To think this is very unfair of the teacher

[pouffepants]

Ds is in yr11, and quite bright. He's predicted As for all his subjects, and already has As in maths and english.

We have issues in some subjects though, and he is admittedly lazy and does the bare minimum. The biggest problem is in science. He is the only child in his class predicted an A because all the other clever kids are taking separate sciences. He insists that the teacher picks on him if he so much as moves, while a lot of the rest of the class are throwing things around. I suspect he is exaggerating.

Tension built between him and the teacher last year, and ds became stubborn and wouldn't try very hard. So I emailed the teacher before the summer and we set up a system whereby he would regularly give me updates of how he's doing at school. I could apply sanctions at home if necessary.

So the first few lessons, I received emails saying excellent improvement in attitude and work. Ds was pleased. Then I received an email yesterday saying that he'd not handed in his homework. I challenged ds, and he looked sheepish and showed me the homework, completed but left on the side. So not great but frankly not dreadful. I told him to give it in today.

Which he did, but when he went to see the teacher, he went mad at him, and said he would no longer teach him to A grade, due to lack of effort. Not only that but he would not enter ds for the resit of the biology paper. He missed the first resit due to a stomach bug. This was the first day off sick for about 3 years, and I didn't know whether I was supposed to get a doctors note. He'd vomited in the night and it's not the sort of thing I would usually bother a doctor for. I asked the school repeatedly whether he needed one, but they didn't respond, and when I managed to get hold of a doctor, they said it was too late to do one. The teacher eventually said he 'should be OK to retake'.

The teacher has now emailed me to say he won't get a retake, but must use his original mark for biology - a D which he obtained in year 9. He says his effort is too poor as well. Why have all the other feedback emails said excellent improvement then?

I'm also concerned about history, since that was missed on the same day, and don't know if he can retake. He doesn't have a mark for that at all!

He wants to take history and psychology at a-level.

His Biology D was in year 9. I guess that explains it being so low.

The school didn't take the stupid 40% rule into account. He can (an in my school) take resit if he missed the first exam due to illness. However, with no dr note he will need (probably) to redo his ISA (I'm assuming he's doing AQA from what you've said). From what you've just said about hi results, it sounds like he got a C for that anyway.

Phone Head of year/house first thing tomorrow. The fact he has no result for biology makes this very different. They can't possibly not allow him to improve this, unless of course he has a history for pretending to have time off ill.

?

The year 9 one doesn't make sense. And the fact it wasn't on the grade sheet kind of tells me it wasn't a real module. In previous years it was possible to take a module in year 9. But science GCSE was changed last year and the first exams weren't ready until 2011 so he couldn't have taken it.
Very confusing. Was it a class test?

He sounds like a pain in the arse and I'm not surprised that his teacher is fed up with him. An A grade student and the teacher has to send a message home to his mum every lesson to actually make him do some work? What a waste of the teacher's time.

The resit situation sounds complicated and I agree you need to go in to find out the exact issue there straight from the horse's mouth.

On the back of your first post I kind of thought the teacher was over reacting and taking a clash of personalities too far but reading on I'm not so sure.

You Ds is in an exam year and you seem to have no idea what exams he's doing or when. And the comment about no point going to school is mad when he still has 3 other subjects (which you seem resigned to bad marks for)

I'm really not trying to be rude at all but these things are important, children need the right support structure at home to help achieve their potential.

My feeling from your posts is that you're not all that interested in his schooling and just expecting the teacher to sort it all. Please note I am not saying that is the case but just how it appears and wondering if this is affecting how important your Ds sees these exams

Lord knows, I had to resit an exam once, not only did my dad go mental at me for failing, he had the resit date imprinted on his mind and had me studying under his supervision every day till I took the exam. I definitely learned to work harder (I was also a lazy teenager!)

It's not just the teachers who need to work to motivate lazy kids, really the buck stops with us - the parents

I do hope he gets his resit though and perhaps this is the wake up call you both need?

I've just had an email now. He's also saying about the 40% thing, but says it means he must retake all the modules?

