How do grammar schools deal with children not doing as well as expected

[LittleMissGossip]

As the title says, how do grammar schools deal with children not performing as well as they would like/expect? (They being the school)
For instance, when children are getting low scores on end of term tests?
I appreciate it will be different for different schools, but wondering how they keep their gcse results high if there are children struggling.
Thank you!

In my grammar pupils who failed exams had to repeat the year.

That won't be the case now for English state grammars (as opposed to any independent school with Grammar in the title). State schools in England do not repeat years except in exceptional circumstances (y12 being an exception as restarts are more comon).

My grammar school reduced the number of GCSEs that you were entered for.
So you were less likely to be entered for exams in non core subjects if you were unlikely to pass.
It's also possible that some pupils are encouraged to move to other schools before GCSE courses are started.

They deal with them in exactly the same way as any other school - with targeted interventions. However, as they are selective, the numbers who struggle are smaller and the overall attainment higher. Look at progress data rather than attainment if you want a more balanced picture.

Remember that reported results are averaged across the whole cohort, so while they may be high overall, there will be individuals who do badly. (The government's official performance stats don't include outliers that might unreasonably skew the results, such as school refusers who don't turn up for exams).

Ours just didn’t let anyone who wouldn’t get an A-C take them in the first place.

Also, since it is often the case that pupils were tutored to pass the 11 Plus, parents are likely to pay for more tutoring in years 10 and 11.

Badly.

Really regret sending my boys to grammar school. It wasn't right for either of them. . They did less GCSEs , and passed them, but ultimately they both hated school and did not do well age 16 to 18. It was a single sex school, which with hindsight, was not a good fit for them.

In my local area one of the boys grammar's asked under performing students to leave.

That's not entirely true. All the students will be capable of it, but every cohort will have some students who go off the rails for one reason or another and don't do as well as expected.

IME it's quite easy to get excluded from a grammar. Poor academic performance from a bright child will usually go alongside behavioural problem. If it's not that bad they'll reduce the number of subjects a child takes, to focus on core subjects.

Ours just did nothing. Completely useless. Eg. Entered some of DS’s Year into higher language papers that they had no chance in passing as the teaching was so dire.

they do however, tell parents of the children unlikely to get into sixth form by the end of year 10 apparently.

i don’t know what the answer is for UK schools.

The grammars cannot get rid of poorly performing DC. It’s illegal. Decades ago they used to try. Now they really cannot. Most dc do get 8 plus 5-9 grades including maths and English. A tiny minority don’t in a couple of the grammar schools. However we are not super selective. If a child isn’t happy and wants to leave, that’s another matter and a degree of honesty is needed. There are other schools available and Dc might do a lot better in one of them. It’s all about fit but some of our grammars do have middle attainers and they also take a certain percentage of fsm too. Dc in the grammars are not all super bright. Just bright enough. There’s quite a broad spectrum. However some have well above average progress 8 which is a great achievement for Dc snd the schools. All are average progress 8 or above.

As an aside, when I was at a grammar my friend got 2% in a physics exam. 1% for spelling her name correctly, so the teacher said. We definitely were not all geniuses! My friend had a great career as an IT trainer in the end. We all found our niche. Even the not so stellar ones amongst us!

Mentoring, suggesting dropping a subject or two to concentrate on others
Never got the impression it was for school grades (already due to location/other factors will remain popular school).

My DH is a head of English at a Girls Grammar school, he has one girl in his group who is attaining barely grade 3 GCSE standard for English.
This is particularly disturbing because the girl concerned which DH likes, is expected to achieve GCSE grade 9s in Math's/Chemistry and Physics. The girls difficulty with her English and Humanities subjects is in stark contrast to her Mathematical and Science skills. The girl concerned must attain a grade 5 in English to be allowed to study Science/Math's A Levels at the schools 6th form.

The girl concerned is therefore also losing heart in Math's and Science subjects. This, because she believes, what's the point if her difficulties with handwriting caused by Dyslexia and her ASD traits and diagnosis make English very difficult for her. A grade 3 in English will prevent her from studying A Levels at the school. DH is therefore asking the Sixth Form admissions team, if they could make an exception for her by allowing her Sixth Form admission with a realistic targeted grade 4 for her English Language GCSE.

The poor girl is under intense family pressure and feels 'stupid' as her middle sister was Head- Girl last year and has just started Oxford this year for a English Degree.

The girl is also sat with a teaching Assistant in DH's English group of 22 where 12 are targeted @ GCSE Grade 9/8 7 are targeted @ 7 1 is targeted @grade 6. 'Lisa' is working at best at grade 3 standard, or what the school expects of year 9 girls.

