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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Secondary school teacher advice needed

38 replies

Arizona29 · 10/02/2026 21:37

AIBU to be confused by this, not sure.
DS year 9.
Choosing options for GCSEs in 2 weeks.
Went to the open evening last week. Met with his core subject teachers. Chatted to other teachers. They all said he's doing well but needs to work on staying focussed in class.
Told to spend the weekend thinking about which options to choose.
Told we'd receive the form today to choose options and submit in 2 weeks.
I've received DS's form today, to see he's been given the options form for the SEN students who are having their language GCSE removed from them, and replaced with extra Maths and English support.
Confused by this, I emailed the teacher who sent the form, and he had replied today and advised me that the SenCo recommended DS be removed from languages and put on the SEN pathway of options for additional support in English based on his low reading ability and his additional support needs in English. In his email to me he referred to DS by his name, so he has got the correct student.
I have never, in 2 and a half years of him being at this school, had a conversation with the SenCo about DS. School have never conveyed to me any concerns about his reading ability. He has never attended any extra intervention support lessons for his reading/literacy. I have never been made aware of any suspected SEN. He has never been screened or assessed at school for reading ability. Primary school never flagged any problems. He was reading chapter books in year 4 and was a bookworm at that age. He is currently 3/4 way through Orange Boy and is loving it, he's flying through it and is telling me all about the plot.
I am so confused.
AIBU, or do secondary schools ordinarily make assessments and decisions such as this without any communication with the parents?

OP posts:
SilenceInside · 10/02/2026 21:39

I would say that’s a mistake and some kind of error has been made. Could he have been mistaken for another boy with the same or similar name?

Original poster
Arizona29 · 10/02/2026 21:41

SilenceInside · 10/02/2026 21:39

I would say that’s a mistake and some kind of error has been made. Could he have been mistaken for another boy with the same or similar name?

Hmm, but the teacher referred to his full name in his email reply to me, after I queried it.

OP posts:
Ozmumofboys3 · 10/02/2026 21:43

I’d ask for a meeting with regards to this and mention all the points you just mentioned here.

Seems very strange.

RhaenysRocks · 10/02/2026 21:44

Secondary teacher here..for goodness sake, none of us can answer your question. Just call in the morning. Its entirely possible for a mix up to have occurred. There's nothing else anyone here can say. It will get sorted.

SilenceInside · 10/02/2026 21:44

I would still think that a mistake has been made. If it’s never been mentioned in any report or at any parents evening or similar, no communication from the SENCO at all, it must be wrong. I would urgently ask for a meeting with the options teacher and the SENCO to clarify what’s going on.

What have his report grades been like for English to date? Or any interim test results?

Walkthelakes · 10/02/2026 21:45

I'm an English teacher at Secondary School. It would be unusual to get all the way through primary and secondary school without anything being flagged already. When they say low reading ability do you know exactly what they mean? For this to happen at my school it would probably be because the student was not meeting the age-related outcomes for Year 9 and therefore unlikely to achieve a pass at GCSE without substantial intervention (hence giving the extra hours instead of a language.) I would have expected to see this on the previous Year 7 and Year 8 reports. We send graded reports home once a term and this would have shown that they were not meeting the expected levels. We also do a termly reading test which may show a low reading age. The average reading age of a GCSE English Paper is 15 years so if they are substantially behind it may also mean they will struggle to pass.

I would contact the school and ask them to explain why exactly they have selected your child for this pathway. Once you have heard their reasoning I would then consider if you think that it would be better to have the extra time for English/Maths intervention than a language. I think it isn't great that you have no idea that he is not on track to pass--however try and focus on what is the best choice now.

Muffsies · 10/02/2026 21:46

RhaenysRocks · 10/02/2026 21:44

Secondary teacher here..for goodness sake, none of us can answer your question. Just call in the morning. Its entirely possible for a mix up to have occurred. There's nothing else anyone here can say. It will get sorted.

For goodness sake? Nice and reassuring.

Walkthelakes · 10/02/2026 21:47

And if it is a mistake then best to get it cleared up quickly. We have sometimes had mix ups when two students have had the exact same name for example. Not ideal at all, but you can see how it might happen.

RhaenysRocks · 10/02/2026 21:47

Sorry, I've just had a three hour parents evening. I'm a bit wrung out. I just meant this is so school specific there's not much any of us can offer other than speculation.

Everydayimhuffling · 10/02/2026 21:52

Ask for a meeting or phone call with the SENCO urgently. They shouldn't have made that decision without clear communication. It really sounds like a mistake has been made.

Clementine12 · 10/02/2026 21:53

What have his reports indicated for English since year 7? On track or below expected? School reports should have some system for indicating this. If nothing there, I would suggest they have got him confused with another child. Unfortunately, some students can blur together. I say this as both a teacher and a parent of a yr 9 whose computer science teacher at our options evening didn’t seem to know who he was!!

SevenYellowHammers · 10/02/2026 21:53

Have the school recently ran Lucid screening on all students? Or have they all done an exam? I think just email the SENDCO though .

AlwaysSometimesNever · 10/02/2026 21:54

Contact the SENCO directly in the morning. If he’s not had any interventions etc and is not on the SEND register this seems an unusual decision. For a low reading age to be cited as a reason for placement in that stream seems odd given no concerns have been raised throughout KS3.

Scarydinosaurs · 10/02/2026 21:54

What did he get in his SATs, and what have his reports said?

Do you use STAR reader or any “reading age” type programme?

