Bad mock exam results

I don't think it's too late. The following may be of use to you:

• your dd needs to be honest about how much revision she did - are poor results due to lack of work or lack of understanding?
• exam technique is as important at subject knowledge. Download a past paper, answer paper and examiners' comments and together with your dd really look at what was required for each answer and how marks are allocated.
• make sure your dd understands what is required by different questions -ie key words such as explain/describe/justify/examine - often marks are lost because candidates don't understand what they are being asked to do, despite having the subject knowledge.
• your dd needs to be doing active revision - working on past papers, condensing knowledge etc - not sitting in front of an open book hoping it will all go into her brain. Perhaps look at different revision techniques - mind maps, for example.
• ime past papers are the key to exam success - you find that questions can be repeated or are very similar and this will help your dd gain confidence in approaching her real exams later this year
• what is the school planning to do to support your dd?
• as previous posters have mentioned your dd is nearly an adult and she has to put in the work to improve - whether that's improving her subject knowledge or working on exam technique.

If the school is in special measures and there has been a succession of supply teachers then I wouldn't expect this to change particularly between now and the exams. The school would have not put supply teachers with exam classes if there were super-experienced and competent teachers floating around twiddling their thumbs.

I would make plans to address the studying at home. Which subjects do you need resources for? There are lots on the internet and I'm sure posters would have good ideas.

If you want to know how to structure revision then this is a useful post:
missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/how-to-prepare-for-exams/

As is: www.cultofpedagogy.com/learning-strategies/

Extra sessions and revision groups have been proven to be very ineffective. They need good teaching in lessons and for the students to take responsibility.

75% of all predictions are too high.

There is absolutely no excuse for a school predicting A/A* and the child getting a C. Taking exams early is frowned upon by Ofsted if a child would have achieved a higher mark by waiting until Y11. Y9 is just stupid. Any school that gets predictions this wrong is clearly not assessing the work and tests that the children are doing accurately and is giving false hope. Grades can be improved but you cannot revise what you do not understand or haven't been taught. I would ask the school what they are going to do regarding extra teaching and revision before the summer. All these schools sound poor to me.

I'm very cross about the predicted grades too, seems to bear no relation to actual grades most of ds's mates got. I think it lulled them into a false sense of security.

Ds flunked maths- we're getting a tutor.

The one thing I would say is please don't blame yourself. Kids of 14/15/16 are not little kids any more and have to take responsibility for their own learning. They are, coincidentally, at a stage in their lives and development where the brain is not particularly well suited to being self motivated and self driven.

I know my daughter isn't perfect, but supply teachers have had an impact and so has the total over-selling of expectations and the under-delivery of analysis after exams taken so far. Surely, if tests get taken the results should form part of an action plan. Apparently, that's not how it works.

That's the part that annoys me. Sorry...I'm ranting again.

The key thing to take though is that as parents, you can't hang over your kids. I know mine would hate it if I hung over her and sorted out a timetable for her revision or anything similar. Having said that we have asked her to tell us exactly what homework she has every night so we can at least track the work coming in. We can't really track it going back as she's 16 in 10 days. She'll be old enough to get married in Gretna if she so chooses.

We are talking about near adults. Your dd has the same opportunity as mine to focus on her exams from now. I've told dd to concentrate on Maths and English, with science as a third priority. Anything else she gets is a bonus. You've trusted your child and that will pay off dividends in terms of her independence. She seems to know she hasn't done as much as she can and that might shock her into action.

I hope she pulls it out of the bag. I hope mine does too!! But if she doesn't for any reason, there are options she can take and I am starting to look into what those might be. We plan, they follow or they don't...then we have a back up plan, just in case.

I taught a couple of students last year who got a's-from sheer bloody hard work after getting g's in their mocks-target grade d's. I made their lives a misery so they got great coursework grades and she can do it as long as she does well in the cw element where there are them. She can turn it around.

I don't have advice, per-se but I feel your pain. I have gone through this with my dd (16) and am really cross with the school. Why leave it til last minute to tell us this? Why did they not know before that our children were struggling with comprehension? In my daughter's case, she lost confidence after compulosry GCSEs in Y9 when she was predicted A's/As and achieved Cs. She'll do better next year they said. She didn't. Predicted As/As and got Cs. So this year I pulled them up on it all and was told she was predicted c's across the board. This is a kid who, until Y9 was really academic. Now she couldn't give a monkeys about school. Sorry for ranting. I just don't understand how schools can get things so badly wrong with children and not know til this stage in the game...

I hope you get some structured advice and that you manage to address this.