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.

I know you say this isn’t her full GCSE set but give her a chance to get into year 10, she needs to grow and mature and less subjects will be more focused.
You can’t force them to want to do this study, I have learnt this the hard way
I would find out what the issue is with being disruptive, my DD is like this and a lot of the time she was stressed and unhappy

You listed 14 subjects she’s been graded in. That is a lot.

When she drops the other 4 she can focus on the remaining ones can’t she

Sorry, should have read properly. Well good on you for being such I a supportive DM and if I understand the scoring right it sounds like she's doing amazing.

And if she fails them all she can always make artisan Peruvian blankets and sell them on eBay. (Lighthearted, very obviously!)

Oh god

Ahh yes i’m very proud of her in general, it’s just so difficult with the sciences and her lack of care

Why is she doing so many subjects? That seems nuts. I’m in Scotland and as far as I know the max they do at Nat 5 is 7, regardless of how high performing the school is

She’s not, OP has listed them all as if they are GCSE’s but then separately listed the GCSE’s underneath which was confusing but there is only 10 actual GCSE’s and 4 of the subjects will not be, but school have marked them using the same style of grading

I'd be proud of either of my Children if they got those results at GCSE at the end of Y11.

They seem fine to me, other than the sciences. Is there an option for her to do double rather than triple science?

I think that it’s only really the science subjects that you should be concerned about. There’s no change in difficulty between combined science and triple science. Triple science just has a bit more content.
I would find out what topics there are and get her working in these a little at a time. Watch Freescience lessons or primrose kitten on YouTube and combine with effective use of revision resources. CGP have workbooks and flash cards that I highly recommend. The flash cards will be good for you to quiz her on. Make sure that revision doesn’t just consist of her transferring information from one place e.g. revision guide to another e.g. notes. Much better for her to do cover and copy techniques.
Download the app 23 equations for her to learn the physics equations that she’ll need to memorise. It’s difficult to apply an equation if you’re unable to recall them.
Also ensure that the graph skills and required practicals are revisited.
Finally ask the school what they plan to do to get her back on track. They’re the ones who should know her the best. Stay in close contact with them and don’t wait until parents’ evening or data points to raise your concerns.
Good luck.

They’re cracking results. But yes, if she is being disruptive and rude you need to deal with that, and would need to deal with it even if it wasn’t affecting her attainment.

I’d be shocked/cross too, OP. how does she feel about them? Hopefully getting low marks in science will have made her realise she HAS to revise, esp for science, which is so dense.

I would back off right now OP unless you want her to rebel against your obvious pressure and slip further down.

We are in a Grammar School area and although mine are all finished except one - I can't tell you how many of my children's very very smart classmates deliberately stopped being bothered after relentless parental pressure .
They started with twice a week tutoring from age 7 to ensure that essential 11+ pass... with constant reminders and expectations to do well 'because you are bright' . (In some cases it appeared to be mothers full time purpose in life - to be massively invested in every aspect of the child's schooling. )
Seriously OP - those results are more than ok at year 9. Chill out and more importantly let her chill out - a whole summer away from it all at the very least.

Is this a stealth boast?

Some of us have kids in year 10 who are getting GCSE grades1,2, and 3 in their end of year exams despite having been bright and got (old national curriculum) level 4 and 5 at end of year 6 SATs.

My son just got 10 percent in his maths exam. He got a good level 4a at year 6.

Sense of perspective?

I don't mean this rudely OP but she might be good at learning when she applies herself but that doesn't make her exceptionally bright. If she were she'd get top grades without lots of revision. I didn't revise properly until I got to uni and got nothing below an A. Hopefully this will be a wake up call that she does need to work hard to get the grades. FWIW it doesn't seem like an unusual amount of subjects to me. Can you encourage her to get a part time job when she turns 15, there was nothing like a menial job to make me focus at school. I waitressed at 15 in a local pub and it made me realise I needed more than that from my life long term.

not focusing in lessons, joining in the disruption and being rude to teachers.

This is your issue, not her grades - I’d be nipping her behaviour in the bud quite quickly irrespective of her grades (I don’t know the English grading system so couldn’t comment on whether her grades are ok or not).

In some cases it appeared to be mothers full time purpose in life - to be massively invested in every aspect of the child's schooling.

Not that it is my only purpose in life, but there is nothing wrong with being invested in your child’s education, or with expecting your child to work hard.

Is this the sort of school where they depress their predicted marks so keep the kids working hard?

I wouldn't be happy with it, but it really depends on her capabilities. If she's 'very bright' then she should be aiming for 8/9s because it's within her grasp.

I do think you need to check if they are "currently working at" or "predicted" grades. If she can genuinely get those grades on past papers now then she should do very well in 2 years time.

I have a similar issue with one of my kids!!! He disrupts to fit in and he claims that the lower sets encourage worse behaviour ... too cool for school!
Looks like something going on with maths/ sciences ... can you (don't all shout at once!!! I know this will be unpopular but just saying) get a tutor over the summer/ next term so she builds her confidence back up? Once she excels again, she might be motivated to stay towards the top.
I hear that sometimes the boys dominate the girls in maths/ sciences and the girls step back out of the competition (scared to ask for clarification lest they get shouted down).

Ps our plan for our disruptive (!!) kid (year 7) is just to get A Lot More Involved with his schoolwork and monitor progress carefully. Taking away privileges (Fortnite I'm looking at you) unless we see marked improvement in focus. Sometimes they just need to know how important this (and they) all are to us. Here's hoping!!!

Get a science tutor and a maths one. Ideally they should be secondary school teachers who have taught that particular syllabus and marked it at GCSE level.

That number of subjects is absolutely ridiculous for her age. I think she’s done very well to get those marks! What is wrong with you?!!!!

The content of the triple science courses is studied at a much higher pace than the double I think. It tends to have the same number of lesson slots per fortnight as the double science but with a lot more stuff to cover. From what I've seen of secondary GCSE results I think student grades are sometimes lower in the individual sciences than the double. Is your daughter particularly strong at science, I'm wondering whether the double science would have been a better choice. Does your daughter not also have to study a GCSE in RE on top of those subjects you have listed. I know it is becoming a compulsory subject as a full or half GCSE in lots of schools local to us.

With respect to maths, how are the levels measured? If they are relative to the tests they are doing rather than relative to GCSE, then you should be aware that they are studying harder maths now! DS's maths levels dipped at the start of Year 10 for the same reason.

So, say, your child can get 40/50 on a test paper for easier maths topics - and school considers this to be a 7, then they may only get 30/50 when they start studying harder topics - which will be a 5.

This is more obvious in maths than other subjects as maths gets harder whereas other subjects tend to just cover more material - an essay worth a 5 in English is always worth a 5 regardless of how much of the syllabus has been covered.