Secondary 'streaming' problem

[malovitt]

My son is in Year 9, goes to the local ok-ish secondary.

He started to learn Spanish in Year 7, and was very keen. Pupils were not streamed until this year, and there are only two groups. Checked his homework this week and was surprised to see worksheets going over numbers, colours etc -stuff he had learned in Year 7. He told me he was in the 'bottom' group. Spoke to his teacher, who confirmed that he was far too good for her class, but not good enough for the class above. So he is bored and close to giving up on the subject. Surely this isn't right? What normally happens when a child is 'between groups'.

Have emailed the head of year for an appointment.

Not much advice I'm afraid, just wanted to bump for you.

My DS is also in Y9 and is in Set 3 out of 5 for French. Top two sets also do German, but tbh, I'm glad my DS didn't get selected for German as he has massively benefitted from extra English lessons.

I'm surprised there are only 2 groups at your DS's school, I'm guessing it's not a huge school?

I think you are right to be concerned about this - it sounds like your DS would be better placed in the top set even if it's a bit challenging for him.

I think you are doing the right thing to ask for an appointment.

It has seven classes of 30 per year, so it's fairly big.

60 pupils per year do either French, Spanish or German, split into 2 groups of 30 (with the other 30 pupils doing extra English)
He was so enthusiastic last year - when we went on holiday to Spain he was asking confidently for things in shops - now he is so demoralised.

Ah, that makes sense now - obviously with only two sets for each language, not much differentiation can take place. At my DS's school, they are able to cater for all abilities as they have five sets (10 classes per year, but two of each set, iyswim). The downside is that we don't get much of a choice, whereas you do (I would love my DCs to study Spanish!).

I'm sure someone else will come along with more advice, but in the meantime, Good Luck in getting an appointment.

This is a common problem (for teachers and students in secondary).

At our school each half year group has 4 classes. In Maths/English/Science all this half year group will have lessons at the same time; so they can have 'pure' sets: set 1, set2, set3, set4.

However, in MFL they do not have 4 ft teachers, so at any one time usually only 2 classes have lessons; so there can be just two sets.

For us this is further compounded that half the cohort learn German and half learn French, and obviously you can't mix and match those students at the end of yr7.

The end result is that MFL teachers have to do lots of differentiation, and it is certainly not ideal.

I'd ask to see if there's any chance he could move into top group. Are there any tests coming up that he could really swot for to try to work himself up?

Dd had similar problem with maths being too easy. Spoke to teacher who promised extension work. Maybe that way he could work his way up to top group?

Is there anyone in an older year group who would "coach" him for a few weeks for some extra pocket money?