@Challenger5 I am assuming that child has been thoroughly assessed for dyslexia or a processing issue ? Because if not then that would be a bit bad of the school.

She sounds like she needs much more targeted support and maybe alternative arrangements for exams (reader pen, word processor, scribe etc).

mumsneedwine. The girl has targeted support involving a designated learning support. The exam boards have recently agreed to allow access to a scribe and use of a word -processer in her GCSE English/History exams.

You are right though the school ignored the girl's problem with her illegible handwriting, Dyslexia and other issues until the end of year 10. The school then suddenly become concerned, when her English work had not improved at all since year 8. Perhaps due to 'Covid' her problems which should have been picked up in years 7,8 and 9 were not. The girl instead was winning awards for Year 9 'Science' student of the year from the Science Department, yet not getting appropriate support for her struggles.

@Challenger5 good school are on it. Hopefully a scribe will help as she sounds bright. Should mean she gets extra time too. Poor kid must have struggled so much.

They put a huge amount of pressure on them from my experience without any support in the areas that may be needed.

Actually, the school were very poor and totally at fault believing the issues would sort themselves out naturally. My DH was only made aware of the girl's difficulties after being approached by her sister who DH was teaching A Level English in May last year. This is despite him being Head of English, no subject Teacher, form teacher or Head of Year had ever mentioned the girl's problems to him. DH had never taught the girl but knew of her though her sister who he had taught since year 7. The girl has subsequently been placed in DH's English group at DH's request since, the last week of year 10, all of the other girls in the group are high attainers in English and targeting grade 7-9s.

The girl is exceptionally fortunate that my DH has got involved and is battling for her. This due to his personal understanding of the issues the girl faces. This is due to our adoption of DD2, who despite significant issues passed her11+ and attends her dad's Grammar School.

I think without DH's involvement the school would have effectively denied a talented Mathematician and Scientist, the opportunity to study A Levels thus placing her in no- man's land.

DH is hopeful the girl could achieve a grade 5 with the help of a Scribe/Word Processor extra time E.T. C. However, he thinks the school should allow a bit of leeway for Sixth- Form Admission by making an exception if she only attains a Grade 4 at English Language.

DD's school seems to have a wide range of approaches. Kids who need extra time have been identified. Mentoring with peers. Extra lunchtime classes, especially with topics such as Art which need more time. A handful of students have dropped a subject that they're struggling with and that time is used for revision lessons in key areas. There's lots of support.
They have an active pastoral/well being team too. So have been sending information and having form time and assemblies about managing revision and time, etc.

Sorry, May This year

I meant last school year in May.

I wonder if you should request your comments on this thread be removed . All added together they would make it easy to identify the grammar school student if any of her family are reading this . I doubt your husbands school would be happy so much personal information has been passed on to you and then put on a public forum .

My DS was a child who was a low performer at Grammar school. He got in off the waiting list. The pace was high, the lessons challenging... as you would expect. DS was a keen learner and worked hard, always doing his homework to the best of his ability. He just never did well in in-house tests that were aimed to stretch the most able boys (40+ Oxbridge places a year type Grammar). His marks were always in red on the assessment class list on parents' evening. Our surname is at the the start of the alphabet so it was obvious it was his scores in red in a sea of green on the list. However, at parents' evening teachers always said how hard DS worked and were full of advice and praise rather than criticism.

In Year 11, we were called in as DS was deemed at risk at not meeting the minimum threshold for the 6th Form, he dropped 2 GSCEs to ease the workload. We were advised to have a plan B and C of schools for 6th Form. DS was extremely anxious about his exam results and it was tough getting him to collect his results on results day.

He ended up getting 8 A stars and 3 As. Many of his peers had 13 A stars. When DS was examined against the whole of England rather than just his Grammar, his true ability shone through. He went on to get A star, A, B at A level and has no regrets about his time at Grammar.

Fairyfield. That is a totally different type of "Grammar" to the Grammar School DH teaches in and DD2 goes to or the one DD1 goes to. Both Grammar schools send only about one or two a year to Oxbridge and two years ago neither sent any.

There are normal Grammar schools and then there are the likes of Super Grammar Schools like Fairyfield which are not representative of the top 25% but the top 1% of the ability range.

I believe St Olave's are this type of environment and a few years ago were very unfairly with no compassion or care, kicking out students after year 12 for not attaining 3 A' grades s at AS Level. This practice I think has now been correctly "outlawed". Though maybe some schools can advise students to re- take year 12 at a Further Education College, though a poor set of internal exams in the June of year 12.