Help! Doing really badly in AQA English Language GCSE

What a heart warming update. I have a year 9 student who I am very worried about. Can't seem to focus has been off sick is really behind and I am concerned he will just refuse school next week. Been trying to think what type of support I can put in place.

OP wow, well done to you and your son. Amazing result! I found this a very helpful thread. So thank you very much for coming back on and Happy New Year!

@filchards such a wonderful update and a great result! Well done to him. I hope he enjoys his chosen A level subjects.

Sorry I've just realised the date on this!

Firstly I'm NOT an English teacher and neither are my DCs this age.

This is what I'd do. I have a house full of ADHD.

Forget about the actual writing for now.

Forget about the second story option/ question.

Focus on the descriptor question.

Get a whiteboard, put it on the wall and STAND UP to do the work. This is very important.

Practice writing ideas/ key points in spider diagrams, lists or whatever.

Gradually start to turn these into paragraph plans.

Sometimes just do vocabulary lists.

Then do this on paper/flip chart style.

Only then, move on to essay writing.

Do this over several WEEKS.

Practice doing this verbally too... See a picture in a magazine? Get him to run through the process. On a billboard? Ditto. Take a still from an advert on TV. Same. Use your own pictures/prompts with the whiteboard.

For now, completely remove the 'sitting at a desk with a blank piece of paper' anxiety. Develop skills and confidence in the meantime. And then come back to it.

This is an incredibly helpful thread. How did your child get on in the end?

Focus on one sentence. Write it really simply 'the man sat under the tree'. Brainstorm better synonyms for 'Sat', 'man' and 'tree'. Add an adjective to tree or man. Add an adverb to sat.
Can you compare the man to something to show how he sits or is feeling? Can you add in a clause about the weather?

Do it a tiny step at a time, it's so much easier than the guff they get told about planning the whole thing in advance and extended metaphor etc!

@filchards for the freezing blank page, with adhd he literally need to write the first thing that pops into his mind that’s relevant to the prompt. It can be very very basic, it’s just to get started

I wonder if there's any Disability discrimination route you could explore? If he's got good marks in the subjects he wants to study, is insisting on a particular grade in a non-related area putting him at a disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person?

I work with the Equality Advisory and Support Service in a different area and I think they cover discrimination in education. Might be worth asking them for advice on whether there's anything you can do to negotiate a different approach/lower grade as a reasonable adjustment.

I totally sympathise. For some kids this exercise incredibly difficult. My DD sounds similar to your DS. She's bright and not without imagination but it can't be forced. She used to stare blankly at these pictures and not write a thing. Every time she came home with one for homework, she could spend up to two hours getting upset about it. I'm trying to really think how we made a breakthrough because now she can do it. I'll ask her later as that might be better than me guessing/assuming what eventually worked

I agree @IamSlave . The teachers have been very nice but there's been no concerted effort to unpick ds1's particular challenges which is why we paid for a tutor. We are lucky we can afford this- many can't. He got good marks in his sats, so his target is stil a 6 despite the fact he's on a 3 for lang and 1 for lit. I'm not blaming individual teachers- they are overworked, underpaid and working with systems that don't seem to take account of individual needs.

His recent report says he is a hardworking pupil who seems to struggle to get his ideas down in assessments. During class he comments with accuracy and insight but takes too long to start a written task. His exam marks do not reflect the knowledge and understanding he demonstrates in lessons and he is unable to transfer this to his written response. The suggestion was more practice papers to get him used to exam conditions

To me what the teacher describes screams out there is a barrier impacting on his performance but there's no help available to understand what that is or how to address it.

What I find interesting on mumsnet is how often actual teachers are so out of whack with what the students are doing who have needs.

However many don't even read the ehcp so it's not surprising.

@BobBobBobbing and anyone else on here needs to be write to exam board and mp.

@BobBobBobbing

He's also doing what he shouldn't have too because the exam should fit him not him having to deal with barriers to show what he can do

@HereBeFuckery's advice is what we are doing. So basically he's written scenes with a couple of "fill in the blank here" bits that he can use to tailor to the picture. He's practiced adapting these to pics that you wouldn't think would match. His big barrier is actually getting something on the page- he has actually come out of a mock before having not written a single thing. Once he starts writing, he can get good marks for a small paragraph- he's got good knowledge and vocabulary. Spelling is a bit more iffy! By taking the overwhelm out of the blank page and getting him to focus on on filling in the blanks he'll actually start to put additions in.

I really don't understand how an examiner can tell the difference between something he's done at home and memorised and something that he's written on the spot. It's not plagiarism as he's not using someone else's work- it's a tactic that's being used to overcome a significant barrier due to a disability. His tutor is an examiner and she's the one who devised this approach. And like the OP, we are shit out of options given the barriers our kids face and the fact that so much rests on english. Has we been given the option of dropping Lit we absolutely would have done. And a functional skills qualification at this stage rather than forcing someone down a route they are not suited for and making them feel like a failure would be great. If these are acceptable option for those that fail GCSE, why can't they be an option at gcse rather than set kids up to fail?

@filchards those are the a-levels DS wants to do too. 6th form have said they'll take him even if he fails both English Lit and Lang as he's predicted good grades, but he'll have to resit one of them which he doesn't want to do as 1)it takes him away from his a levels and 2)he hates them.

My particular form of adhd means I thrive under pressure- exams were the pressure I needed to be able to access my knowledge and skills. So all my tactics aren't suitable for ds1.

No worries. He doesn't have to plan - planning gives him structure, and he can get a 5 without a strong structure to his writing. If he can link each paragraph to the last by mentioning something from the last paragraph that will be more than enough.

Totally agree about having three starting sentences planned out so he can write one down without over thinking and then he's started. It's hardest to start!

If I get time I'll dig out an exemplar as well, so you have a couple to work from. You're doing all the right things to help him!

@filchards i think you will find that whatever you say he will never ever be able to do a plan. I would stop asking for that.

Next, you are absolutely right, bombarding an adhd brain with lots of unnecessary information (ie above his grade), I don’t know how to properly explain it, but he literally cannot distinguish the importance of one word over an other.

The story/descriptive writing advice above is very good.

If I get a min I will look for an exemplar for you.

Blank page paralysis. He's attaching a remembered response to the blank page.

Can you help him to pyscologically break that association.
What I would do is get lots of papers exams.

Set small targets for each one.
First paper get ££ or treat or whatever motivates him if he writes a small amount. Allow him to have the cues to help him.

Next paper, again reward if he can write x and use z technique. 10 mins or so.

Each time increase the challenge if he has successfully done it.

Try and break that mental association.

So sorry op i was thjnkjng of Eng lit ndxt week.

Yes there are examples on line, but as MrsHamlet says (she marks Eng GCSE) it would be easy to spot.

There are some great ideas on here to get him started. Suggest he starts with the picture rather than the narrative prompt- it's meant to be a descriptive piece inspired by the image. Get him to work on some descriptive phrases he can learn. And get him to learn two or three starting sentences so he can pick the best one kn the day and start from there.

I don’t think teachers and people not affected really understand the barrier that the way questions are asked are to ND pupils.

@onanotherday has it right and it is infuriating and so, so stressful for parents and pupils.

Get him to choose the picture! The narrative prompt (eg 'write a story about loneliness) is way harder to achieve top marks in.
If he prepares his descriptions in advance - not learning them off pat, but working on them so they go from 'there's an old man' to 'as he sat despondently on the bench, his weathered skin telling the tale of his heartache' - he will do better.
How is his overall vocabulary knowledge? Can he come up with synonyms?

I really feel for you (and him) - it's so horrible to feel this helpless and the school should have done more.