Year 7 (who is very good at maths) has been put in the bottom sets.

[ReevesJeeves]

My DD has always been very good at Maths. In Year 6, she achieved Greater Depth in her Maths SATS (achieving 115/120). Since joining Year 7, she has been in a mixed ability Maths Set. In the work that has been sent home from Secondary and that is set on Sparx, she is getting 80% - 90% correct, independently.

We have just had a letter home today, advising that Maths will be set after half term, and my DD will be in Set 5 of 6! The letter also explains that she has been assessed as finding Maths challenging and not to worry about sets, every child will be assisted individually. AIBU to think the school doesn’t know my DD at all, and to send an email querying how they came to this decision? I fail to see how she can now be finding maths challenging and in Set 5 of 6, having achieved 115/120 in her SATS only months ago. Maths has always been a subject she has excelled in, right down to her KS1 Times Tables test where she scored 100%. BTW this is not a selective school or grammar, it’s mainstream state, so it’s not as though the department will be awash with Maths geniuses (in the least offensive way). I also don’t want to appear as a trouble maker or someone the school will be fed up with, but I think this needs to be questioned to find out what has gone wrong so to speak.

My husband thinks I shouldn’t say anything as the school will just think I’m a neurotic mum, I disagree and I think it needs to be dealt with and questions asked pronto - something has clearly gone drastically wrong either with the teachers assessment of DD or in the way DD is presenting herself in class?!

That being said our maths teacher also confused my son with another lad - she accused my son of cheating on Sparx and using Alexa to complete it!

Oh my other post hasn’t posted maybe becuase it had an image of sparx

If she is in the near bottom set, it will become apparent pretty quickly if she has a much higher ability and I bet she will be moved to the appropriate class. This happened to me in school ( admin error ) and they moved me, albeit it was a different subject. My parents didn't need to intervene.

If you believe they have got this wrong, there is no harm in mentioning it to them.

Oh and the AI shit is really annoying and invasive
wish MN would block it

This happened me in the '70s. I ended up getting the highest mark in the class in the state exams. 🙄

Edit: The exam stuff wasn't even covered but I had family help.

She might be brilliant at maths the other children might just be better and that’s why she’s been put in set 5? Maybe her cohort is really maths strong and unfortunately she’s in the Lowe sets.

No way in a comp.

Surely behaviour should be controlled by the school so it's acceptable in a y set though shouldn't it?

Anyway. Not sure why op doesn't just ask the teacher before worrying about it

There are 180 students in DD year. It would be exceptionally unusual, if not impossible, for 120 students in the sets above her to all have achieved scores similar to Greater Depth / 115 in the SATS. She attends a large, local comprehensive - not a grammar or private school.

I hope you get it sorted OP. It does sound like it might be an error.

However, when I was at primary I thought I was quite good at Maths and in year 6 was working from textbooks that were supposedly for 2nd year secondary. But when I went to secondary I found I wasn't that good after all and ended up in set 2 of 4. So I was going to say that it might be different.

But if you say she's been doing well in tests and not struggling it does sound a bit odd. I agree with a pp that if they have made an error they'll realise very quickly and move her up.

Definitely email in and raise your concerns. Year 7 (especially the first term) is just reviewing knowledge. Something must be lost in communication - whether now knowing how Sparx works or missing a test, or choosing to not participate in class because of peer pressure.

My daughter does find maths very challenging, but gets 100% at Sparx (could be slightly different system I guess) as it allows you to review the answers and watch videos to explain it - and she calls on me to help explain if it's tricky.

wtf is this…?

There’s not a chance! I hope they reply soon

The SATs are pretty easy tbh. I’ve seen the papers as I worked in a primary school and worked directly with year 6. Maybe the secondary school entrance tests are slightly harder to determine who is actually good at maths beyond the basics.

You really need to know her score from their own tests to determine if she’s in the right set or not.

Also, there’s plenty of movement in secondary schools so if she works hard, gets great results throughout and in her end of year, then they’ll move her up a set.

Wow cakeorwine. You clearly chose the wine today!

My son is doing a maths based PhD, now, but was in the bottom set at school. He thrived in the smaller group and with the teacher. They tried to move him up a set but we fought really hard to keep him in the bottom as he was doing so well. So don't assume it's a bad thing. She might like being in a smaller group.

Setting is also important in the selective schools - a fair few have got there by intense tutoring since year 3 or 4 and may have problems keeping up in a class of 30.

Your husband's reaction is ridiculous. Why on earth would they think you're a busybody, if you enquire politely and not go in all guns blazing.

I am curious about her placement, as a complete stranger, so he should really have more care. The whole point of the Y6 SATs is it's a national test, so you know where she is in relation to all other children in England - it's not like you think she's wonderful at maths just because she is your DD. I am glad you emailed the school and query the discrepancy between her results just a few months ago and her placement now,

Go in and have the discussion or it will bug you forever. My DD was put in the bottom set for math many moons ago (in year 7) and I queried this because her CAT scores were all above 135. I went in and had a chat and it turned out that the teachers hadn't even taken this into consideration and had placed her in the bottom set because she was "a bit of a chatterbox" and they saw her as being "disruptive". Turns out that she was just bored. She's now studying Math at Cambridge University....you probably know your child best.

What’s wrong with your husband. Genuinely, his reaction is very immature and fearful. His job as a parent is to advocate for his children. Not hide and be immature,any decent parent would send a polite email saying surprised and concerned about the drop, can you check it’s accurate and if so I’d like to discuss . No biggie,

but as irs a massive school this could be an error.

I’ve just reported all the spam

This is disgraceful. Lower ability children do not deserve to have higher ability disruptive pupils foisted upon them. Lower ability children have enough barriers without teachers using their set to dump badly behaved but capable children.

This reminds me of when my DC started year 7. We got a similar letter. It turned out there were 2 kids with the same first name and the admin team got them mixed up.

Hopefully the school will have a good explanation and will get back to you before the break

The grey area though is that the badly behaved children are probably scoring badly on tests. So they can hardly be in higher sets over dcs who are performing better.