Year 8 at grammar school struggling with algebra, what helped your child?

[Elevenseconds]

DD13 is at a grammar school and did very well (objectively) in the maths part of the 11+. Her mental maths has always been exceptional, and she didn't really struggle much in Y7 maths - no longer top of the form, but to be expected in a more competitive environment.

In Y8 things seem to have gone totally to pot. She is struggling with algebra massively. I can explain concepts to her (e.g. the nth term) and she will get the hang of it - but two days later she's forgotten it again. It's too conceptual for her.

She's doing quite badly in her homework (averaging 50%). The school run a Maths Club, but she won't attend voluntarily because it's also where they send kids who don't do their homework, and she's very diligent and would feel it was a punishment. (And to be fair, she's 13 and wants to hang out with her friends, not spend more time on her least favourite subject.)

I think it's just moving too quickly for her. She is generally not struggling at grammar - of course she has her stronger and weaker subjects but she is a mid-high performer across all other subjects.

Maths is also not my strong suit, and the trickier questions she gets are now beyond my reach. My 1996 B grade in GCSE maths was a very long time ago, and I have forgotten the vast majority of what I learned.

I got a friend round last night to show her straight line graphs. DD made all the right noises, was very polite and compliant... and appears to have taken literally nothing in.

I spoke to her Maths teacher in January and said I was concerned - so she's been moved to the front of the class - but I'm not seeing any improvement. DD says they have 3 different maths teachers - and one of them is an ECT, and DD has blamed the quality of the teaching, but having spent some time with her, I'm confident she is genuinely finding the concepts difficult, regardless of who is explaining them.

We are happy to consider outside tuition if we need to, though I am conscious that she already gets a lot of homework, so I don't want to overload her.

I guess what I'm asking is did your DC struggle with algebra in Y8 - and if so, what helped?

@Elevenseconds ,

That kind of y=mx+c question is a GCSE question, not one of the hardest, but not the easiest either.

I would expect most year 8s to find it hard. You also didn’t say how old your daughter was. If you are young for your year, it will be an even harder question.

I honestly wouldn’t rush to pay for tutoring if someone can’t do GCSE maths in Year 8. A lot of people who have probably never taught think that this kind of problem is easy (which it is if you have both ability and the right level of cognitive development).

But different pupils intellectually mature at different rates, separate to their innate ability. It is amazing how often a pupil will struggle to do a problem in Year 9, regardless of repetition, teaching etc, but find it easy in Year 10.

And no school will kick a child out because they are struggling in Year 8 Maths. It just won’t happen. The next real cut off is GCSEs.

She's 13 - and a September-born, so one of the oldest in the year, so I can't really blame birth month!

I just hope they repeat the teaching often enough that by Y11 it goes in! I am worried in case they just keep introducing harder and harder maths. Perhaps a conversation with the teacher about how/what they teach (and how often they recap) might be useful.

My recollection of Y9 is that it's all SOHCAHTOA but appreciate things have probably changed in the last 30 years!

I did take a look at the Foundation and Higher maths papers and that did put my mind at ease a bit. There were definitely more questions on the Foundation paper that I think she could answer than couldn't. Where it started overlapping with the Higher Paper was approximately where her current level is.

Our DS is 15 and at a grammar school too — the thing that made the biggest difference for him with maths was making it not feel like maths. Anything with a gamification element — earning points, beating a score, that kind of thing — completely changed his attitude. He went from "I hate maths" to actually choosing to do extra practice because it felt like playing rather than studying. I know that sounds too simple but the emotional side of maths struggles is massive. Once they stop dreading it, the actual learning follows.