to be stressed with DD grades?

[ebonyskies]

DD is 14 in Year 9. She came home with her school report with her end of year exam grades in them; so not a combined number of all her levels, just the end of year exams.

She’s very bright and in top set for everything but she’s fallen into the wrong crowd, the same one DSS fell into, much to the dismay of me, DH and DH’s ex. So recently she hasn’t been focusing as much, she didn’t revise one bit for any science exams, in fact I think she only revised for maths, french and RE.

These are DD’s end of year exam (new GCSE style) grades/levels:
English Lit- 6
English Lang- 7
Maths-5
History-8+ (teacher said a 9 but an 8 on paper as they can’t give out 9s)
Biology-3
Physics-3
Chemistry-5
Geography-7
RE-7
Spanish-6
French-5
Computer Science-6
Classic Civ-6
Drama-8

DD has started GCSES for core subjects as they are 3 year course. The other subjects are two year courses. She is doing triple science/now called separate instead of the slightly easier double/combined. For GCSES she’s doing core subjects, Spanish, History, Drama and Geography. DD and us are happy with history, geography, spanish and drama grades out of her GCSE subjects. Maths is alright but she has gone down from working at a 6+ to a 5. Very happy with both English, especially lang.
Science is a massive cause for concern for a top set student according to her teachers and we agree.

Just don’t know what to do to get her to work harder.

They look okay to me. I would be happy if DS came back with those next year. Things to improve on certainly but a good place to move up from.

I think they look good as well.

To be honest, except for the Physics and Biology, they are looking really good for the end of year 9. I would expect her to make progress from those between now and the end of Y11.

Maybe ask her about the Biology/Physics - is she finding them very difficult? If she is, then she perhaps doesn't know how/where to start with revision. Ask her teachers for some suggestions to support her.

Honestly though, I wouldn't be stressing too much over those grades!

How does your dd feel about her results.
They have to want to study.
Will she need science for her A level choice further down.
Will she let you help her plan her studies.
I do as timetable for mine to help them plan and ask questions if they want me to.
Get them to do a little bit of every week of school rather than cramming and panicking before exam.

For a y9 the only ones I would be concerned about are the 3s. She's got 2 years before she sits her exams and she's getting it all out of her system now!
However, I'd sit her down and chat with her about her lack of effort. Don't forbid her from seeing these friends though, that could backfire!

My DS year 8 has just come back with one 7, a couple of 6's, a handful of 5's and a 4 and a 3. I'm very happy.

I got 7 passes and 2 'fails' (grade D and E) so as he's on track to match or even beat me I'm over the moon

Pretty good results overall. Maybe she just isn’t a Sciencey person - you don’t have to get 9s in every subject to be successful.

Yes YABU. Maybe she could achieve higher grades but then you wouldn’t be the only one stressed. Let her achieve what she wants to achieve (which looks pretty good so far for y9!)

And double/combined science isn’t any easier than the separate subjects.

Those are excellent results for the end of year 9; I'm not actually sure what you are worrying about? She is working at the equivalent of a good pass or higher in nearly every subject with 2 years still to go!

Is she doing 14 GCSE's? That seems a lot. Don't they usually do 9 or 10? Maybe she isn't so strong at science and would be better doing the double science GCSE rather than the individual subjects.

I kept failing science top set. It was too hard! Had to get a minimum set of marks to get a C (old days) and I kept missing so would get E or ungraded. I asked to be put forward for the foundation paper (highest mark C), I had to push but I got my much wanted C science GCSE.

Are those the actual grade she got now at the end of Year 9?

Or are those the grades she is predicted to get at the end of year 11 based on where she's at now?

If the former, then they really are very good, (maybe apart from Science) she'll no doubt improve by a couple of grades in the next 2 years and walk away with a very decent set of results. And if this is without putting much effort in, then if she just works a bit, then she'll do great. I'd really not pile the pressure on now, let her still be a kid as it will ramp up naturally in the next 2 years anyway.

If it's the latter. then for a top set student, she probably does need to be sat down and told what she needs to do to achieve her full potential, and the possible consequences if she continues on the track she's on.

Apart from the Science ones they are excellent. Calm down OP.

OK, so first thing - how well do you understand what these grades mean? Are they giving you an indication of how well she would do were she to take the exams now (hence the disparity between content-rich subects, like the sciences, and, say, Eng. lang. which is more skills based) - or is it an estimation of the level they think she might be working at, given the amount of course content covered thus far? What kind of assessment are they using?

In the first term of Y9, for comparison, one of our sons got a 'GCSE grade 2' for science, and a '7' for maths. This puts him on a grade 9 target for both subjects...

Blimey I would be estatic at most of those!
Science is really hard and if I am honest some schools are really not doing well at teaching it. Both my DD’s have a dire science department with hardly any permanent staff and have had to put the last 2 final year students in yr11 through a ton of extra lessons after school which now my year 10 will also have to do
She also has 2 more years to go

Those are some really strong grades.
Honestly!

What would you be happy with?
You do know the 7 and 8's are A's, right?

I'm ancient but how come she's doing 87million subjects?
Knowing how totally out of the loop I am, can't she drop a science (if not pursuing a scientific field), choose between drama and classic civ, or dump geography. Nobody needs geography! (That one was for all the geographers out there! )

Sorry you're stressed though. Sounds like a lot to have on both her plate and yours.

Get a grip! They're great forecasts. Only Biol & Phys to work on. The rest are v good.

You say that she revised for v few. These grades just show where she needs to put in some effort, but she sounds totally normal for a y9. Y11 seems a million miles away for her.

She'll be fine.

Overall, I’m happy with them. I’m not happy with the fact that she’s going down in maths. If she wasn’t as able and was getting 3/4s and suddenly got a 5, I would be ecstatic. However, she was getting secure 6s and the odd 7 in maths throughout the year and now is dropping down since not focusing in lessons, joining in the disruption and being rude to teachers. Her head of year and I are equally concerned as she’s moving down in maths after that test for the beginning of Y10. She is also moving down in science so will be in a lower set for chemistry despite being quite good at it because of her bio and physics grades.

She is very clever, she just doesn’t try. That is what upsets me as I have an older DD who was less-able and found school hard. She got BCC in her A levels last year and I couldn’t have been prouder. She found it so hard but worked and always tried her best. DD2 is a funny, lovely child but doesn’t give a shit about working!

@WineIsMyCarb Firstly, love the username! But no, she can’t drop a science, she could do combined/double science but that’s still all three sciences, just a slightly smaller/easier course (according to the teachers) but with bio, chem and physics still.

She’s not doing 10 billion GCSES, no! They’re all the subjects she’s doing in KS3 which she took end of year exams for. I said which are her Gcses below that. I think it’s 9/10 all together.

She's doing too many. Could she drop a couple of the extras in order to focus more on bringing the sciences up? Most of the top schools in the country have kids (apart from the super top top ones) do 9 subjects so that they've got more time to focus. Far better to get 9 top grades than 12 midway ones.

That is 11 subjects and then triple science is 14 subjects
It is loads
It’s quite a lot of pressure on her perhaps she is struggling under pressure and expectations

She’s doing 10, not 12 and yeah I know. Her school is high performing which is why her sets are changing as her grades are too low for top set.

She’s not doing 14?!
English Lit
English Lang
Maths
Bio
Physics
Chem
History
Geog
Drama
Spanish