Year 8 - need advice as to how to help DD

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DD is in Year 8 at a very large but well respected local state comprehensive. It has an Ofsted Outstanding rating, as do a couple of other schools in the local area. There are around 300 children in each year, in 10-11 tutor groups or 30 kids. It’s the main school in the area, and other local excellent schools are usually oversubscribed (as is this one.) So you tend to go to your local school. About an hour away is a grammar school, and children from our area do apply to and get in to the grammar. DD was not interested in this at the time. We were also told by various people who work in education that she would probably get a scholarship if she were to apply to a private school, but that was not a route we were interested in taking at the time, neither was DD. She was very committed to going to the local school, and one of the things that makes her stand out is her drive and self-motivation, she does well wherever she goes.

She did very well in her KS2 SATs, and in Year 7 she did extremely well. She won various awards (including one for the highest score in the year for the end of year maths exam,) and has been identified as being in the top 3% for virtually all her subjects. I’ve been very happy with the school so far, but now DD has started saying she would like to leave and go ‘somewhere else’ because most of the other kids ‘muck about’ in class. She doesn’t know where the ‘somewhere else’ is though, and I don’t think that we could change to anything except one of the other local state schools and there may well be disruptive children there too.

I’m reluctant to make any great changes, but wondering how I can support her - to give an idea she was in the top maths set last year, and was finishing class work early so her teacher was giving her GSCE exercises to do. She has found this year a bit of a come down as the maths is ‘much too easy’ for her even in the top set. And because she is frustrated at the slow pace of teaching in her french and German lessons she has started teaching herself Norwegian from an online course for fun.

Im not sure what I’m even asking for here - I don’t quite know what to do with a child who is finding her classwork too easy and complaining the teachers don’t push the class hard enough. She spends hours each night on homework to ‘get herself up to the standard she feels she ought to be at’ - she felt that the fleeting mention of Newton’s First Law was insufficient to fully understand how it came about and who Newton was, so she wrote herself out a page of notes on Newton and all of his Laws so she could understand it better. None of this was required by her teacher and she did it to satisfy her own curiosity.

Having veered away from the grammar because it has a reputation for being tough and hot-housing, im now finding I have a child who is complaining that she would like to be hot housed more! Has anyone got any suggestions to make sure her time through school isn’t a chore for her and to keep her interested? I’m going to make an appointment to see her head of house next week - he normally says from the school’s POV she is doing amazingly well, but obviously it’s got to work for DD too.

Does the grammar do a 13+ entry? Might be worth looking into

I'm intrigued by her perception of the standard she "ought" to be at: where is this coming from?

I mean, don't get me wrong, learning another language or investigating Newton's life and works because of a fleeting mention is exactly the sort of thing you should be encouraging (prevents both the coasting and the getting ahead, and good practice at individual research) and I'm assuming this is what you mean when you say she spends hours on homework (because the Y8 set homework should not be taking the top-performing student hours each night).

What makes her think she should be at a higher standard than the Y8 expectations?

I would be strongly inclined to stress the issue of other pupils "mucking about" rather than your daughter's speed of learning.

I'm afraid it will be the same in other state schools, some teenagers will muck about, there will be behaviour issues in most schools however it's how the school deals with it that is the issue. That's separate from the pace of teaching though. I think that things become more serious in y9 (I have two kids in secondary schools, in y8 - the G&T one!, and in y9 - the good but not exceptional one!!). In terms of maths, things become much more serious in y9. Y8 is a bit of a honeymoon period if I'm honest.

DS2 (who is G&T in maths and very capable in all subjects) has had scores of 100% on all of his maths tests this academic year, but I've decided to leave it as it is as I know that y9 becomes increasingly challenging.

For example in our school, there are three sets in maths in y7 and y8. From y9, there are 5 sets. The very high, the high, the average, the not quite meeting expectations and a couple of classes for pupils who are underachieving because of special education needs or other reasons. So the top set is really the top set and their learning is much more accelerated.

We tend to focus more on outside activities at the moment, music mostly, which is very good at our school.

I'm not saying not to look at other schools, but maybe you could speak to your current school and explain what the situation is, and see how it will be for next year.

I have no advice but wish my Ds had some self motivation. Year 8 also

I told my Ds about your Dd tonight in an attempt to inspire him . He actually did his homework without prompts , even if it lasts for one day . Thank you

starlight456 I suspect I will be holding her up as an example to her brother when he’s in Year 8 too! They’ve all got different strengths, and DS has considerable strengths that DD doesn’t do so well at, but self motivation isn’t one of them.

I’ve been in touch with school and her head of house is going to give me a call back. There’s some very good stuff going on now with her art teacher after I had a meeting with her last month, and I’m wondering if a similar sort of thing could be done with her other strong subjects. The art teacher has set her a term-length project. She noticed she was doing high quality work and finishing it in half the time available, so she set her the project so that if she finishes early she can move onto her other work without interrupting the teacher, who could be helping other kids. DD likes this approach, as she feels busy and as though she has a purpose.

DH mentioned it to his teacher mates and they say that kids muck about everywhere, and year 8 is treated as a bit of a honeymoon year. DD has calmed down a bit once we discussed these things.

Lots of private schools have a year 9 entry with additional scholarships available so it may be worth investigating some of these. I think the entrance exams are often in early January along with their year 7 entrance exams so you'd have to be quick if it's something you'd consider.

I'd say go private if its affordable. I have a son who started year 7 last week, he's been at the same school since he was 3, and my experience of the state school is the same as your DD lots of kids who do not want to learn, at least at private, like where my son is you will not have this issue as all the children have mentality to be the best in class, and too mess about would be the opposite of the majority and risk potentially their friendships etc, so they are more motivated. The class sizes are smaller and the teacher know each child's strengths so they can push more for the best grades, leading to the best universities. I don't think any state school can compete.

last year sorry lol I meant to say, in September, not last week haha

I went to good private school and some people mucked about - v irritating. Sounds like there was less mucking about there than at DH’s school (good state comprehensive) though - but that is what I would expect as the class sizes are bigger.

I think there can also be the attitude that studying is uncool and geeky in private schools too. Perhaps grammars and super-selective schools are different - I’m not sure.