Am I being too hard on dd (year 10)?

Topseyt I said for a lot of it. I think it’s unhelpful to make a sweeping statement that you either get it or you don’t. There’s a difference between good at mental arithmetic and at certain branches of maths.

We all change over time

So your daughter isn't now bothered about maths and doesn't want to do it at A level

So she doesn't need an 8

Unless you're looking at her being an Oxbridge candidate her GCSEs won't matter for uni applications and as long as she passes maths GCSE she'll get into 6th form

I'd suggest having mobility issues and Aspergers is difficult enough without maths being shoved down her throat

Her target is 8-9 and she is currently 7-8. She's only in Y10 and they won't have covered all the syllabus yet, so give her a break. The maths teacher will be pushing her hard because they want to get that result out of her, but the pressure is too much IMO.

She is doing so well in her other subjects it must be a bit demoralising for her to feel that she is falling behind. But pushing her too hard will be counter-productive and making her do extra catch-up lessons in her lunchtime is more like a punishment than a reward, so take a step back and let her be for now, that's my advice.

Just remember - a 7 is a grade A. Would you have been unhappy if she was achieving a Grade A a few years ago?

She is likely to be right, the new specifications are so difficult that even if she has done the topics one questions might be asking her to remember 3 or 4 different parts of maths and she has to work out what each of them are, in the correct order and then do them!

Maths in year 10 is a big step up and all of our students seem to be struggling with it, not much we can really do - it is hard, but if you daughter is getting grade 7's and you think she is doing her best then I would be very proud of her.

Iggly, not necessarily in the teaching.

I am educated to degree level. However, I have no maths qualifications at all, and not for lack of trying or of teaching. I even had a private tutor to help. If I had stayed at school into my thirties I still wouldn't have passed GCSE maths (actually, it was O Level in those days).

I was constantly told how this would absolutely impede my progress getting into university and getting a job. It hasn't. Nobody even asked.

I work in financial services. I am competent at my job and absolutely numerate to the degree required.

Sorry I have to challenge this many people struggle with maths, you either can do it or you can't

No, it’s in the teaching for a lot of it! It took years for maths to click for me - it wasn’t until secondary that I got it and then I flew and did it all the way to university.

Having GCSE maths is really important and can be an issue for employers later on.

OP I would get to the bottom of why she’s struggling!!!

My dd is year 10 in a school where 75% of grades are 8/9. So we’ve had to think hard about expectations because if anything less than an 8/9 is failure that’s not healthy. Nor is it realistic, as in reality, a clutch of GCSEs spread between 7-9, with even one or two 6s is still a really good set of results. The only thing you’re ruling out by not getting all 8/9 is probably Oxbridge and maybe medicine!

So I would back off a bit, let her decide her own priorities with support from you. If she’s happy with a 7 in Maths I don’t think that will change her future prospects in any way! I’ve heard stories on here of kids working 3 hours a night and 15 hours at the weekend for months on end in year 11. Yes, they got all 8/9 but is it worth it?

No teacher should be predicting 8s in year 8 (you said 18 months ago)

What do you mean by "messed up a test"? If it's she got a 6 rather than an 8, then I couldn't get too worried about this. If she got a 2, then I agree it's worth revising the work.

I'm surprised she is predicted 8s and 9s based on SATS - DC's school is predicting a GCSE 6+ for DC who got a KS2 Level 5 in SATS (or did she get Level 6?).

It sounds like she is doing very well. I'd be wary of putting too much pressure on at this stage in case she burns out/tunes out altogether.

Targets based on SATs results aren't that accurate. For some subjects they may be an underestimate and in others an overestimate.
The new specifications for GCSEs mean they are probably even less accurate now as the SATs/GCSE link was really for the old A*-C system.
If she was Y11 now then going to catch up classes may be appropriate but the difference between grade 7 and 8 isn't that significant and it's possible that if the issue is that the course hasn't been completed yet then she will be fine in Y11.
If the targets are causing stress then I would back off for now as too much pressure may not help in the long term and could be counter-productive.
The pupils who need extra support with Maths are those on the 3/4 boundary not those on the 7/8 one.

If she is thinking of computing at A level, then good maths will help. On what basis is 8 her maths target? If it is worked out realistically from previous performance, I'd want to drill down a bit further as to what is going wrong in maths for her at the moment.

My daughter has sometimes got in a tangle on maths topics that didn't immediately make sense to her - black and white thinking! Having generally been able to look at something and understand it straight away, she has found it difficult to spend time wrestling with ideas until they do then make sense. Sometimes helping her through this has been really tricky ... and sometimes the breakthrough has been when she has accepted that a particular thing was just a definition and didn't need to mean anything more in itself.

Is she putting up the shutters on extra maths sessions because she doesn't believe that it will make any difference? Can you reassure her that it is normal and common to get stuck from one small thing, and finding and fixing a few gaps may mean that a whole lot of stuff they've moved on to might make sense straight away.

Hope you can find the right way forward and increase her confidence.

(oh and my daughter got a 9 in her maths in the end)

I've got two dds and the oldest finds school easy and barely has to try. She's in year ten too. The youngest has to work three times as hard just to stay afloat.

This is the first year that oldest dd has has to put some serious work in and it's been a bit of a surprise to her. She's also predicted 8s and 9s and attends revision groups for three or four subjects. I've always expected them to do stuff after school anyway, that's why they finish at 3pm, so they can do football or whatever they want after school.

The maths curriculum has changed hugely over the past few years. A 19 year old that I know, who took A level maths, looked at GCSE maths recently and said it was mainly what he had studied at A level.

Maybe your DD has got list along the way and might need to re visit some past topics to get back up to speed? It seems like she is viewing this as a punishment when it needs to be seen as support.

I'm sure she is doing her best, and many people struggle with maths, you either can do it or you can't. I personally think you're putting too much pressure on her and your job is to support her and encourage a love of learning, not make it miserable.