be asking the school for this sort of information

My feeling is the other children in the class may have been coached and been at prep schools so have just covered a lot of the material already at their previous school or with tutors - whereas DS was at a primary with not a very good teacher. Combined with his natural laziness he has come unstuck.

May be the wake up call he needs. Talk to teacher, look at his books, ask DS where his weak areas are and get some extra help.