Year 8 boy - Maths. I can't figure out whats going wrong.

I would also look at dyscalculia, a friend of mine her daughter is mentally perfectly able with numbers but written down struggles to an extent but is a hard worker so it didn't make sense. She was tested and as out of school due to covid and later other reasons was provided with a specialist tutor - it all helped and she got an 8 in GCSE in the end.

However having said that it is common that children do not have a sound base due to missed lessons, poor teaching, or other reasons effecting attendance in primary.

I would also get a tutor to work one on one (maybe one that has dealt with dyscalculia before) its not cheap but even one lesson a month can set them on the right track, tutor will also test them on basics to see if there are gaps etc and even that would be useful.

I did this for DD (was done over zoom which they are now used to) and it pulled her up 2 grades even with only 3 months to go to exam. For mine it was about how things were explained and plain old practice which they don't really get enough time for in school or it was wasted by class idiots

My DS was diagnosed with dyscalculia in infant school. I would say all of his maths education in primary was a complete waste of time as it went completely over his head. In secondary he was put in the bottom set for maths which was a very small class and they went through the absolute basics and things finally started to make sense to him. Lockdown was also a big help as we focused on maths at home - again taking it at his pace - and now in Y9 he has moved up a set and is predicted to pass his GCSE. Honestly, that seemed impossible a couple of years ago. It may be that because your DS has got high grades elsewhere, he has been put in a set that is too high for his maths and would benefit from the slower pace more individual attention of a lower set.

DS had a similar profile at 11 - very strong in everything except maths and we could not work out why

When he changed schools the maths teachers went right back to Y1 maths with him. There were certain basic concepts he had misunderstood and that explained why all subsequent work was poor. Maths is like building a wall. If the stones at the bottom are wonky everything you build on top becomes skewed.

@MissyB1

i agree with some that it could be the actual genuine understanding of maths and grasping the concept. My son struggled with this and it turned out there was fundamental gaps in his learning. I got him a Tutor for 11plus and she was amazing. She didn’t ‘tutor’ she taught him concept and how to apply that, got him thinking! she will continue to teach him concept so I know that he continues his understanding at least through the Year 7 transition. He is going to a private secondary school in September so it’s double paying but we will be keeping her on standby after Year 7 for the entire journey to prevent and dips, especially as his working memory is slightly below average. He has been diagnosed with autism, is exceptionally bright but only in things he is interested in which extremely frustrating!

I'm a maths tutor. If I was working with a student in this situation I would ask for a photocopy of his maths exam, and an outline of the syllabus for the year. Then I'd cross reference the questions he found most tricky with the syllabus to see what exactly was covered ( all schools do ks3 differently so it can be hard to know how "far" to take a topic). Then I'd work on the those areas. Dr Frost videos are good. I think CorbettMaths offered a slower gradation of progress through questions though which might be useful if he is finding Dr Frost questions get too hard too fast.

You are paying for a private school where Maths is taught by non-specialists????

Ummmm …..

As it obviously isn't just him, it sounds like the maths teaching has been poor and the school need a kick up the arse.

Dr Frost is very good once you navigate it for your own circumstances. On ours you can do literally vast numbers of repetition questions and use the short video tutorials which you know teach the same method

I’d definitely expect school to be on this. You Working with him yourself this summer will give you an idea of what issue is.
I wonder if it’s just sheer panic. He worries about doing badly, panics, mind blank. Vicious circle. So some general recall and relaxation techniques may help.

I would make sure he’s got solid foundations, does he know number bonds and times tables? Does he understand fractions? Makes a huge difference when doing more complex maths because you’re not devoting brain power to the basics.

I’m an SEN teacher in secondary, I find lots of dice games can help kids without number bond knowledge, also explicitly teaching quicker methods of adding and subtracting without counting one by one, sometimes it doesn’t occur to children to use alternatives.

Hi op. I have read most but not all of the thread, so apologies for any repetition.

Your poor DS, it must be really upsetting to feel like you just aren't getting anywhere despite putting the work in.

I thnk you need to go back to basics, as if you don't grasp and apply those then everything else goes to pot.

He is in y8, but go back to y6 and build from there. Place value, times tables, written multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, percentages. Get some of the CGP workbooks - eg SATS questions/SATS "stretch" as these will help you bring him up to the level that it is expected for kids starting secondary school. Y6 really does lay the foundations for ks3, and once you have those foundations a whole lot more falls into place easily.

He might just not be a maths person, as long as he gets a grade 4 at GCSE it doesn't matter. Let's face it how much from what we learned in maths at school do we use in real life? If he can do basic mental arithmetic, measure & work out areas & understand weights he will be ok. My ds got good GCSE grades at GCSE & was in top sets for everything but maths, he got a grade 4 for foundation GCSE. It hasn't held him back, he now works in local party politics. When he starts his GCSE course you could always get a tutor, that's what I did.

5th grade math worksheets cover a variety of topics. In addition to addition and subtraction, students will learn place value, rounding, fractions, and decimals. Then, they'll work with measurement, geometry, and word problems. They can practice these skills in the comfort of their own home, without having to spend money on a program. Some worksheets offer timed practice for each operation, which can be very helpful for students who have trouble recalling information quickly.

Get a dyscalculia assessment with a educational special needs assessor/physiologist.

he sounds like a bright boy but something in his brain is unable to process an area of maths.

if he’s had tutors etc then further repetition may not be helpful.

get to the root cause and THEN implement strategies.

I really would get a professional on it as he’s got no other issues so it stands out as a red flag that it’s more than just “repetition”.

you’d then get the help that’s actually going to help. Or at least some sign posting towards it.

look for a private assessor.

Hah, thanks Teen, yes I did! 22% on the foundation paper would not be a 4. 22% on higher could be. Roll on the summer holidays.

@noblegiraffe Because at GCSE on a foundation paper, 22% could be a grade 4 pass and be fine,

Far be it from me to query you, but can you confirm whether you actually meant to say Higher paper rather than Foundation?

I also agree with Plantstrees.

My mum's a maths tutor (still teaching in her 70s!) She's always said it is more important to understand why you're doing what you're doing rather than try to memorise maths. If you understand why then you don't need to try to recall methods when tested. She favours pencil and squared paper and writing down all the processes. Perhaps an older, more traditional tutor would help him with this.

Also I have found my yr 10 dc has always been given very hard maths tests (same one for all sets like your son) and scored badly, so demoralising for them really :(

If the highest mark in set 1 was 80% that also suggests that it was a pretty difficult test - it's not necessarily that anything has gone terribly wrong with your DS's revision.

I do try to have conversations with my classes about how low percentage doesn't always mean poor performance for them at their level when this sort of issue comes up, to try to manage expectations!

You seemed to be worried that he would fail his GCSEs if he carries on with these scores - it would be worth asking what sort of GCSE grades would be expected from a student in set 2 performing at that level.

If they are doing the same test as set 1, then getting results that low as a class isn't necessarily unusual, and it would be useful to know the results in set 1 for comparison (I would expect an overlap at the bottom end set 1/top of set 2).

I would always give a class average and tell the group to compare themselves to the average rather than worry about the absolute mark.

As I said, 22% could be a grade 4 at GCSE on the same paper that set 1 are sitting so there will be a wide range of results among students sitting the same paper. It's not great but that's how maths is ultimately assessed.

Having seen your latest post, either that was an inappropriate test for the group, or something is going wrong with the teaching.
Do they revisit things regularly, or do they teach topic once and then expect the children to remember everything at the end of the year?