My DC13 struggles with English tests - please share experience and advice!

[localnotail]

My DC has a real problem with English - he had something like 20% at the end of last year. He is fine with grammar and spelling but doesn't seem to be able to write in tests - he only seem to manage one paragraph in the time allocated.

I'm at loss with it as I know he can write if he wants to/ given enough time, but the issue seem to be that 1) he seem to take ages 2) he is unable to write in a way it is required at school (I did not go to school in the UK so I struggle to understand what he means). He struggles to gather this thoughts and put them on paper in time for the test to be done.

He is on the pathway for ADHD assessement (school requested it) and generally struggles with English as it's the only subject where they do one task that lasts all lesson. He missed a lot of lessons last year as his (substitute) teacher used to remove the majority of the boys from class before the start of the lesson as she could not cope (I raised that with the school and they apologised).

I'm already looking for a tutor for him but so far the only one I found is £120/ hour - is this really how much secondary school tutor costs? I have no idea where to look, this one was recommended by other parent.

I tried to do some writing with him at home but it's a struggle as he keeps whining and more often than not refuses to do anything (this is why I wanted a tutor, we had one in the past and he was really engaging with them).

Any help or advice would be welcome.

I think an experienced and patient tutor could help, but no you don't need to pay that amount per hour. In fact an hour's session for your son probably wouldn't be effective in any case. I'd try him with two shorter sessions a week.

Please DM me if you'd like to ask anything more specific. I'm an English teacher. 🥰

Gosh @localnotail that’s a lot.

Teacher sending out most of the boys – what? Really? How was this allowed to happen?

Class does one task all lesson? What kind of school is this? I would raise some of these issues with the school tbh and see what their advice is wrt your son’s English.

I agree that £120 is a lot for a KS3 English tutor. Depending where you are and on the tutor, I would expect to pay about £35-£55 an hour tbh.

What are his actual problems? Is he spending a whole lesson with a writing task (what kind of teaching is that? but still) and producing only a paragraph? Is this Eng lit or lang – if lang, is it creative writing or persuasive writing that he has an issue with?

Look at a tutor for sure (and they should be able to drill down into some of the specific issues) but also approach this urgently with the school. By your account your DS has missed most of a year’s teaching in a core subject and now is struggling (hardly surprising). What is the school going to do to support him going forward and what do they suggest for you to help? GCGP revision guides are good and available for KS3 as well as KS4. Is he going into year 9 now (I assume so)?

Thank you very much - I will DM you when I get home tonight

Id be looking at dyslexia as well as ADHD, they often overlap. But school may not support you if he can spell ok. But its a much cheaper assessment to have done privately at least.

Thank you.

He goes to a very strict Academy in East London. They are an Outstandind school but very, very draconian in their attitude to behaviour issues. My DC is a child who struggles with his behavour, so he gets sanctioned a lot, mist times to the detriment to his learning. School are very supportive on paper (he has an ILP and they made me put him on ADHD assessement pathway so he can have more support during his GCSEs) but in practice they simply remove him from lessons all the time. I am trying to work with them but it's hard as I understand they have 30 kids in class and very limited SEN funds. Moving DC to another school is not an option as other schools in the area either the same or much worse (like the infamous Mossbourne schools).

I already had several meetings with the school and even had an educational psychiatrist (?) to assess DC and he basically said my son has no learning difficulties and is above average intelligence, so should do well at school. I guess I should continue pestering them, now with CAMHS in tow...

He struggles with creative writing, yes. The lessons are usually writing for 45 minutes, he somehow manages to produce very little in that time. The tests are the same.

Contact the school and get a meeting with the teacher so that you can have them walk your son through a question whilst you make notes. That way you can both see what school are looking for specifically. This is free and if you lay out your expectation of what you are looking to achieve from the meeting before it takes place then it should be productive.

I did this exact same thing with Ds and History. His teacher walked him through a question then we could work on things at home. Basically you want the teacher to teach you so you can help your son.

Once home Ds then wrote a response to another question and the teacher looked over that to make sure he was on the right track.

It sounds like he needs the task breaking down into smaller tasks. Do you have his exercise books from last year? A look through them, along with the CGP revision guide for the exam board the school uses for GCSE (that information may be on their website) may help shed some light on what the issue is.

If he's being sent out of class frequently - do you know why? English is a very important core subject so it's unlikely the teachers are just randomly sending him out unless his behaviour is distracting the rest of the class.

He is being sent out for his behaviour which is fair enough but last year he was removed before the start of the lesson pretty much every week because the substitute teacher was struggling with the class. She is no longer works for the school and the school admitted she was in the wrong.

My DC has a ILP which lists all the strategies to help him with his behaviour but they are not followed and he is treated as all other kids in class (despite the school themselves telling me he is clearly ND). I'm dealing with this but it's hard as I can't even get a SEN meeting organised.

Hmm so @localnotail he is or was being sent out because his behaviour is poor? Your OP made it sound as tho the teacher was walking into the class and immediately sending out a third of the students. I suspect it was more that the poor behaviour caused them to be removed, one at a time. That’s not quite the same and a bit more understandable (tho if it really was “the majority of the boys” so like 12 or so from a class of 30, then it’s a concern the school should have been dealing with).

Anyway – first thing is the low-level disruption needs to stop – or is this already happening? If so, great. If he is listening and trying to complete the task he is on the right path.

A 45-min writing task with no structure and no support sounds like a nightmare. To teach as well as to do. I suspect it’s not that simple. What support is he being given with his creative writing? For his GCSE Eng lang he needs to be able to write a creative piece, and a good teacher will support with learning how to do that in lessons – for example suggest an opening, support students with planning, talk about how to close. I am sure the teacher is not just saying “right class, I want you to write a piece about a surprise incident” and leaving them to it.

I agree it’s a good idea to meet with the teacher and talk through what he is meant to be doing. But also ask about what the scaffolding is within the lesson. Then when you have a better idea of what needs to be done, you can break it down with your DS and help him improve bit by bit.

ETTA sorry x posted there a bit with your update

How does he do with long form writing in other subjects like history?

I agree. Especially if be does not enjoy reading.

Dc2 got diagnosed with dyslexia at 18. It wasn’t bad enough for either the primary or secondary school. To notice. However, it certainly impacted on their attainment - surprisingly (to me) in maths but obviously also essay-based subjects.

Dc2 then got diagnosed with ADHD at age 20.

I had much the same problem as your DS. I have ADHD. I think, in my case at least, it was due to poor excutive functioning skills - this is common in ADHD. With poor executive functioning, it is virtually impossible to plan and organize an essay due this poor working memory, poor understanding of time, difficulty in judging whether the essay answers the question etc etc. Also I personally had no interest in English so it made it very hard to focus.

what would have helped me is somebody giving me detailed coaching on how to plan an essay.

PS I did pass English Language and Literature O-Levels. I got lucky .

I’m adhd. I’m 46 and have 2 degrees, a PGC and was a high tax payer. Yet I still struggle to ‘create’ a story etc. although I’m extremely creative in other ways (artistic wise and that’s how I make money now) a tutor might help if budget allows? My daughter is adhd and has a tutor for maths but she does it in a very creative way to keep my daughters engagement. A normal style tutor would send her into meltdown!

Rather than price, think about the outcome. You could pay £120 and get fantastic results in a shorter period of time than someone offering something like £40 an hour. I would lean towards asking questions about a tutors qualifications, experiences and how quickly they could get your son up to speed. A less experienced teacher or one that is not high in demand would usually be at the lower end. I hope this message helps :)

Struggles. Its consistent in all subjects.