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?!

I would definitely ask the question. My daughter struggles a bit with maths and only just passed the SATs and is not in bottom set so unless the rest of the year are absolutely outstanding then it seems odd your daughter would be in a lower set.

Ours have been in sets since Year 5/6. Normal state school.

My sons were at a bog standard comp and they were streamed from first year of secondary for maths and English. My eldest was top set (now doing a maths degree!) and the intention was he was in a fast track class that basically worked a year ahead of the curriculum. Kyboshed by Covid in the end, but the intent was there.

Firstly SATs results are already nearly 6 months out of date by this stage.
Secondly SATs and CATS measure different things.CATs is much more geared to measuring a students mathematical potential -reasoning, spatial ability etc whereas SATS more reflects how well your child has been drilled in following and applying primary mathematics techniques,.
It mught be your daughter has worked hard and mastered the things she has been taught at primary, but she doesnt have as much innate ability to grasp new mathematical concepts and needs a bit slower pace of learning.

A lot of comprehensives will set - especially for maths. From year 9 or 10 the setting becomes self selecting as students choose options ie single double or separate sciences or whatever it is called now or languages.
I did complain a fair few times - throughout primary and secondary and even sixth form. The annoying thing is that they would call DH back (not me), he forgot to mention it and he is of the opinion that the school is always right.

🤔 say what?

Comps need maths sets more than grammars

Yes I would check. Two of mine got similar in SATs and were both in top sets. Both got 8s at GCSE.

Our secondary messed up and put dc into set 8 of 9 at start of y7 with SATs 114.
I raised it straight away and they woulrnt correct it for about 6w! And by then dc struggled with a huge jump. She didnt go into set 1 though so it may have had a long term impact. She went into set 3. That was because a lot of kids here get over 110 on sats. I dont think schools especially primary are good at distinguishing who is good at maths. Ours it all seems to be the boys who are mainly just fast
I would think that score would put her in sets 1 or 2 though.
I would say SATs arent hard enough to distinguish really good mathematicians. Several kids in the top set dropped quickly down.

Its possible

• Yours did another test - but i still thinkmthey should have referrred to sats to check
• As others said the expectation often is 100% on sparx and my dc has achieved this for 3 years. There is videos to help. So only completing 80/90% wouldnt look good when they likely have only been going over y6 work. But i dont think this would be the reason -- but what have school done re the ones she hasnt done? Have they had to go through it in class?

I understand that, I really do, however DD has a natural aptitude for maths that has been apparent since she started school. She didn’t do revision for the maths SATS and her primary school was not highly pressurised or academic.

Even accounting for them being ‘6 months out of date’, I just don’t see how it’s possible to go from Greater Depth, skip right through Secure understanding / average, and end up in a set that the school themselves describes as for children who struggle with maths and need additional support. If it was set 2 or 3, fine, but she’s in set 5 of 6.

No. They were put in sets after a month in year 7 at my dcs' comp.

IME, the ‘top’ set(s) will distance themselves very quickly from the lower half. They’ll be set more challenging work and move at a quicker pace through the syllabus.

Your DD will be rapidly left behind and may find it much more difficult to catch up once a teacher (if they ever do) realises that she’s more capable than her classmates.

I think your DH is wrong in suggesting you shouldn’t challenge it.

Maths SATS (achieving 115/120).

Needs to be in the top set

SATS are not an opinion its a fact and that is a good result

Its possible but very unlikely that other all the other children all in the top set got higher

Are they put in sets for each individual subject or assesses over all?

If its individual get you DD moved up!

I’m a completely paid up member of SATs being bollocks, them favouring and overestimating the ability highly diligent, compliant pupils with a high boredom threshold.

But your DD’s situation absolutely can’t be right. You have to have some ability in maths to get 115 regardless of the above.

Hopefully you get a positive response.

Better to get this sorted before the classes actually happen and people have to move classrooms.

I was put in bottom sets as I moved local authority between Year 6 and 7 and my records weren’t sent to my new secondary. They knew within a lesson I should be top set but because the classes were full they couldn’t remove anyone and send them down to send me up.

Was a pain until the next school year when they had me in the right set from the start- I basically missed a year of english/maths/science because the bottom set was riot control rather than learning.

Caught up eventually but it was harder than the start of secondary needed to be, and there were a lot of fundamentals that I missed out on.

Yes this is my feeling. Again, I would still be questioning a bit if they said she has average mathematical ability, but the going straight to requiring support just doesn’t ring true.

I think it's a good you've sent the email. It would be silly not to query this. (It doesn't mean the school is wrong; it could be your DD is in an unusual and exceptionally bright year so, although good at maths, she is not as good as others.)

This happened to a friend of mine. Her child has always been brilliant at maths and has been working at a few years beyond his age for some time. When starting year 7, the school claimed he wasn't actually good at maths at all and would probably need remedial support. The parent sent the child's previous workbooks to school and asked the teachers to look through them - they showed he was doing high school maths (correctly) when in primary school. Despite this, it took a lot of arguing and some time for the school to recognise they'd made an error and correct it.

Our local grammar takes the top 20% of the ability range.
Our local comprehensive takes the top 100%.

It's a nonsense to say that it's important for the grammar to set but the comprehensive doesn't need to.

You’re right. I’d expect them to move her

That makes no sense. I’m not sure why’d you think that.
Comps have kids who won’t have passed SATs and can barely do basic maths and kids who are grammar material just haven’t gone to one. I’d be shocked if any didn’t set for maths!

This is true they can whizz through very fast in top sets.

DD1 in top set struggled with the pace - the assumption was good at maths get maths idea quickly - and she - well all the DC worked at it rather than natural maths ablity that DH has.

Half the set wanted to move down - we just did more work at home - then they finally changed teachers and started going at a slower pace but much faster than lower sets.

So I agree raise it now - and hope if it's wrong it gets sorted quickly and if she needs more support - well that will be made clear as well.

I think you are right to ask for clarification. But try not to worry. At this early stage it is easy and common for it to become apparent that students have been put into the wrong sets and quickly move.

I'm surprised that they tell parents which sets their children are. Our school doesn't (although I guess the children can work it out).

You owe it to your daughter to have this checked out.

Firstly, yes do talk to the school, it sounds as though they have made a mistake, as does sometimes happen, as shown by other posters.

Secondly, I'm intrigued that nearly all the posts refer to their DCs being in too low a set. Does this mean that when DC are in a too high set, everyone is happy and they usually keep up?

School's can make mistakes so always good to email and check. Or it could have been something your dd did. Mine is at an academically selective school and Year 7 she was told for homework see how much you can get done in a certain amount of minutes. She took that as you don't need to complete homework so she would only do part of it. They thought this meant she was struggling. So they put her in the bottom set. But she quickly realised you need to do your homework and each opportunity has been moved up so now is in the top set.