Do you have a Year 11 doing GCSE this summer?

DD at a comp, dyspraxia and dyslexic tendencies.

Predicted 6 maths and 6 both English

Got 5 maths in the latest mock, 5/6 in English

Wants 7 maths, 6 English

Needs 6 in both to do biology,
chemistry and RE at a level

She's feeling v despondent about the mocks. She does fulfil criteria for laptop but missed the (very stringent) extra time criteria by a thin margin and really struggles with processing speed so getting it all down in the exam

Average comp estimated:
Maths 8
English Lit 7
Eng Lang 6

Mocks were 8, 6, 6 respectively.
Targets are 8, 7, 7 respectively.

DD Comp
Maths predicted 7
English predicted 6

English has always been her weakest subject but she feels she's doing much better lately so hopefully she will at least get a 6.

Say she needs at least level 6 in both to do A levels at her school.

Dd is predicted A-B in all her other subjects and may be able to get A* in a couple if she pushes herself.

DD at comp predicted 8,8,8 Maths, Eng lang, Eng lit.

Needs whatever she can get - looking to go to super selective grammar 6th form - they said she did not make the cut at top80 - but was in top 100 on predicted grades - so call back on results day if results are above predicted.

Realistically - needs 5 As overall from 9 subjects for her second choice grammar 6th form in addition to a min of 6 for English and Maths.

I've not got copies of the scores, we were just told them verbally.

He does have access to various online resources, but is so disengaged now that he doesn't want to look at them. I am of course telling him he needs to and trying to get him to revise but it always ends in a row.

How can it be that bad, violet that a 6 might not pass?!

Any chance you could post mock scores just so I can check that it's not just incompetence at interpreting results?

If your lad is on board there's still a chance to make significant improvements at home - have you looked at online resources like hegartymaths or corbettmaths?

Noble
Tell me about it, the school has been absolutely shocking. So many kids are in the same position, one of his best friends from primary school who for a 6 in his sats is now going to struggle to get a level 4. I'm so pissed off as I've been in touch with the school so many times over the years and have been fobbed off every time.

I do wonder whether I should have moved him, but it's very difficult to know whether this is the right thing to do when a child's happy and settled. Plus the other school close to us is also in special measures and I'm a single parent and work long hours, so needed a school in walking distance. When he started there the ofsted was good.

He's not academic at all, but he should be getting C's. I'm hoping the tutoring will get him up from a U to at least a level 3, that way he should be able to do gcse next year rather than foundation maths.

Violet, if he got a 4 in his maths SATs and is now getting a U, that would mean not only has he made no progress since primary school, but has actually gone backwards. Does his maths tutor think he is a U too, or have the school used weird grade boundaries or entered him for higher instead of foundation?
If he's a U, then he most likely won't be resitting maths GCSE but will be entered for Functional maths instead.

Noble
he did ok in his SATs and got 4's in maths and english. The maths and science teaching has been awful the whole time he's been there (he had one year where he had a decent teacher). The new acting head (who's been in post since the notice to improve) has been having meetings with all parents whose children are not at the level they should be and admitted to me that the school has failed them and they don't have the basics. Luckily the sixth form college he'll go to is fantastic so he'll be able to do an extra year and re-sit his maths, but he shouldn't be in this position.

got a U in maths

Is this expected? What did he get in his KS2 SATs? What does his tutor think?

DS1 is predicted 7 for English and 6 for Maths. He's done two sets of mocks - got a 7 and a 7 in first lot, hasn't had English back yet for second and got a 6 for Maths. Ofsted rated good comp in rural town. He has really struggled with new maths curriculum and was getting 3s and 4s at the start of year 11 - has worked his socks off to get his marks up.

DS2 is sitting GCSEs this summer. He's at a comprehensive which received notice to improve last year 😬

He needs 6 c's or above (or level 4's in maths and English) to do the level 3 Btec he wants to do.

He's been predicted level 4 in English but got a U in maths in the last round of mocks. Maths and Science teaching has been appalling throughout his time there. I'm paying for a maths tutor, but fully expecting him to have to re sit maths.

Interesting thread.
DS Academy
Predicted 5-7 in maths and same in English.
Needs 4's for his college course.
School aren't predicting anyone 9s as far as I know.

There are a few who've been predicted 9s in maths at dd's school - like Atia's ds they are the kids consistently getting full marks in everything maths related. I should bloody hope they get 9s as they are clearly of different ability to he other bright kids in the top set.

No one has outright been predicted a 9 for English - even those scoring very highly - I guess the marking is considered too subjective to predict who will be in that top 3% come the summer?

My dc, at a selective independent, is predicted A* for English and A for maths. They are sitting the 1-9 exams but I am guessing the school doesn't want to get involved in arguments over what the numbers mean, which seems sensible from the other thread!

That's GCSE A* to C including English and maths on my previous post!

DS1 got 6 for English, couple of marks off a 7.
4 for maths, couple of marks off 5.

They're not predicting grades as such, but have "aspirational target grade" based on the old level 5 KS2 result. These are both 7.
He needs a 6 in maths to do physics at sixth form college.
School is an Ofsted "outstanding" comprehensive with GCSE A* to C usually in the high 60%/ low 70% range for past 5 years.

Forgot to add - DD is also predicted a 7 for English. We shall see. I'm torn between encouraging her and preparing her for plan B in case she doesn't make the grades...

DD1 is predicted a 7/8 for maths but is battling to turn it into an 8 because she wants to do Maths and Physics at A level. She's at a failing comprehensive school... some fantastic teachers and a shiny new head teacher.

OK, well done that lad, that's pretty nailed on 9.

Just looked up his report - he is doing Edexcel, although I don't know if they did the official mocks or not. He got 226/240 before Christmas, which tbh I consider pretty sloppy on his part, and would expect nearer full marks in the summer when hopefully he won't be treating it as a speed exercise.

Atia..,

Just musing really, if your son did the latest Edexcel mock, what mark did he get? I am wondering myself where the boundaries are - and your son should be in the 9 band given your certainty (which I accept).

No idea. I'd better ask DC3. I think he was due to bring something home from school on Friday. To be honest, I don't really care. He's bright. He'll get the grades he needs for Sixth Form, so we'll just wait and see what happens.

Is that to me? The govt document about grading predicts over 20,000 grade 9s for maths. There's plenty of evidence that ds is within the top 20,000, so it seems a perfectly reasonable prediction to me.