AIBU poor teaching is to blame for DD dropping two predicted grades during yr 9

[RainbowMaths]

Just had the end of year 9 report and DD has drooped two predicted grades since this time last year.
IN the past various parents have muttered about the teacher but I've ignored them and told DD to get her head down and push on.

But AIBU to think that dropping two grades is a school problem rather than a student problem. How do I support DD? Complain to the school? Find a tutor? How can we turn this around?

Sometimes a lowering of grades is the mark of a good teacher!! Ie not inflating the grades to appease a pupil/parent.

This is what I was going to post. It takes a very good teacher to break the pattern of inflated grades because they know it will leave them open to receiving the backlash from parents.

But AIBU to think that dropping two grades is a school problem rather than a student problem.

Honestly the chances are she was never on track to get those grade in the first place and the grade she has on her report this year is a much truer reflection of her ability.

Is the predicted grade directly link to score in the end of year exam?

If so, how much revision did your DD do for the end of year exam?

Have you got the exam paper she did? Can you see whether it was silly errors or not understanding? What has you own DD actually said?

If your child is in Year 9 I really wouldn’t pay any attention to predicted grades - the use of ‘flight paths’/GCSE predicted grades at GCSE is controversial within teaching because of concerns about their reliability and, perhaps more importantly, their impact on students.

Having said that, your first step should be finding out which areas of maths your daughter is struggling with/has struggled with this year.

While the apparent lack of progress may be due to poor teaching, it may also be that your daughter found previous topics more straightforward.

Honestly the chances are she was never on track to get those grade in the first place and the grade she has on her report this year is a much truer reflection of her ability.

I think DD is a clever, conscientious student but who is n't a maths natural.

Also how 'accurately' are they predicting? Our school has 2-3, then 4-5 in KS3, so just dropping a little could look like a 2 grade drop depending how you view it. (And I don't see how you can predict any finer than that in y9 anyway.)

Surely your daughter has a good idea why?

I wouldn’t complain but you would be well within your rights to ask for a discussion - the school must have some idea of why she has dropped so significantly, especially if she is still doing well in her other subjects. They should be helping you to address this.

In the meantime, a tutor is a good idea.

Could your DD have been just inside the higher mark last year (as in , one more q wrong and she'd have gotten a B instead of an A.) And this year she's just inside the C (so one mark more and she'd have gotten a B) Thus making her actually a B student who was lucky and scored slightly higher than ability last year and unlucky and scored slightly lower than ability this year?

I’m a teacher ..

If everyone has dropped grades then there may be a reason to be concerned about the teaching. But I imagine this is unlikely.

I assume your daughter has had a report each term over the year. What has been happening to her grades in these reports? Have they been dropping also? Is it a case of her doing very badly only in an exam situation - in which case this is different issue entirely.

My advice would be to contact the head of maths in the new academic term for advice on what they think has happened, and what they can advise your daughter needs to do to make progress in year 10. Most schools will have intervention classes, extra support etc. It is up to your daughter to make sure she engages with the help available

It could be a confidence thing in maths and perhaps a tutor could help.

I'm going to have to sit down with DD and work out where it all started to slide. She is the type to take this to heart so building back her confidence will be important so she can move forward.

The predicted grades are based on end of year exams. No comments or extra information. I've no idea if they were allowed to keep their test papers.

Sometimes it can be the teacher, sometimes it can be the system, sometimes it can be the curriculum of the year level, sometimes it can just be that your DD has hit a block - or any combination of these.

I would see if other kids have had similar drops in predicted grades before worrying too much about the teacher's ineptitude - but I would also consider getting her some tutoring to bring her up regardless of what the root cause is, if you're that worried about her grades.

Did she struggle through the year? The description of a teacher who doesn't like questions etc reminded me of a teacher DS had. DS struggled with two concepts that year. He'd never struggled with maths before. We even had tears at homework.
I had to go over the concepts at home until it clicked. If we hadn't caught it at home, I could easily see how his grades could have fallen that year.
I'm not saying you should have caught it with your DD. Just sympathising because I think teaching style can impact a lot. On the plus side, it means a different teacher can positively impact and your DD's predicted grades could pick up.

What’s happening to her actual attainment grades? Where is she now compared to this time last year?

Hmm just to balance the picture, I’m a teacher who has seen whole maths cohorts drop a couple of grades because of a really bad teacher. It can happen and I think I’ve seen it more in maths than other subjects for some reason.

Of course, it’s equally possible that the previous predicted grade was unrealistic or that her learning has just plateaued a bit, plus a slightly overly optimistic grade last year. But even if the teaching has been dreadful, there isn’t very much to be gained from making a fuss as long as she has a different teacher next year. If the teacher is completely incompetent the school are probably trying their best to improve/get rid of the teacher already and will be all too aware of how awful the data for the class look.

Discussing with your daughter how she can best improve her own performance in maths and how you can support her is probably the way to go, acknowledging that she’s been unlucky to have a sub-standard teacher this year if she has, but reassuring her that a bit of hard work and a few sessions with a tutor can fix most things pretty quickly.

I would expect the report to comment on this slide: the failure to do so seems quite revealing.

