English tuition - where now?

[circular]

I originally posted here about a year ago www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/972516-Clash-of-personalities-with-teacher?pg=4

Although DD1 is not having any issues with her current teacher, she is still only working at a level 5a/6c in English.
The school don't see it as a problem as she is targeted a C grade.

The issues are though

• There is a strong possibility the school will only allow her to do the Foundation papers
• From a level 5 at KS2 it seems there has been very little inprovement
• She hopes to do Music at a decent Uni and wants to teach

We had no luck finding a tutor on recommendation. Tried many of the Mums and anyone I could think that worked in a school. Many knew good English teachers, bu none that offered private tuition. DD did not want me to get her school involved or ask for recommendations there.

So she started with a tutor a couple of months ago that came from an Agency. The tutor is quite elderly and does not currently teach in any schools. DD is happy to go there, and likes her. But after the first few weeks says she is no longer learning anything. From what I can gather form DD they are working mainly on the set book DD is studying in class, to a far more detailed level than DD thinks necessary. She has asked the tutor for more help with writing to be prepared for some particular work they will be doing in class next term, but all they seem to do is literature.
(I need to get more specifics on this, but DD is revising science at the moment and I don't want to disturb her)

I have spoken to the tutor for feedback on a few occassions, and she has told me DD is pleasant, confident, creative, a great communicator, and a very talented all-rounder. As far as English goes, there is definitely the ability there, but she has been allowed to lose focus. She also said that no way should she be taking the foundation paper, and she should be aiming for an A grade at GCSE

DD is asking for a 'better' tutor. I am still unable to get any recommendations - although Kip Mcgrath centre was mentioned. Maybe an assessment there would be a good step?

Really not sure where to go from here......

I just tried to quiz her a bit further, asnking what exactly she found so difficult in writing things down.

She started to say that she found it difficult knowing what words to use. Then stopped in her tracks and said 'I don;t have a learning disability, I dont want to be labelled as having one and I don;t want to be tested for one'.

Not sure where that came from.

I don't think she sounds lazy or "not listening" (sorry it's been a hard day, and I'm finding it hard to find the words...)

Whether or not she is showing dyspraxic etc symptoms, her brain is not conforming to what others are doing. (How can that be a bad thing in the overall scheme of things?) Unfortunately English GCSE is something she knows she has to get over.

Even if you get a fantastic and complete diagnosis (Do you really believe that will happen given what you've seen IRL and online?), the solution won't change, i.e. training her brain to conform to a formulaic response. A good experienced teacher will have strategies to make that happen.

How does she feel about the foundation tier exam, does she want to sit the higher tier, possibly as a private candidate if school is unwilling? (She can sit an iGCSE which needs no coursework, better regarded too - Edexcel, CIE boards.) If so, look through the specification with her, check how much she wants that, get a coach with a good record, there's time to get the A. The worse that can happen is she gets a C, provided she knows she had a chance at it, and is happy that's "fair", would that be worse than being made to sit the foundation paper?

We all have disabilities, anyone looking closely can confirm that, and so what? Fear is far more disabling. It's not as if she'd ever get the chance of extra time, etc, whatever her "label". Like the rest of us, there's some hard work due, so she can show everyone that A is not going to elude her that easily!

Thanks Zeolite

SHe hates the idea of having to sit the foundation tier for English. As she is in the top academic pathway, she does not feel this is right. From what she says, she woukd rather give up on everything academic and move over to vocational studies now, and go for her plan B. But she is only 13.

Do you think it would be confusing getting her taught outside of school for a differenct sylabus?
She would still have to do the AQA stuff at school, unless there is some way we can withdraw her from English lessons at school completely, to get her taught externally.
(She has actually asked us to do this if she ever gets her year 7 teacher again, but I;m not sure this is viable)

I agree that the labelling won't help. She has never said she needs extra time. She's more likelly to rush through to finish, so if anything needs to learn to slow down.

Top pathway? OMG how can anyone even think of a foundation course?

Please do look at the specs (online). English is English, no? You can always stick with the GCSE if you feel better about that, after you have a look.

She only needs i/GCSE English, then she can dump it... and chase whatever it is she's happy chasing. Is the weight of all this low expectation depressing you, it is me. She may also perk up after she sees what control she has over her work, which may help the teacher relationships in turn...

Go for it, girl!