He says he went mad at my son, because his classwork is only at about a B grade standard, which is completely unacceptable. Alright, frustrating that he's not hitting his potential, but hardly worthy of a failing.

I don't have an answer as to whether he has a biology grade.

I would bet money on your son not being completely straight with you regarding what has been said and done at school.
If I were you, I would make an appointment for you and your son to discuss this with his tutor or head of house. Send them an email explaining exactly what the issue is, as you have explained it here, and saying that you would like to come in and get it all sorted out as you are concerned that your son will miss out on the grades he is capable of. Do not start apportioning blame, but ask for all the relevant info to be gathered together in time for the meeting. Show this email to your DS before you send it to ensure that you have got the facts right.
Hopefully you will be able to sort it out.
My guess is that your DS is giving a lot more attitude at school than he is prepared to admit to you.

I would speak to someone higher up. Teachers and schools are judged on their results- I can't see a head letting a bright kid needlessly fail or underachieve. At my school we would be hounding you daily for support in getting him to work and keeping him in until he'd done work at the right level. Every C/B/A grade is too important! And have a meeting, not email, much better to talk face to face.

How can you have not found out if he can resit history yet? If he wants to take history A-level isn't that quite important?

Never heard of a kid taking history early. Was that an 'internal' end of year exam?

He won't need to take all modules. But will need to take more than just biology. So, it makes sense to take another that is lower.

However. You need to realise that whatever he gets in both these resist will be the module results that count. He won't be able to take the 'best mark'. So if he takes chemistry as well to make up the 40% and then doesn't do as well in it, he will have to keep the worse mark.

I've just had a meeting with parents about this. The kids have been warned all year and chose to ignore it. It's too late now. Your son might have to put up with the C and focus on additional this year. Will he want to do science a level?

Again, all I can get is 'it should be fine' which is what they said about science.

He wants to do psychology a-level, I assume they want science.

Argh. Another thing. A pupil can only resit a module once. So as your son has been entered for biology twice (or has he?) he won't be able to resit it again.

I think because some of the other grades are resits, that he can't just retake the 40% bit. I might have got that wrong though.

I thought he had been entered for biology twice, hence D and 0. But only the 0 shows up on the sheet.

Can you explain the content of the email more clearly? What you've written is hard to follow.

That makes sense. If he's rest others he won't be able to resit. Sorry, pouffe. These new rules are from Gove and your son's year are the first to be hit.

You need to contact sixth form/college and ask if a C and an A (in additional) will be enough to get on psychology a level.

Still get someone to clarify it at school. But from what you've just said, I understand now. I think your son didn't pass all the info on from his conversation with the teacher.

The most recent email says he must repeat all the core science exams in physics, chemistry, biology, physics and coursework (yes, it says physics twice, I assume that's a typo, but just in case) in June 2013. He can resit Chemistry and new coursework in Jan. According to this, he can't just resit Biology and 1 other, if he does Biology he has to do all of them.

Before I enquired he was not going to allow resits for him for anything. I have no answer as to how many times he's sat Biology, or if he has a grade at all.

I think yabu.. but then I also think you have been distracted through a very important phase of your sons schooling and realised too late that you are a parent with a responsibility to want and work for the best for your child.. you really are going to have to make time and brave it up to go visit the school and have a conversation.. and once you are there don't get defensive or assy with them just clearly state what you're confused about and don't leave till you understand what your son needs to be doing and what you need to be doing to motivate and support him...

teachers are whinging whinies these days IMHO but at the same time I can understand a teacher not being overly interested in pushing the boat out for a child who doesn't bother handing in his homework and a mother who doesn't even know what grades her son got in his biology exams (or how many times he's sat the exam)

I went in, just after easter, and met his head of year, with my concerns about, his coasting, this was a recurring theme at the open evening.

She was very concerned, wrote lots of notes, drew up a plan of action, told me she was briefing all his teachers to give feedback that things were improving, said she'd contact me herself to meet again. I have heard nothing. I was told specific time periods she would contact me in. I have heard nothing.

I have emailed about 4 times since then, and left a couple of phone messages. Absolutely no response at all.