How to improve maths and English in year 8

[soupbeans]

DS reports say he’s not reaching his full potential and I agree. What can I do at home to try and boost things? Is getting a tutor worthwhile? Are there any good apps for extra maths at home? He goes to a state school that isn’t very well regarded.
any recommendations appreciated

Does the school subscribe to an online maths platform like Sparxmaths or Mathswatch?

Yes, because any old clever kid at Oxbridge can do my job? Gee thanks @LawyerParent.

Just because they are super clever and maybe doing a maths degree there, it doesn't mean they have any idea how to help a year 8 student!

As a PP has asked, do they use an online maths hw, because that would be my first port of call? Do you have time to spend with him or do you want something that your son can do on his own?

Getting a tutor was definitely worth it for us. We tried group tuition for my son at £12/hour as budget is a bit tight, and it worked wonders—not just for his grades, but his confidence too.

He’s quite shy at school and rarely puts his hand up, but since starting the group classes, he’s started interacting a bit more and seems a lot more engaged.
If you’re thinking about it, I’d say go for it—it’s made a real difference for us :)

A slightly different approach might be to help him find maths and english more fun.

I have no idea if not achieving potential means struggling or not quite top of top set so some of this will miss the mark.

Some ideas:

Simon Singh's parallelograms and parallel circles start from yr6. Basically, every week you get (for free) a couple of live zooms where someone chats about an interesting maths puzzle, or a short video with questions. They're really well done and don't feel too school-y.

BEBRAS have a ton of free computer science maths content. Again, it's set up like a series of games/puzzles. Starts around age 6, I think? Lots of different levels. Again, free.

NRICH (also free) have a huge amount of math resources - harder to navigate though.

The dragonbox apps (not free, but not hugely expensive) do a nice job of teaching algebra and geometry intuitively.

At the other end - if he's very good at maths and not being stretched take a look at maths circles - wesolveproblems.co.uk could be a starting point.

The xkcd/randal munroe books take an absurd question 'what if raindrops were gumdrops' and use maths and physics to figure out the answer.

For English - would he like to go to the theatre? Or would he be interested in one of the play-in-a-day type workshops some theatres do? I chose this one totally at random to give you an idea:
https://www.watermill.org.uk/young_people_one_off_events

One thing that absolutely will help English is reading. Read read read. The more he is exposed to language used in different ways the better.