DS1 is probably going to fail his GCSEs. Can anyone help?

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DS1 is extremely bright (when it comes to science). He is doing triple - he's predicted to do very well. Maybe not so good with the physics (but will most likely still pass it).

He is struggling with everything else. He works so hard his mock results were very poor. His school are very concerned about his maths and english. He has a tutor (for both) and has 1-3 sessions in school (for both) but it's not improving. He keeps forgetting. Which I genuinely believe.

He often gets very upset about him forgetting and this leads to self-harm behaviours, as he's so frustrated with himself for forgetting (he has been referred for this).

Any tips?

His forgetfulness suggests SEN, this presents in many dyslexic kids. Has he ever been tested?

Bump

No, he hasn't. School have said they don't think it's worth testing him, due to his abilities in science. They seem to not believe him when he says he has forgotten, etc. I know how hard he is working and they do too, so I don't get it.

There is clearly some barrier which is affecting him. Dont wait for school to get onside, get him referred to a community paed asap and get the ball rolling, with a view to ADD (innattentive) or dyslexia, which can present as being v disorganised.

I agree. This was me regarding english at gcse. Diagnosed as dyslexic given specific tips that helped, extra time and ability to type helped me immensely

I am not sure where they got that from! I don't think being good at science means he does not have some SEN issues or even just traits. Can you get him tested outside privately or speak to a SEN staff member? Other issues which may affect memory is lack of sleep, does he sleep enough? I was advised to give my dd omega 3 to help, I have no real evidence whether it works or not but certainly causes no harm.

I agree that it sounds as if there is something that needs assessing so that he can get some help.

On things you might be able to do to support him, my DDs found a lot of help on youtube, especially with English. There are some great tutorials on there and they gave good exam tips etc. We did quite a bit together as well - I remember testing them on all of the language features like assonance etc in the car.

DD2 used Tassomai for science (where she struggled to remember all the details). I realise this isn't your DS' problem in particular but they may offer other courses. It's an online tool which asks you questions until you always get them right. DD2 found it helpful because that's the way she learns. It was quite expensive but she came away with As and A*s in all three sciences, so proved worthwhile.

I hope you manage to get him some help. It's awful when you can see they're really trying but not getting anywhere.

Another thing to be aware of is stress can cause you to shut down and not be able to take anything in

My son is dyslexic and he's doing triple science, top set for things, etc but organisationally he's utterly useless. Does the tutor agree with the school? If you even vaguely think he could be dyslexic it's worth finding out. A lot of people hate labels, but in my son's case it's helped him massively with self esteem. He knows why he sometimes find things impossible that his friends sail through and that's made him far happier about himself. You could call Dyslexia Action and run things by them. They're quite good at advising people.

Which year group is he in?

If he is in Y11, there is only a couple of months left. I would suggest you to try to help him to get enough sleep, relaxed, maybe add some food supplement, like omega 3 rich fish oil etc.

I think English is hard to be improved much in a short time, but for math, you can ask him to do mock papers, mark it together, then work out the mistake. This would be the most efficient way to impove.

I agree with the previous post, enough sleep is really important. Otherwise, the brain function reduced. Lacking sleep can result in bad memory, reacting slowly, and not think properly.

What Eng Lang board is he doing?

With such serious mental health issues, no wonder he's not coping. I wouldn't add pressure and seek professional advice ASAP.

He has undiagnosed learning difficulties and to be honest this should have been tackled years ago rather than waiting till he is going to fail his gcses 🙄

My nephew had tests througg school and although not diagnosed dyslexic they felt there was enough to warrant giving him extra time in exams.