GSCE's from Year 9...how important is the streaming/set DC is in?

[InkyNight]

DC is in year 8. He'll start his GSCEs in Year 9. Currently, he's streamed in English (second set) and maths (top set).

I was comparing his progress reports from end of Year 7 to the latest cycle in Feb, year 8. He's dropped from mastery in some subjects to strong - including English, although his parents evening report was really nice.

It concerns me that he'll drop sets. Or end up in mediocre sets and be unmotivated/distracted - it doesn't take a lot.

But my main question is: how much do the sets matter to their long term results?

Setting can be extremely important. As some have pointed out, it can mean a difference in achievable grade. Mine would have been devastated if he could do higher maths, separate sciences etc.

Also, the PP who said about starting in year 9 is talking nonsense. It's very common to set in year 7/8 and start GCSE learning in year 9. Mine did papers in English, the sciences and MFL in year 10, which was great, as those topics are finished with, so he only has to remember half the course in year 11. And let's face it, what are GCSEs if not a test of memory?

Setting is important to us, behaviour is generally better in top set, DD needs a quiet group as is autistic. Top set maths are likely the only ones to be offered Further Maths as an additional course and will cover all of the higher tier work, same with science top set will cover the higher tier work, English only matters in terms of behaviour, options self select really.

Top sets are likely to be used as guinea pigs for newer trainee teachers but also likely to be prioritised if teacher absences is high.

Being top of a lower set, slower paced group can work wonders for those who need a confidence boost so set 1 and 2 are fine I wouldn't want to be going lower than that if you have an academically able child.

It also down to the student, for us deep diving the subject at home has always worked to make the topic more interesting. Seeing how applicable the subject is is important, ability won't outdo student apathy and "Why have I got to learn this...."

Sets matter insofar as the tier sat, as has already been pointed out by PP.

In a school with mediocre or worse behaviour, higher sets also generally mean better behaviour in class, and often the school's strongest teachers in terms of subject knowledge and skill are put into the very top sets (often those are also head of departments as they get to choose sets for their team and many do cream off the top layer) while the best behaviour managers tend to be in the bottom sets with more issues.

Don't get hung up on mastery etc. All it means is that you child was overachieving compared to their target grade for Y11, while they are now still making good progress. Mastery doesn't tell you a grade, just progress against target, which comes from their Y6 SATs.

Students often experience a dip in Y8-9 as hormones kick in and other things temporarily become more important than learning. Many grow out of that by the end of Y10.

My DS is doing the foundation paper for science and is on course to get a 5. It is better to only get a 5 and it be comfortable then risking the higher paper and getting a 3.

He doesn't want to do science going forward, so a 4/5 is still great.

Hoping for 7/8 in maths though.

And it needs to be borne in mind that a hopeful 1-5, when faced with an exam paper designed to cover up to 9 will often just nope out within the first ten minutes, because the higher tariff questions that they can't answer can freak them out. My first boyfriend did it and missed the middle questions that we'd literally revised the day before because he'd looked at the ones at the end and panicked, DP has invigilated where they've started looking through the end, put their head on the desk and not moved again and every time I was called to assist with a panic attack, once they were able to speak again, they almost always said 'I looked at the back and knew I couldn't answer anything...'.

So if you start GCSEs in year 9, are the students dropping all the other subjects? Seems a shame to me. DS won't be taking music, art or food tech, but I would like him to keep studying them until year 10.
Or are they just starting the syllabus for maths, English etc?

Actually they are right that Ofsted wouldn’t approve, but the school
can still be good.

That’s why it’s not liked by Ofsted.