DS Y6 dropped grades this year, how to get him motivated again?

[Wintersoltice]

For the past two or three years DS had got greater depth in maths, reading, writing etc. However at parents evening we have been told he is now working at age related expectations in reading and writing. He is at the upper end of those so it's possible he could improve towards the end of the year, but at the moment it's not what the teacher is projecting.

To be clear I'm NOT bothered about SATs results, just that his attitude isn't good enough and he's not achieving his potential. During class he often becomes distracted, or doesn't concentrate well. He also rushes through his work and doesn't check it carefully.

I would like to be able to address it with him but not sure how to do it in a constructive way. He had the same feedback at parents evening in autumn and we told him what he needed to do but nothing has changed. Every week when he does his homework we have a battle because I sense that he rushes it and doesn't check it through. He then gets upset because he thinks it is all done while I want him to sit down and check it carefully.

Possibly not the answer you want, but if homework has become a battleground, then I'd back off.

He's working at the top end of age related expectations. That's good. I do wonder if he's bored and demotivated by primary school (particularly if he's at a school where there is a lot of focus on SATS practice). If that's the case, then a fresh start at secondary school will hopefully help and "good enough" work at primary school is probably good enough.

I'd take the focus away from homework and look to broaden his interests in a more extra-curricular way. What does he enjoy doing? Can you do more of that ... he's likely to stay focused on something he wants to do.

I don't think he needs anymore extracurriculars to be honest. He already does football, cubs and swimming lessons. Cubs is very active with lots of social and enrichment opportunities including at weekends. Football is his big love and he is very focused on it. I'd love it if he were interested in other things but it is challenging - he's quite obsessive, suspected ASD. We do our best but he tends to refuse most things we suggest.

We've not been pushy on academics so far as he has been doing well anyway, but now I'm wondering if he does need a push.

Depending on the school, year 6 can be a tedious sats-focused drudge. If he has switched off, I wouldn't blame him.

Secondary school can be more varied and engaging.

During class he often becomes distracted, or doesn't concentrate well. He also rushes through his work and doesn't check it carefully.
You've said he's possibly ASD

Might he have ADHD or AuDHD?

My ds is a bit like this, theres been a drop in his maths CATS. I too see that he rushes his work and doesnt check his work either so i see silly, careless mistakes. Ive been on him since transfer results came out . Not liking that ive made him slow down a bit and check work.

Whether or not he may have some ADHD tendencies some of the techniques that help ADHD children may help him. Doing homework for instance should be done with nothing else but the homework and any necessary texts, computer, pencil etc on the desk. Ideally, he should be in a quiet room. I actively supervised my son's homework. Children need to learn how to check and proof read their work - sometimes at home it helps to read back writing aloud. Or to be taught the technique of reading from the end of the writing ie starting with the last paragraph and then the second to last paragraph and so on. ADHD children need revision, ideally a summing up at the end of the session or before bed and then again the next day at least. I usually went back a few days after that to check the stuff was retained. And homework was done before fun activities - no playing on the computer, watching television etc before it was done. My son got a lot of tutoring in maths - my husband has a maths degree and I was good enough at maths to help out. We also hired a private tutor at one stage to give us a break. ADHD children work better one to one because it's harder to tune out when there is one person interacting with you. If they fidget they are probably paying attention while they are probably a million miles away if they are sitting there looking rapt at your words.

I would say, before you start considering the variety of reasons why, it's important to look at the differences between how they are assessed in Y6 vs other year groups.

In Y6, the results come from either a test (maths/grammar/reading) or from a set and specific list of criteria that must all be proven (writing). There is no debate because it's often there in black and white - you either get the score for GD or you don't. You either have the evidence in writing or you don't.

There are no nationally-set standards or assessments for other year groups. As such, the assessment is much more... fluffy/woolley... with it being determined, in part, by thought, feeling and opinion rather than solely a rigid set of standards. It's why expected / greater depth for one school in Y5 can look very different from another Y5 in a different school and why two different Y5 teachers in the same school could give different grades to two pupils of more or less the same ability.

It might be that this was where your son has always been: the upper end of expected. But in the woollier parts of the system, this was given a more generous greater depth.

@Iamnotthe1 agree with that. I think the goal posts have moved not necessary that he’s suddenly under achieving so much to have dropped grades. Our school has always been very reluctant to use ‘greater depth’ it’s not even an option on their report cards. It’s only in y6 now they’ve done mocks for SATs my dd is getting ‘greater depth’ in English ( not the same story in maths sadly). I don’t think she’s suddenly improved a lot it’s just that they’re working more with concrete mark schemes

That’s just not how schools should operate assessment. They should be consistent. Not be fluffy and woolly! When I was a governor, teachers agonized over assessment. It’s great when dc move up and it’s not because of over generous assessment! The problem is, if schools do this, there’s a rude awakening with sats results. Or in this case, pre sats. If Dc are not as good as assessment suggested it’s unfair on the dc. This should never be allowed to happen. It’s poor management and poor assessment policy.

