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Original poster

School refusing to move DD1 down a maths set.

35 replies

EverythingIsSoThrowback · 23/10/2013 21:49

DD1 has always been good at maths until she had the teacher she has now. Up till year 8 she had teachers that worked well for her. Year 9 she moved up a set, (currently in year 11) that year was fine, but 10/11 shes been really struggling. She got a lower score (by a lot) in her year 10 tests compared to year 9.
Shes asked to move down because a) she says she really doesn't understand anything anymore, and the teacher goes through it to fast, explains it differently from their textbooks, and b) the teacher in the 2nd set is one she likes.
But the school refuse to move her down.. do they have any legal obligation to do so? I just really don't want her to mess up her GCSE.

OP posts:
whyayepetal · 24/10/2013 15:55

Hi OP - I've had this with my DD - in her case she was moved down in maths ( and science) because another girl needed to stay in a higher science set, although her maths score was lower than DDs! This was because the maths and science sets are linked, and there are limited numbers in science because of lab safety etc. Might be worth checking if your DDs school has any similar timetabling issues and talking to relevant heads of department if necessary.

bruffin · 24/10/2013 11:49

I understand where your coming from OP. My DD was always very good at maths ie top two in her class in primary. Started secondary and due to having a bad day when they had CATs she was put in 2nd class. She was disappointed but I told her she had to prove herself. She had a fantastic teacher and she thrived and YR8 was put into top set. Unfortunately the next teacher wasn't so good with her and she did okay but didnt thrive the way she did before.
In yr 10 dcs school reduce the class sizes to 20 per class and as dd was in bottom 1/3 of class they moved her back down to class 2. She started thriving again and was top of the class in yr10 again. In yr11 they moved her back to top set which she wasnt that happy about but thankfully its not the same teacher as before. We got DD's report yesterday and her new teacher said that they had made the right decision to move her up and she has no problem tackling the A* topics.
I actually think she would have been better off in class 2 in yr 8 and 9 as that teacher was not the right teacher for my DD. She really didnt engage DD the way the other 4 teachers have.

noblegiraffe · 24/10/2013 11:19

We don't do set changes in Y11 either. Usually a set change requires a swap and there may be no one in the set below that the teacher wants to move up, and by this stage in the GCSE course they may have covered different things and it would be too disruptive.

If you can afford it, I would suggest a tutor. Also, if your school has mymaths, get your DD to log in and work through the booster packs appropriate to her target grade.

sashh · 24/10/2013 11:16

Are you sure it is the teacher? It might be that she was OK until they started the GCSE work.

14 sets sounds like a lot. I'm surprised they have that many teachers tbh.

hellsbells99 · 24/10/2013 08:23

Have you checked her books to see what her work is like? Could there be a possibility that she is doing fine in class but panicking in tests?

hellsbells99 · 24/10/2013 08:20

Hi. When is she sitting the exam? Nov or next June? If it is the latter and they have covered the course, will they be revising and going over gcse topics for the next 6 months or moving on to additional maths/AS topics? Arrange a meeting with the head of maths. But also get a revision book and print off past papers and start working through the topics again at home.

HSMMaCM · 24/10/2013 08:14

Maybe the next set down is full? You can ask, but they might not be able to move her. If she doesn't understand something specific, can you use revision books, or go over it again on the bbc gcse site?

Original poster
EverythingIsSoThrowback · 24/10/2013 06:38

There are 14 sets total - 2 top sets, 2 second top, etc. All of the sets do higher apart from the 2 bottom sets. DD's class did the entire of their GCSE course in 5 terms of year 10, so it doesn't surprise me that she doesn't understand much. She has consistently got the lowest marks in the class (big gaps i.e (out of 50) 18, while the next lowest would be 30 or so), I just don't think it's good for her.
Her own maths teacher has said she should move down, but then told her that the school wouldn't allow it Hmm

OP posts:
hellsbells99 · 23/10/2013 23:13

Hi Op. Do you know how many sets there are? If there are at least 3, then I would have thought only the bottom set would be foundation so moving to set 2 wouldn't affect the paper she would sit. As the previous poster says, it is probably the head of maths who could make the decision so try contacting them. At my DDs' school, set 1 and 2 do very similar work but set 2 a little slower. Good luck.

camptownraces · 23/10/2013 22:44

The decision about which set, is the school's decision, almost certainly that of the head of Maths. They certainly have no legal obligation to have regard to pupil or parent preferences in making these decisions.

Who have you or daughter spoken to about this? Just the current class teacher, the head of year or the head of dept?

second set may possibly be prepared for Foundation rather than Higher GCSE: is that what you want to happen?