Help for dc whilst boarding

[Betterbelieveit]

Hello MNetters,
My son in Yr 8 at a boarding school is not performing well in Maths and sciences and I'm looking for ideas on how to help him bring his grades up.

I've thought of removing him from the school to enrol into a day school so he can have a Maths tutor who sees him every week, but have not managed to get a good school in commutable distance, and would hate to lose the other good things he is currently benefitting from his current school.

Alternatively, I would consider a different school, day or boarding, if they have a great mix of academic and extracurricular programmes that also have a strong support for children to improve their grades. I

Has anyone found themselves in this situation and did they find a solution that worked?

No.
Why are you paying for education you’re not happy with? (Maybe these subjects are just not his strengths Children are not machines why are they expected to all be the same?)

Maybe he just isn't very good at maths and science? I would assume they are giving him as much extra help as it is possible to give as you are paying and both of you want him to get good grades. I would assume that he just isn't capable of more. Providing he passes at gcse is it actually an issue?

Talk to his head of house and contact his maths teacher. They may be able to help either themselves, or facilitate an online tutor, or recommend a 6th former that tutors.

Why don’t you ask the school? My school has all sorts of interventions available. This includes maths drop in clubs and 1:1 sessions. You also need to look at the grade predictions. You probably have data as to what he could potentially achieve at gcse. Use that as a guide to compare against.

Thanks all for the responses. I have spoken to both his house parent and house tutor and they say he is doing well. But "well" is not a grade that can be measured against anything.

To the poster that said I should stop paying for a school I'm not happy with. I am happy with the school but not everything about the academic side when it comes to Maths and Sciences.

I understand that he may not be maths and sciences inclined, but I know ow he's capable of better grades in those subjects because I worked with him during primary school and he had better grades in those subjects.

The school has these but apparently from Yr 9 onwards.

What grades is he getting in these subjects and compared to others? Are these predicted GCSE trajectory grades at assessment points? Are they lower than they should be on his personal trajectory?

Primary school maths and science are totally different from secondary maths and science though. Maths at primary is about memorising tables and dining simple sums well, whilst gcse is about understanding more abstract and complex mathematical concepts and being able to apply them correctly to different situations. It is more about problem solving than arithmetic. Similar with science. Primary science is about following simple instructions and writing down what happens. Secondary science is about understanding more complex concepts and being able to apply them to different situations /questions. There is also a lot of wrote memorising of concepts and facts.

57% in Maths. I haven't got the GCSE trajectory marks and will ask for them when I next get the chance.

He’s still quite young then to board? Perhaps he’s struggling a bit to manage himself? Year 9 is far more common to enter boarding. Not all schools are that academic either

Do you know what his predicted grades are for GCSE? 57% is I think a 5 so if he’s predicted higher then school should be hustling to support him to achieve his predictions otherwise they’re letting him down somewhere along the way. My son’s predicted overall 8, and at any assess points he’s not getting equivalent of at least 7 on the cusp of an 8, then they’re asking me, my son, and themselves, how to turn it around, what the sticking points are. It depends on what he came out of primary and started year 7 being expected to achieve. A 5 is fine if that’s where he’s always been.

This is the risk with going private OP. Teachers may not be formally trained etc, but rather their for pedigree. Any reason he can’t go to your local school and you can tutor him as you were before?

That's true, the reason I mentioned primary school is to show that he's capable of handling age appropriate academic work, so maybe something somewhere is not translating.

I was never good at Maths at school but my mum got me a tutor and I realised that it's the way things were explained that didn't work for me. She got me a tutor who went through topics in a way that clicked and took my grated to a very high merit. As for Physics, I even topped my class in one paper.

So it's this experience that is driving me. If a child is capable of A* and A in other subjects but gets Ds in others, surely there's something one can do to investigate the discrepancy. Rather than totting it up to just them not being "good enough" in those subjects they do poorly in.

I don't want to be gloomy op, but if it is quite an academic boarding school (targeting top tier seniors?) you will often find the efforts are focused upon the students who will give them the "wins" in terms of senior school outcomes.