I agree that, in an ideal world, it shouldn't happen and I'm not suggesting that these teachers don't agonise - they do. But I'm saying that the assessment structures cannot be consistent between a year group where the entire judgement comes from externally-created, standardised and moderated structures and a year group without any of those same tools and where the judgement is influenced by many, many more factors, not based solely on a test.

They are, of course, presented officially and with confidence when given to parents and governors, etc. but the reality remains that assessments based in teacher judgement are inconsistent, sometimes between teachers, sometimes between year groups and sometimes between schools. This isn't because the teachers don't work hard on it. It isn't because they don't debate or agonise. It isn't because leaders don't question or moderate the judgements (in many cases, they do). It's because the system itself is inherently inconsistent because it relies, to some degree, on professional opinion.

@Iamnotthe1 Professional opinion that’s informed though. It’s not random. Teachers of the year above scrutinize work of the incoming year. They have handover assessments. Most teachers seem reluctant to say exceeding unless they believe dc truly is though. Often they are cautious.

Assessment without grades is all about a school centred approach and certainly should be sufficiently robust to give detailed data (without names). I had pages of it! As pp governor, even more. We never wanted nasty surprises. The borderline dc were the main concern every year. They had been offered extra support and how well they then do in sats is definitely not an exact science. Other assessments were pretty accurate.

If teachers cannot accurately assess what dc can do, or cannot do, then lessons are not planned appropriately and Ofsted hate that! It’s better to be diligent and as accurate as possible. No system is perfect (not tests either) and of course sats definitely aren’t, but schools should do their best to give accurate data to parents. No one would ever want to hear exceeding when it’s really not!

That's not the case at our state school. They use NFER which are national standardised tests. From Year 3 to 5 at Christmas, Easter and end of Summer terms.

Standardised tests.

I have noticed more kids than before, as a previous poster has said, are getting greater depth now in Year 6 but that's because they are prepped so damn hard for the SATS and turned into identikit robots not because of a newly invented national mark scheme and / or because they suddenly got cleverer.

Edited to say there's a massive difference between 115 in a standardised test (top 20%) and 140 (top 1%) both of which are "exceeding". So really it doesn't matter what they get. The only exams that matter are GCSE and it's top 5% Grade 9 with (I think) top 20% being Grade 7 and they only matter until A-Level.

There are standards in all years and dc are assessed in y 6. Y6 isn’t just sats. Many state schools don’t administer other standardized tests but there are 11 plus results to inform some parents too. If you are in a 11 plus county, sats are not seen as the gold standard!

But those tests are still created by an organisation seperate to the STA and so whilst they can be claimed to be SATs-like, they are not a matched system (even though, personally, I like the NFER materials). Equally, if you were to try and keep a closer match, you'd have to say that you were using only the NFER tests to determine the grade given to children and that this was not changed or adjusted by any form of teacher assessment. That isn't true in the majority of schools.

@TizerorFizz
You misunderstand me - I'm not saying that efforts aren't made to verify data as far as possible. I'm not saying that systems aren't in place to try to make it as robust as possible. Many teachers and leaders absolutely try very hard to make that the case. I'm saying that, because the system is in part based on opinion, professional and informed but opinion still, it is flawed. We have research going back years and years that demonstrates that teachers can, when presented with the same evidence, arrive at different conclusions. I see it all the time in my work as a moderator: even when there are set, strict standards published for the assessment of Y6 writing, teachers still vary in the accuracy of their judgements. It's why we have moderation in the first place. It's why even the moderators have to take a test annually to see if their judgements fit with those of the STA. It's also why we have the SATs, so that teacher judgement is removed from maths, grammar and reading.

Just with regards to your other post: there are no published set standards for other year groups. There's a national curriculum of knowledge content and organisations that have published their own tools to support teacher judgement but they are created by those organisations not by the STA or the DfE. Schools can buy one in or create their own but there is no one set standard for Y3, Y4, etc.

@Iamnotthe1Exam marking has the same issues. For some subjects it’s not an exact science. If it was, no remarking would ever succeed.

Absolutely agree - the amount of errors in marking that I've found for my Y6 classes, especially over the last few years, is unacceptable.

Neither system is near perfect but we pretend that moving from one to the other during the transition from Y5 to Y6 is seamless. It just isn't.