Daughter in bottom set in maths

[Aviator2008]

Hello everyone, my daughter came home today - she is in Y6 - advising that they have been arranged in sets in maths and English. She is to set for English but surprise, she is bottom set for maths. She is terribly upset. She's always been a middle set in maths and was very shocked she has been put into a bottom set. And while I am probably her harshest critic, I am surprised too. Her Y5 feedback has been consistent with top of middle set. Her report from Y5 states the same. Her maths teacher last year advised the reason she is not in top set is because of her confidence. Not the one to compare her with anyone other than her own potential, I could not help however to ask who else is in the same set and I am disappointed that she is in with children who are known to need support. I want to approach the teacher about it but have no idea how to start without this being a very emotionally charged conversation. My main concern is that she won't be stretched. And we are at an independent school. Any advice anyone can offer on how to tackle this with the school would be so appreciated. Thank you

As a word of reassurance - my son was in the bottom set for English all the way through school. He is pretty average academically and naturally quiet and lacking in confidence and I never questioned it. He was not in a super academic school either. I think the smaller class really suited him and I expect didn’t have all the super competitive confident pupils in it making him feel inadequate. His teachers always said he would go well but never mentioned putting him up a set.
Anyway he got a 9 in his GCSE, higher than many of the higher set pupils.
My point is that your daughter may well do better in the bottom set.
In my experience the top sets can contain some pretty obnoxiously confident children (with parents to match!).

I was moved into the bottom set for maths during my GCSE's and it was awful. The other children refused to work and it was just me and another girl who had been moved down working. We blasted through everything set so it was fair to say we weren't struggling.

What made it worse was being in the bottom set meant I could only do the easier GCSE paper - the top mark was a D so pretty pointless even bothering. My parents complained and I was allowed back into the next set. At home I used a Letts revision guide and for our mock exam I got the highest in the class and for my GCSE I gained a C.

It was probably a good kick up the bum for me to try harder but I'm so glad I moved from the bottom set when it really wasn't right for me.

I went to a grammar school. As we were all academically able, we were only put in ability sets for Maths and MFL. It was to do with the pace of the teaching, but we were all expected to pass well. I was set 3 of 4 so pretty slow-paced. I got an A.