Year 7 – big academic jump?

[Nora4051]

Hi,
I’m looking for some perspective from other parents.

My daughter has just started Year 7 at an academically selective independent school. She came from a perfectly good state primary, but one that didn’t do regular tests, formal exams or much structured revision.

She’s bright and works hard, but the first round of assessments has really shaken her confidence.

I’m trying to reassure her that this is a normal adjustment and that lots of children need a term or two to get used to new expectations, exam technique, etc. Is this a correct assessment?

I would be grateful to hear from others if they’ve experienced similar. Was the jump quite steep at first?How long did it take for things to settle academically?

Did her friends all find the assessments challenging too?

It isn't unknown for high-aspirational secondary schools to give hard tests early on to make the point that there is a lot still to learn, on the basis that keeping students humble keeps them motivated to study rather than having some trying to coast on just 'being bright'. Of course that does also produce crippling anxiety in others, but that also keeps them working...

I suspect that coming from a state primary means that
a) she will be perfectly capable academically
but
b) she just isn't used to prepping / revising for tests (which those from prep schools will be)

So I suggest that for the next set of tests you work with her to teach her how to revise. if you don't know yourself there are lots of threads on the secondary education board about revision. Mainly - make it active, return to topics to embed them, try different methods so she sees what works for her.

@BestZebbie Thanks.
They all ‘say’ they found it challenging but marks have a wide breath and DD is smack in the middle, which isn’t bad but I think that’s not where she wants to be…

Thank you @TeenToTwenties . This really resonates.
I’ll have a look at the threads on here about revision strategies. I’m hoping that once she has a bit more structure and knows how to revise, things will naturally start to improve.

Please also be aware that there would have been a wide range of abilities in her state primary school. Moving to a selective academic school will mean that there will only be the top sets in the school. Being middle could mean the same as being the top of a non selective school.

There is a big jump in learning how to revise and study vs state primary school expectations. I have had to sit down and teach mine how to.

Both of mine went to academic London schools from state primary. Neither school did much in the way of formal assessments in Year 7 which some parents complained about but I think this was one of the main reasons why. Some pupils were some competitive from Day 1 and particularly in the girls school they were keen to avoid it.
But I’d say there was no discernible difference between who’d been to what type of school. It was a big jump for all of them in terms of organisation, different teachers, big schools etc.

She is probably having a bit of a tough time adjusting to being surrounded by the top ability wise and having to adjust to suddenly not being the best in the class. Just reassure her that she is still much brighter than most students in the rest of the country and she's got quite a while to her gcse's.

This happened to me when I was her age. I just wasn't prepared for the way they tested as we didn't do at state primary

I did eventually get used to it but needed lots of help with revision skills

Now is the time to start praising effort rather than achievement. Try to get your DD to stop comparing herself to her peers, and rather pick some goals for herself and focus on achieving those. Non-academic goals are as important as, or even more important if she is academically competitive, academic ones.

I went to a a state grammar. I am very academically able but sometimes fall apart in exams. I'm generally a very anxious person, which I now know is down to neurodivergence. I have to feel very well prepared in order to avoid falling apart during an exam, especially if the stakes are high.

Primary schools (state ones at least - I know nothing about private ones) in my experience don't teach revision techniques of exam techniques. Could it be that your DD doesn't even know the basics, such as miss out the hard questions and come back to them at the end?