If I email the maths teacher will I be 'that' parent?!

If school does not respond in a way that you are happy with you may wish to suggest that his slower than expected progress is due to poor maths teaching, rather than lack of effort on DS part. A classic response from schools where teaching is weak is to blame the pupils or the parents. Since he is in top set it is unlikely there is a significant major problem with your DS.
Personally I would be concerned that teacher is choosing to tackle this by raising it at the end of term and setting extra work in Xmas holidays, looks like a 'teacher back covering strategy' rather than a 'support pupil strategy'.
Check his books and look at how much written work there is (should be dated), whether it's been marked and if so any teacher comments.

It may be an end of year target. It'd be sensible and quite understandable if you emailed to clarify your concerns and ponderings.

Is it midyis that is used to set the targets or ks2 sats? Dd in year 8 has got lower than target in 9 subjects, but i honestly think the marks she got were the best she could do. She does work/behave well etc. She had no tutoring at ks2 so that hasn't falsely inflated her ks2 sats, in fact did slightly less well than expected in them.

My DS is in a similar position. He is in Yr9, he has been predicted high grades by Midis? They have termly subject tests and a small underperformance looks like he is going off track where it can just be one question that he wasn't secure on and 20 mins going over that topic will solve the problem.

I think if you ask in a polite "seek to understand" way then you will not be that parent.

'Progression flight path' is wankery of the highest order. Who came up with that one.

Are they basing this on the results of his class work or a single test? It would be helpful if they could give you a reason rather than a generic it could be this or this.

It may not even be due to the SATs score. My Year 7 DS has been predicted an 8, based on his CATs test, but like your son he hasn't yet showed the necessary brilliance so far at secondary (languishing at the bottom of the top set) so I have received a very similar email. It makes me a bit cross because he isn't very confident in maths anyway, and now he feels like a failure just because he isn't on a 'flight path' for an 8 yet - but in my view the 8 is an overestimation of his capabilities anyway and he may just have fluked the CATs test. For gods's sake, he's in the top set and behaving himself, doing homework etc - why does everything have to be about data/expected GCSE grades at age 11?

Of he got a 5a or 6 in ks2, they will have set him a madly high target, (ideally kids make 2 sublevels of progress a year)).
So his general standard of work, and the level at which he progresses may not have gone down. Or it could be that senior school is much less contained than primary, and he has got can bit distracted.
I don't think writing would make you " that mum ", you just want a bit of clarity.

How do you know all the kids haven't received this?
Maybe teacher is paranoid about her class achieving and they are all doing stuff over the hols?
I wouldn't blame the teacher as isn't it that now schools have to maintain the DCs levels of achievement, Dcs aren't allowed to drop back, so maybe, as mentioned above, he did exceptionally well and is now obliged to be kept at this level.

The turnaround came because of me finally deciding not to accept teacher-knows-best any more. It was me who eventually pinpointed the problem, not the teachers. They were reacting to symptoms, not the 'disease'.
I am the first to admit that he is a pita but he doesn't suffer fools gladly. University suited him better than school and he had a much more positive experience there.

senua
I'll bet that the school claim that it is because of their 'intervention'.hmm

Do you talk to your son about the letter?
Did he settle down and work after?

If they hadn't have sent the letter, I'll bet that you would have complained to the school about not being warned.

I had a similar letter once which I queried. It turned out to be a mistake, a letter meant for a few had been sent out to the masses.

Don't stress, but get him to do the work. This will wait till parents evening, honestly.

Hasn't school broken up already in which case an email to the teacher would be too late?

If you send an email with the questions you have in the OP, you will definitely not be "that" parent as I think they're perfectly reasonable things to want to know. If you send an email like up ^^^, you absolutely will!

Just ask if you can have some more clarity on areas he is falling behind with, as he feels things are going well.

Bloody hell, the thing about flight paths is such a heap of bollocks. How on earth would a teacher be able to say at this point in Y7 if a kid is not on target for their GCSEs 5 years hence? Progress isn't linear, and kids have just gone through a major transition. If your DS has been 'identified' because of insufficient progress from KS2 a) sounds like the school are expecting kids to fit into neat little lines and be equally good at all areas of the curriculum which is nonsense and b) they actually have some way of accurately measuring progress along that neat little line, which is nonsense.

If he has simply underperformed in a recent assessment (ask him) then maybe a bit of revision would be a good idea.

Sometimes schools are stupid and go through the motions. We had a letter home about DS early in Y12 which basically said "if he carries on like this he will get awful AS grades and we will boot him out at the end of Y12". It really upset me until I discussed it with some other parents, one of whom was a teacher. They explained that it was a 'going through the motions' letter so I calmed down. DS didn't get kicked out btw, he carried on to upper sixth and got A* A B. I'll bet that the school claim that it is because of their 'intervention'.

Ignore, as best you can, the silly letter but do check that they are not going to drop him down a set.

Don't you love it when they drop these bombshells at the end of term, when there is no-one there to discuss it with.

We were told at start of year 7 that with every new intake, they uncover a huge range in what the children are and aren't secure in. Even if a child has astonishing SATs results, that doesn't necessarily mean they're secure in everything. Your son could just have been taught well enough to pass yr6 SATs, done well but then have forgotten huge chunks. I know mine did.

I wouldn't send an e-mail. Do the work and check it with him. That way you'll work out yourself if the teachers are right or not. You'll soon find out if they're being unrealistic, or if it's all just fair enough. It's not a big deal really.

TBH, it's the first term I would wait and see how he goes. It's too early to panic at all. When is parents evening or report time?

Its a bit like the growth percentiles when they are little. If they are on a high percentile and then drop down to a low onebit can be a cause for concern. Your D's has probably been on the equivalent of a very high percentile at primary and something in his performance this term has meant he has slipped down the "percentile" charts a bit although still obviously within the top set. The teacher is trying to catch this early to get your ds back on his old "percentile" line.

If you send that suggested email you will definitely be that parent!

I wouldn't read that letter as your ds being behind as in behind others in his cohort. I think he left primary school with really high scores and has not yet kept up to that level. All perfectly normal when starting in a new school, greater levels of independence and expectation etc. He probably didn't score as well in a recent test as expected. And the senior leaders or department head wants to see "action" taken by the teacher. Hence the letter.

I would go through some of the homework with your ds and see the if he can actually explain to you his work. Then email the teacher in January, stating that the homework was completed and that you are always happy to receive feedback etc etc.

No biggie.