What set is he in for English?

CrispySquid · 10/02/2026 22:06

What have his school results and reports been for English and all his other subjects? Between the start of Year 7 and now in Year 9, he will have received several reports with this info on. Either as standardised scores, predicted grade or a description of the level he is working at compared to the average student in the cohort for all of his subjects. What have his assessment scores been like for his subjects? What are his target grades? What was his SATs score?

If none of the above apply and there has been nothing amiss with his reports that show he is underperforming in his literacy compared to the cohort then it may be the possibility they have the wrong student. Putting students on a different pathway for GCSEs or having them sit less GCSE’s is normally an extreme and rare option reserved for students who are struggling in Maths and English considerably or have extreme SEND as Schools get penalised for this heavily. This definitely wouldn’t come out of the blue and wouldn’t be news to either parent or student so I’m scratching my head also.

Sweetbeansandmochi · 10/02/2026 22:08

I will guess at what has happened- that his cat scores/reading scores are low. Basically it would be they looked at the list, decided a cut off threshold and your son was on the lower side and the intervention is to put him on the SEND pathway.

Do you have reading age results on your school reports?

The best thing is to email the Senco for some clarification.

singlepringle12 · 10/02/2026 22:10

Get a meeting. Question it face to face with the senco. Every student has data against their name, potentially your sons has flagged something? Schools have different reasons for things, ask & find out. Equally it could have been a mix up? We have 2 sets of students in our school currently with exactly the same first name & surname! It does happen!

clary · 10/02/2026 22:29

Hi @Arizona29 I can see this must be a shock.

There are two possibilities tbh.

Either it is a mistake (more than possible - I once taught a class with James Taylor and Taylor James - when the register has the surname first it was a headache!) in which case it will be sorted.

Or it’s correct, and he needs support, in which case tbh it’s a good thing it’s been IDd.

I agree with others that it’s surprising that you’ve had no indication at all in previous reports that he was struggling. Which suggests to me the first option. But yy speak to the SENCO tomorrow

Watchoutfortheslowaraf · 10/02/2026 22:33

Absolutely ask for a meeting asap. Hopefully it’s a mix up. If not, I’d make it very clear how unhappy I am about the complete lack of communication about SEN that is apparently so severe, he can’t be on the normal exam pathway. I would also refuse for him to be in the SEN group for his exams when he doesn’t need to be.

Octavia64 · 10/02/2026 22:38

Ex teacher

it could be a mistake.

the school I most recently worked at did do this on a fairly large scale however. Only a few students would be taken out of languages in year 7/8/9 for extra maths and English but a much bigger group (maybe 40 total out of a year of 210) would drop a slot at gcse options time to do maths and English in small groups. It did really boost the results.

most of those additional students fell into the “could do well but not really working hard enough on their own” sort of group.

clary · 10/02/2026 22:50

I would also refuse for him to be in the SEN group for his exams when he doesn’t need to be.

I mean if it is a mistake and he shouldn't be in this group then obviously it will be cleared up. But if he does need extra support, it will honestly be a good thing @Arizona29 for him to be in a group doing fewer GCSEs and focusing on the core subjects. My DS dropped a GCSE and it was definitely a good thing for him.

If the group he is in supports him to gain 7-8 good GCSE grades and not need to retake Eng and maths, then that's better than him struggling with a higher number of exams, less support and probably doing less well overall. Seven GCSEs at grades 4-5-6 is a lot better than 10 at grades 3-4.

Original poster
Arizona29 · 11/02/2026 07:03

There's no mix up in name. Nobody else in the entire school has his surname, let alone anyone in his year group.

OP posts:
bigboykitty · 11/02/2026 07:06

RhaenysRocks · 10/02/2026 21:44

Secondary teacher here..for goodness sake, none of us can answer your question. Just call in the morning. Its entirely possible for a mix up to have occurred. There's nothing else anyone here can say. It will get sorted.

Very rude!

clary · 11/02/2026 07:09

Arizona29 · 11/02/2026 07:03

There's no mix up in name. Nobody else in the entire school has his surname, let alone anyone in his year group.

Have you had any indication that there were problems through his KS3 reports? We knew that DS1 had issues with focus and completing work which were going to make GCSEs a challenge. What have his PGs been? What have his reports said up till now?

If they have all been positive and no problems have been flagged then I would certainly ask for a meeting to discuss further.

Original poster
Arizona29 · 11/02/2026 07:09

clary · 10/02/2026 22:50

I would also refuse for him to be in the SEN group for his exams when he doesn’t need to be.

I mean if it is a mistake and he shouldn't be in this group then obviously it will be cleared up. But if he does need extra support, it will honestly be a good thing @Arizona29 for him to be in a group doing fewer GCSEs and focusing on the core subjects. My DS dropped a GCSE and it was definitely a good thing for him.

If the group he is in supports him to gain 7-8 good GCSE grades and not need to retake Eng and maths, then that's better than him struggling with a higher number of exams, less support and probably doing less well overall. Seven GCSEs at grades 4-5-6 is a lot better than 10 at grades 3-4.

Your second paragraph is an interesting perspective and this is food for thought.
To be clear, it is dropping the language only. No other subjects.
And in place of the language lessons, he's being put on a pathway for additional English lessons for extra support.
I'm just confused about how we've got half way through year 9 and I've never once been made aware of this from school. Never once has the SenCo communicated with me. No mention of it was made by his English teacher at parents evening last week.

OP posts: