AIBU to discuss GCSE and A-level realities with my Year 8 daughter?

[roughtrenches2]

DD is still young so I am aware this might sound a bit crazy. She is going in to year 8. So will pick her gcse options at the end of year 9. She is adamant she knows what she wants to do and has done for a long time but I don’t think realistically she is going to manage academically what it requires. Her friends older sister was talking about her GCSE choices the other day when I realised how much daughter has her mind set on this path. She soon told everyone what she was choosing for GCSE because then she could do her chosen A levels science ( biology and physics )

The issue is maths ! She is very science motivated and has done amazing in science this year BUT she will not get the maths grade required to do any A level sciences.
when do you start nicely having these conversations with your children without it sounding like you are being evil.

she has had a very turbulent start to education which she had done incredible considering but to catch up in maths would be a real task that will take a lot to get to a grade 7 she would need. I’m not sure if she even knows she would need a 7 in maths. Do I just let her go ahead and think this is the plan and dream until she finds out later on that it will be unlikely ?

sounds silly being worried about this now but I don’t want her to get crushed later on either.

With maths, if she's headed for a grade 4 then the school will be working on the missed foundations with her and that will get her to a 4. But she needs to go faster than that so she needs to be working outside of school.

What are her health issues?

What sort of shit parent would write off their child age 12 and think they won't get a decent grade at maths gcse?!?!?

I'm a teacher in a secondary school. Lots of kids struggle with maths initially then grasp it before gcses.

My best mate was predicted an F at GCSE maths and got a B!! I tutored her and it all finally clicked into place!

100 percent. I have never in her life written her off. On paper she should be much further behind than she is and I have really tried to balance education along side health which some times is a tight rope.

Sounds like she is just missing the content not lacking ability. Her current marks don’t reflect her ability due to missing schooling. I’d speak to her about her willingness to be tutored and do extra work.
It’s possible to catch up I’m thinking of children who arrive from abroad and then manage to catch up.

What is it exactly your DD wants to do as a career? Can you start to build in some contingency? For example, if she wants to be a vet, can you explore with her what she would need to become a veterinary nurse? I'm just thinking it would be good to have a Plan B, and feel positive about it, in case Plan A doesn't work out for whatever reason.

Firstly, there’s a long way to go.

My dd was a plodder at year 8 stage, mainly because she didn’t like the school she was at. If you’d asked her teachers then what A level grades she would be likely to get, they’d have said “she won’t be doing A levels” (she got 4 B at A level and then a first in her degree)

Lots can change, she might click with maths. Could she get some extra tutoring/do more online practice with maths to improve her knowledge/practice her skills?

I don’t think you need to do anything now, and if the school offers an options evening before she picks her choices, make sure you both go. My DD was very adamant on triple science. More than capable, but not needed for her future career choices and would not want to study it at college. At the options evening, the science teachers were very clear on the workload and commitment required. They discussed her maths capabilities and actually said to her that they thought that this element of things would let her down. They were honest, but a nice honest and explained things to her. This made things easier for me as I didn’t want to be the one to have such a frank discussion with her, knowing she would think I’m being negative about her abilities. She listened to her teachers, and chose a different subject instead.

Has her maths teacher written her off based on SATs already? She sounds amazing and has a great work ethic and motivation, so don’t squash that. She’s done brilliantly in SATs given get attendance has been as low as 10-50% and all the trauma and worry about her health problems for years. No wonder you’re so proud of her. Great that you’re helping, but consider a tutor if you can? You seem to be doing your bit too to help though. If not a tutor, would some books help with exercises to work through help?

Is she on a reduced subject timetable otherwise? I’m wondering if given her history and health needs the school would allow her to drop a subject now and use that time in school to work on her maths. Might need to be independently, but there are so many resources around nowadays.

This is not the case at all. Trust me if I was that parent your talking about I would not have even tried throughout primary school because every bit of paper will tell you she is far more ahead than she should have ever been. I never listened to any of it or what her life was predicted to be like.
i am worried though that she will get hurt or burned out which I think is reasonable.

I was just thinking above that I could talk to the school about leaving early one day a week to do maths tutoring if it doesn’t land in a core subject.
there is some subjects like history, Spanish and 3 d design that the school know that I’m happy to basically allow to drop
because when she is not in school and undergoing treatment there is no way to keep up with every subject so it was going to be impossible so when she is off school for long periods we focus on keeping up on biology, Chem, Physics, maths , English and drama ( she likes )
as we knows the other subjects she will never pick past year 9.
the school are quite relaxed with me about it so I suppose it’s worth a conversation.

,,

Maths is a subject where, if you’re good, you can definitely catch up pretty quickly.

I wouldn’t worry at this point. They tend to figure things out and will be getting annual and predicted grades. You could make casual comments about the work required. Biology and physics round here require a 6 not 7 if that alters your view. Not sure physics a good idea without string maths tho. Biology does not require a high level of maths.

Please ignore the people saying to ignore it for now, now is a great time to add in some more maths to try to fill those gaps and boost her knowledge. And I actually mean now, in the holidays. Give her a running start to Y8.

You haven't mentioned any details about her health - is this likely to continue to be a problem in secondary?

I mean it’s a difficult one. So it has become in some ways more manageable than younger years with way less time in hospital we have gone from monthly admissions lasting between 18 months and 2 weeks.
to only being admitted twice this year which is the least amount of times ever - but one of those times was critical on life support for the first time in many years which was horrible and more intense than previous Addmisions in the years prior. It did mean she missed half of year 7 so it can be unpredictable. But her second half of year 7 her attendance was the best it’s ever been.
I am able to do slot more at home which keeps her out of Hospital but physically she is able to do more now and is caching slot less viruses that she has to be admitted for every time which has 100 percent helped !

The health issues make a huge difference, she's clearly capable of doing anything. The only thing she can't do is follow the same timeline of someone who hasn't had these obstacles.

So do what you can, maybe give her an extra year or two at college getting GCSEs or redoing them, so she can hit the ground running for A levels. Don't take physics off the table, take off the deadlines.

Absolutely try to get her some one to one maths help now, either in school or with a tutor. She sounds very capable of making big improvements but it’s going to take some time to catch up.
Biology A level doesn’t have too much maths in it at all. A level physics is extremely maths heavy, with a huge amount of content to memorise compared to other subjects. If she’s struggling to get a 6 by the time she’s in Y11 I really wouldn’t encourage her to do a level physics.

I'm not convinced she'll need a 7 in maths to do a science A-level. And she has plenty of time to catch up, she's young!

If she's shown herself to be able in science she clearly has the capacity to be able in maths if taught correctly, there's a lot of similarity there.

I am seriously impressed that, having been so ill and missed so much school, she is achieving as well as she is. But the higher level the physics gets, the more mathematical it becomes. Given that maths is such a core subject, in addition to being linked to her ambition, and in the context of her health needs, it really sounds like a good idea to try to drop something less critical from the school timetable, in order to get some focused maths tutoring, to optimise her chances of fulfilling her potential as much as possible.

Accelorated?

She's lucky to have you in her corner trying to figure all of this out. You sound great, and it's clearly your efforts that have made sure she isn't much further behind than she is. Dropping a subject or two from the timetable and replacing it with maths focus sounds like a solid plan.

There is always one, and today it is you!

Agree, she’s far too young to write her off (not that you should write anyone off, but especially not a year 8 child!). When it comes to secondary education, GCSE and A level, the vast majority of the population can achieve high grades with hard work and the right support. You don’t need to be a genius.

She sounds like she’s doing brilliantly considering.

I agree with the plan of trying to finish early on days when it’s not one of her core/preferred subjects in the afternoon, and use that time for her focus subjects (esp maths) instead. If she has limited time and energy, better to do 6 subjects well than 10 spread thin. I would hope school would agree. Only thing is how would DD feel about this plan?