If you think she's capable of more, and are worried about the grade drop, or if you think she will go down a set and may end up taking foundation maths when you think she could achieve more, the safest thing is to 1) get a tutor now whilst there is time to make a difference because a bit of one to one can really boost confidence and you said this was an issue and/or 2) get some of the right maths work books for the exam board and strike a bargain with her to do 2-3 pages a day during the holidays.(I'd probably get the book for KS3 to start) mark them together. These workbooks usually have a method book to accompany them (try CGP) And then you will see how she is progressing. If you feel she's making up lost ground then you are better prepared to discuss any set changes in September and they will also have more confidence as they can see she's had parental support on this. Good Luck.

Who would have been 'to blame' had she improved by 2 grades?

Had difficulties not been highlighted earlier in the year?

If your daughter had been very good in primary school then Years 7 and 8 are often a breeze, it's hitting Year 9 when the problems often start. If a child experiences few difficulties in Primary school and Year 7/8 they are often less able to cope with the difficulties as the pace increases. There are lots of on-line places to look for practice, your school might have bought into the bigger programmes. Ask for their advice but don't go in all guns blazing!

This is where predicted grades so ealry on fail as being meaningful (also a teacher btw).

Skills tested in year 6 are so dofferent to actual GCSE content.

Can be a teacher problem, I left achool 10 years ago so has been some time but my maths teacher couldn’t speak very good english, mum thought I was making it up till She spoke to her!!! Honestly could not make it up. She rang the school and they said yes we regularly get complaints can’t move everyone

I'm a former headteacher, so here's my view.

1. The SLT should have oversight of this teacher's grades and see - if it's the case - that the whole class (or most of them) has dropped grades.

1. Has your DD's school done what a fair number of schools do now (my niece, who has also just finished Y9, is in one such school) and started GCSE courses in Y9? GCSE maths is now much harder than it used to be and KS3 still looks quite different from GCSE in some schools, who haven't properly updated their curriculum and teaching.
2. Bear in mind that predicted grades are based on KS2 performance and your DD's cohort was the first one to undertake the new style of KS2 tests.

I would ask to meet with the HOD maths and ask the questions you've been advised to, above. Keep it friendly, but make notes and ask if your DD is an 'outlier' in dropping grades or if this has happened to a significant number of others. try not to accuse the teacher, but do ask if the HOD and SLT do monitor such things and look for patterns (hint: they are almost certainly using software which does this for them).

What’s happening to her actual attainment grades? Where is she now compared to this time last year?

That's what you should find out . She didn't 'drop 2 grades' if she didn't achieve them in the first place.

@RainbowMaths Silly question but are you sure those are the predicted grades rather than than just exam result?
We send out just the exam results with no forecast but some parents think those are actual forecasts.
Ive had really good Key Stage 3 students crash out in summer exams for various reasons and have come out with a result two grades below their MTG but that is what has to go on the final summer report. It looks a lot worse than it is if you look at attainment over the whole year.

Ugh. Bloody levels. Some staff are complete ***.

'I always mark them too high so they don't feel bad about themselves'. That's nice, but some other bugger in a year's time has to then explain why they've dropped/is threatened with capability because the steady grade 4s aren't the 6-7s they were at the data drop.

(ignoring the other reason for upgrading - meeting targets for performance review - or deliberate downgrading to make the HoF or school look better at the end of flightpath)

And the sodding computer says... Levels.

You can't make levels a condition of measuring success or failure in teaching staff without risking artificial inflation or deflation,whether to make kids feel less of a failure or to game the league tables.

Will they get the same teacher next school year? It could be a bad fit in relation to your DD and this teacher’s teaching style. Have you asked your DD if there were any topics she didn’t ‘get’ which it might be worth getting a tutor to help her with or asking her teacher for extra help next term (or maybe you can explain it to her?)
Is she ‘set’ in maths or will she be next year? One of my DCs was supposedly good at maths but just couldn’t progress with a particular teacher in year 10. The teacher was not horrible or unkind but their style just didn’t work for my DC (and a few others). My DC spoke to the teacher and also Head of Maths about moving sets. They were very reluctant to allow a move from top set but at the end of Year 10 it happened (DC wanted to sort this themself without us contacting the school). We did get a tutor that summer for 2 or 3 sessions to go over the topics from Year 10 which they did not understand. Worth every penny to my DC. Year 11 was so much happier and they did well in the GCSE and even contemplated doing maths A level (though not that seriously...!)

*DD has said she is not been keen on this teacher, apparently the teacher does n't like questions or invite the students to speak up when they don't understand so it could be a learning style clash with teacher & pupil.$

I’ve had this issue. But honestly, it’s not always how it appears. I (and others on the thread) have taught classes where the students have almost been trained - either through bad previous teaching or just poor expectations across the school - to disrupt learning by asking questions or even attempting contradiction mid-explanation, and the only way to stop it is to nip it in the bud: no, you’re not asking right now, you are listening.

At first students hate it. But as they grow to understand that most of their questions will be covered by the explanation and model given by the teacher, they tend to stop it.

If you talk about “clashes of learning styles”, take fair warning, you will usually be backing students who are disrupting the teacher’s attempts to teach.