Yes it is quite unbelievable for top pathway. The school seem to 'recognise' that kids capable of triple science may not be good at languages/arts - so MFL not compulsory for top pathway either.

What has been depressing / baffling both of us is

1. not being able to get to the bottom of the low English grades,
2. the school dismissing it in view of a C being 'OK'
3. the worry that being poor at writing will hinder her other GCSE subjects as the courses become more challenging
4. does the school really have such a low (English) standard that her grade is OK for top set

And for me in particular
5) Persuading her to drop Drama in favour of triple science, unless she did another acasemic subject instead. Which wasn't going to happen as there was only History (too much writing) and German (she doesn;t like it, although had good results) left to chose from. She was predicted A/A* Drama, but only B's for Science.

Has she thought about which A levels (or university courses) she would like to do? And the grades she needs to aim for.

I think part of the problem is that its difficult to untangle which issues are your DD's and which are due to teaching. Her grade does seem low for a top set surely they should be working nearer to a level 7 at this point in year 9? I think perhaps a tutor more familiar with the syllabus would be a better bet especially as the controlled assessments for English are started in year 10. Do you know if your DD has done any practice ones yet? DS (year 9) is in the middle of a practice one at the moment.

Zeolite - she wants to do a music degree, and then a teacheing qualification. Her aim is to be an instrument teacher.
A levels are likely to be Music, Geography, French and Maths.

With Music, the higher the performing element, the lower the academic requirements. She will almost defintiely need an A in Music. For somewhere like Kings College London, it would be AAB, with a B for English GCSE.
Others are BBB minimum, the Conservatoires are lower but much harder to get into with courses being more restrictive.

webwiz - as far as I know there have been no practice assessments. Will double check with her tomorrow.

Webwiz - re the practice assessments. DD ihas said they have an essay based test coming up soon on the set book they are doing. She thought it was to determine sets next year, as "practice assessment" was not specifically mentioned.

There is also some magazine article thing they will be doing soon, but she doesn"t know what that's for either.

She was aware that that the real controlled assessment wad in year 10 though.

She really worried me last night - may or may not be connected.

I went through her answers on the Biology section of a Science practice paper, for which I had an answer book.for. There were one or two she had got wrong that when I showed her she admitted she had not read the question properly.
But the one that really worried me was the really simple English she used when a sentence was needed. The answer was not "wrong" but from what I cood see from the book answer, there were two key words they wer looking for and she had used neither.
I asked DD if she had just forgotten the words or couldn't spell them. She said she knew them, could spell them, but could not exlpain why she didn't use them.

She then went on to say - see how cr@p I am at science, you've ruined my life by making me take triple!

As regards your comment above reinforce that she has answered most of the questions correctly. She can perform and improve her writing given time & the right strategy. She needs to adopt a growth mindset - both read Mindset by Carol Dweck or at least look at synopsis on line. It may help.

Cortina - I wish I could, but it only added up to 25% in the Biology section.

We will move on to Chemistry tonight. If she can score highly in that and physics, at least that would scrape her a C or B. It's far too early any way, but they can retake.

I think its important not to get too panicked about this - DS would probably miss out key words in a science exam for no apparent reason (and he certainly wouldn't be able to explain why). Looking at what was expected in a mark scheme would help to clarify what he should have written. He would probably write a very simple sentence as well because its science not english but so long as it conveys what it should that's fine. His levels are english 7b, science 7a at the moment. Is your DD actually taking the first science modules now circular?

Yes - OCR 621/02 B1,C1,P1 on Friday

ALL yr9 at her school are.

Not even sure if it will count towards triple, as they will be taught B,P & C separately next year.

Well I've just commented on another thread about my opinion of GCSEs in year 9! Perhaps it would be more helpful to work through a science paper alongside her and decide the best way to phrase an answer together rather than her losing confidence just before the exam.

Webwiz - yes seen that thread too, and think it's far too early.

Fortunately they can retake this.

I've already tried to reassure DD that she should try her best, and hopefully she will learn a bit about how to revise from the whole experience. So however she does, something positive should come out of it.

She won't take much advice from me in how to phrase answers (as my English is cr@p) so I ended up giving her the answer book after I read her answers, so she could see for herself.

Her English tutor has offered to do some science revision with her this week instead of English, so I think we will her up on that. At least it is one adult DD will listen too....

Still have the original task of finding a better / more current English tutor though.