Sets

Based on your update: I am usually quite laissez-faire but if the teacher was visibly surprised then I strongly suspect a mistake has been made somewhere. This is a LONG term and waiting until after Christmas for a move means being in the wrong set for over a third of this academic year. If it were my child I wouldn’t hesitate to contact his head of year.

Yes this as my daughter had to cover science work herself as she wanted to make sure she didn't stay in the wrong set.

This happened with my daughter in Y7. She ended up in the bottom science set after having been given exceeding. I enquired and like you was told that nothing could happen as there was no room for her to move at that point. Thankfully once she had an assessment she went up to top set, there was definitely an error!

I'd be emailing them. That's a long time to be in the wrong set.

Reasonable outcome.
However I would get him to check in with friends in higher sets occasionally as to what they are covering so when the end of term assessment happens he hasn't missed anything out.

I would email the school the second day after they return. Unlike what a previous poster said, our dds school does not move the sets throughout the year and issues/mistakes are all addressed in the first 2 weeks with sets.

I also would not leave up to you child to raise it as some schools will fob off the child with an explanation,a parental explanation should be given.

our school is similar to yours in that it has 2 sides with each having 6 sets and they are in number order. The so x1 and y1. Most schools do not have odd numbering of sets as the children work out which is top from the cohort. Whilst being 1 set out of their sats predictions I could understand , set 5 and 6 in our comp are the ones who struggle with English, May have English as a foreign language and the work they do is less challenging than sets 1-4. On the plus side the lower sets have smaller classes so they children can get more support. Our school also takes behaviour into account and some children have been moved set due to messing around or not behaving when with other pupils. So it seems sets in 95% statistically, 3 % behaviour and 2% based on set size and year size.

although there was an interesting issue in year 8 sets, when one teacher taught their class the test and they all performed well, leading to one unsettled class dominating the top set. Come year 9 this was all resolved as true ability was identified in year 8 tests, where this teacher could not walk them through the exam in advance 😀😳

I would check now using the email a pp suggested. It’s fine to ask that question. Mistakes happen and you’re just checking. You’re not going to come across as unreasonable or a pushy parent if that’s a concern.

If he is in a bottom set then I'd ask why.
I suspect they are mixed ability.
Def worth checking.
A bottom set may have more focus on basics that he can already do.

Was English set in Year 7?

My son was in top set for maths and bottom set for English but got a personal phone call explaining the very specific reasons.

I'm assuming that the school uses the system of Emerging/ Below Expected, Secure/Expected, Exceeding/Above Expected statements in their reports?

Also please don't worry about this needing to be sorted right now before he goes back. Every school I've worked in sets are never set in stone. It is of no advantage to have a pupil in the wrong set compared to their peers so we often move pupils around all throughout the year.

In my school some subjects have sets that don't follow the traditional numbers, so for example top set might be set 4 etc. I wouldn't stress about it during the holidays and it would be pointless emailing as 99% of teachers won't be looking at their work email (quite rightly) during the holiday. Timetables are usually sent out by the data/admin team who normally have no input in which set pupils are put into. Pupils would usually have some time with their form tutor on the first day back so I'd get him to raise the issue then. If he has actually been put into a lower set you could ask the head of English for a conversation about your concerns.

Plenty of schools still set for English so don’t assume it’s mixed ability.

I have worked in a school before now where the set numbering was arbitrary to try and remove some stigma. It didn’t work as everyone knew roughly which set was which but it’s possible something similar is in place here. Equally it’s possible that a genuine mistake has been made.

It's the same at my DD's school. They have mixed English as otherwise they can't get discussions going in some classes.

exceeding what?

And English is not normally set at all.

So you need to clarify a lot before knowing if a mistake is likely to have been made. If he is predicted a 6 in maths and is getting it, that is secure. If he is predicted a 2 in English and is getting a 3 - that is exceeding?

It may be that they don't set for all subjects. My dcs school set for maths, science, pe and foreign languages but not for English or the humanities.

Ds has his entire options subjects moved down one line in an excel sheet which saw him given polar opposite subjects than the ones he chose. I told him what is worse is some poor child chose art and has been given statistics! He was also marked as a cause for concern in sixth form when he was performing at A star standard had 100% attendance and his attitude to learning was outstanding. Mistakes happen, staff fill in the wrong box or the excel sheet shifts.

Don't wait, email now and question it.

Is this Scotland? If not did he do SATs, and if so what were his scores?

A bottom set English in a comp would likely have kids who are struggling to read fluently and who have poor spelling and grammar.

I'd also email now- in 2 weeks time, the school will be dealing with GCSE results and everything around that- much better to get it sorted now.

It's very possible they are mixed ability in English in KS3- or at least for the first term. It would be helpful to know what year he's in for context?

@itseasy123 I wouldn't wait a week. I'd honestly email now. It can be difficult moving once they start as it'll inevitably upset someone. Far easier to fix it now.

Mistakes are perfectly possible..my DD who is profoundly dyslexic was put into top set English in Y9. She actually learnt the most there and I wish she could've stayed but alas it lasted 6 weeks before they realised.

Yes of course mistakes can be made - ds (at the time very high achieving) ended up in bottom set English having had his and another kid's results transposed in a spreadsheet. One email later all sorted.