Clash of personalities with teacher

I think I would have more general concerns about the school your DD is at - My DS is in year 8 and he certainly gets plenty of homework. His school don't set for English and the work is certainly challenging and interesting. At the moment they are doing a poetry module and are looking at song lyrics that could be described as poems, it can't be too easy because everyone does it at their own level. This is the case with all the work covered whether analysing an extract of a Shakespeare play or reading a book and then writing a diary as if you were the main character.

DS went in at level 5 and is now working at a 7c. His English teacher said they would be looking at him being a level 8 by the end of year 9. Both his sisters were level 7 and they did get A's and A*'s in the English exams but DS has more of a flair for the subject. I wouldn't say that you shouldn't be expecting your DD to get A's but I would worry that she is making enough progress in English and would want to have an idea how she was being taught because I don't recognise it as the sort of English teaching my DCs have had.

Cortina, it's just about having high expectations for everyone, not letting your able students cruise or get bored by not offering them material and ideas that push their thinking forwards.
Not letting your strugglers fail because 'They can't manage any more, Bless'
It shouldn't be prescriptive, restrictive or a self-fulfilling prophecy in any way.

Hi Goblinchild, you commented:

Children are on average supposed to make a full level progress over two years. Above average are expected to do better than that.

I've seen this with DS and find it concerning, this seeming prescriptiveness. Teacher has decided DS is above average in one area so his target for the end of year is much higher in this respect. He is being pushed steadily towards this target as he is apparently 'above average'. In other areas he's on target and where he needs to be and expectations are lower and also seem (subconsciously?) lower. Guess what I predict will happen at the end of year? In my view his ability is actually no greater in one area or another.

Hopefully it won't matter in the longer run and make no odds due to ongoing teacher assessments etc. It's just the view that 'above average are expected to do better' concerns me, as others have said on this thread small dips and spurts etc tend to be the rule rather than the exception.

Yum. Hobnob and Bailey's for me please.

I did scoff at one of my students's AS Maths revision guide the other day and point out that I differentiated at O level. Not as much as I scoffed at the heading in the GCSE RE revision guide that said "Funerals are sad"

Actually though, I think O levels and GCSEs are different. Apples and oranges.

I'm doing GCSEs now, courtesy of DS, and the maths is a lot harder than I remember O level. Especially the Statistics bit.

I can still remember some of the key names after two decades.
But that was over a thousand children ago, certainly don't lie awake wishing them evil.

The little rapscallions of Yesteryear, parents themselves and possibly posting on mumsnet.

O levels were harder than GCSEs. If you compare papers there's a lot more content and difficulty.

And again
Two steps a year refers to the sublevels of c b and a
So over two years, for example, you would progress from a 4a in Y6,
5c and 5b in Y7,
5a and 6c in Y8.
Or from a 5c to a 6b in Y8,
By Y9 you should have moved through 6a, ending on a 7c.

Too sludgy still?

And to quote myself
'
Children are on average supposed to make a full level progress over two years.'
Each level has a number 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 etc.
Each level is divided into sublevels. The sublevels are lettered.
So, like a set of steps.
1c, 1b, 1a
next level
2c, 2b, 2a
next level 3c, 3b, 3a
etc.

My biscuit box is a cornucopia of delights, name your biscuit and it will be virtually yours.

Goblin - have you got hobnobs?

I think it sounds like she'll be alright. Teacher seems approachable, she is a bright girl and she can manage literary subjects so she can manage English too, given the right direction and a bit of zeal. If she had a particularly unpleasant year, it may have generally killed off enthusiasm for the subject. Can however be turned around IYAM. There are tricks to tackling creative writing if it isn't really your thing - or perhaps methods is the right word. She doesn't have to be Kafka but she can do some vocab building and she can get some tools on board for doing creative writing.

Actually if you started a thread asking for advice/recommendations for that kind of thing, you might get a lot of help. Good luck with the talk

Ok so she had problem teacher for Y7 then
"At the start of yr8, her new teacher questioned why she ended yr7 on a level 4, when she was clearly way above that."

OK I am following you up to here. But she has now been with this new teacher who thought she should have been on a higher level etc. And you feel he might move her down to the lower set.

Why? Does this mean she is one of his weaker pupils so far as you know? If so, you need to deal with whatever areas of her English work need improving.

Do you know why she is still not getting equivalent grades in English to her other subjects with this new teacher? Where is he finding fault?