At 57 percent he will be well below the top performers, and I suspect it will require you to intervene - which will be difficult to any meaningful extent while he is boarding. He is by no means a "a lost cause" at all; children can turn round hugely, but it takes more input than I suspect he will get from someone who isn't his parent. He is falling in the "well he's passing, but far too far from flourishing to be worth the effort" group.

What utter shit 😂

Indeed. I am racking my brains to think of a single independent school teacher I have had dealings with that this applies to.

Nope. I don't think that kids who are capable of a of a star in some subjects are necessarily capable of the same in all subjects. Learning different subjects and more specifically answering exam questions in different subjects uses a totally different skill set.

However I totally understand your comments about not getting something and then a different teacher being able to help you to make sense of something. I would really hope that a private school would be using lots of different ways to teach things so that every student has the best chance to succeed? Surely that's what the money is for? So I would hope they are already doing what you would get from a tutor?

This keeps getting repeated. It isn’t true - the only time I see it happening is for sport coaching when specialists from a particular sport are employed as coaches. State school academies, on the other…

The number is believed to be about 20 percent.

I have a close family member who attained a highly mathematical degree from Oxford who went straight into teaching from Uni at a very beautiful (expensive & well renowned) public boarding school in England and was teaching the full range from age 13 to GCSE, A-Level and Further Maths without a PGCE (although did gain one after a few years in post). They have since left teaching to go into something more along the lines of their original degree. I actually believe they would have been an outstanding teacher, certainly outstanding at maths - but no, they were not qualified to teach for most of the years they were there (they only left last year, so recent).

I used to be in charge of y 7&8 Maths and I wouldn’t agree with everything people have written above, points made,

It’s good that the school have systems set up to help students who are struggling from year 9 onwards, but not much help for you at the moment.

So, you are generally happy with the school. What does your son think? Is he worried?

You say he’s not performing well in Maths and Science. Is he doing a lot better in his other subjects? How does he think he’s doing - does he tell you he doesn’t understand in class?

Just knowing he got 57% isn’t particularly helpful. It might be for his last test, his mark in last year’s exams, the average of his marks for class work or prep, for example. Is it unusual for him - what marks was he getting last year? If you were given the average and the range for his class, and possibly his year group, as well, so you could see how well he’s doing relative to them

After I retired I went back into school to tutor students who needed extra help with their Maths. In my case it was mostly students who had specific learning difficulties, for instance dyslexia - I am trained to teach students with dyscalculia. Either school paid for this or parents did, depending on the circumstances. You could ask if there’s anyone who can tutor your son in school, for which you would pay. It might be unusual but that’s not to say it’s impossible.

I’m not sure how helpful predictions for GCSE are at this stage, but it might be helpful if you can look up the school’s past performance in GCSE Maths and the Sciences. I didn’t teach in a particularly selective school, but I can’t remember a child who achieved less than a 4 in any subject.

Does the school have a big intake into year 9? Did he join in year 7.

Especially when you don’t see him every day, it can be very concerning if son is doing less well than he could, and I understand your wanting to help him with this.

Mysterious. My corrections are lost… I’ll make them here.

My first sentence should have ended
‘and while wouldn’t agree with everything people have written above, there are some good points made’.

‘… possibly his year group as well, you could see how…’

Did he join in year 7?

Agree - you need to know the class average to say if 57% good or bad, but for that age group it is generally easier to hit higher %'s (or are they already streamed in his school? In which case, I suppose it depends which stream he is in)

Some people just do 'get' maths, but I do think a good teacher can make huge impact. And the earlier someone is helped, the greater their confidence, which can be the main stumbling block.

Often just a little extra attention can make it 'click' and then they are on a roll. Also so many great online videos now.

@Calliopespa a friend of mine teaches in private schools. He has a degree from Cambridge but no teaching qualification's

Oh actually, yes, you are right: I do know of those situations. I have to be honest and say the great degrees normally see me not thinking of them as "without qualifications" but that is true, and a teaching qualification is relevant.

I was trying to think of someone with no qualifications and simply couldn't.