Better to be bottom of top group or top of next group in science?

[Iamnotminterested]

Thoughts welcome. I know that DD is working at the level of the middle/bottom third of the top group in science in year 7 (because they all discuss it, don't they? :-) ) but is in the second group. What would be the advantages/disadvantages of staying put and to be in the top % in her current group versus moving up?

Where I teach, it would be a case of the sets being adjusted at the end of the year ready for September, unless there was a pressing reason why a child was misplaced in a given group & needed to move immediately.

It would be very normal for the top quarter, say, of set 2 in year 7, to be out-performing the bottom quarter of set 1, & they'd be re-set for year 8 accordingly. Apart from anything else, year 7 setting is based on KS2 SATs, & they aren't a terribly useful measure.

To be blunt, neither parents nor students usually get asked their opinion! If you are working at a level that indicates you'd be best placed in a particular set, that's where you are timetabled.

For us at least, you'd have to be in the lower ability groups, rather than set 1 or 2, before it started impacting on options at GCSE - & being in the less able groups would indicate that triple Science (or in my subject double English) would probably not be the way forward in any case.

I'd advise emailing/ringing the subject teacher, but if your dd is keen to be in set 1 & is doing better than students who are in it this year, you do have a strong case for her moving up.

DS1 has to go 'up a set' in order to be able to do the triple science he wants to do. Our school only offers double science or 'accelerated pace' triple . He'd be best in normal pace triple but that isn't an option.

Still not 100% sure the top set doing triple will be the right place for him, there are some very clever DC at the school so he will be near the bottom. He'd definitely be 'happier' near the top of a group, but heigh ho!

And no, Y7 isn't too early to be thinking 'GCSE'! At our school an extra MFL GCSE and statistics are offered (or not) to certain DC depending on their Y7 performance!

Does he want to do science, Erebus, is he keen on it?
I couldn't make your choice with DS unless he was very keen because I know DS would too likely get too demotivated being right at the bottom and floundering. Better to find a career path that didn't require triple GCSE. I know being very bottom works for some, though.

Thank goodness GCSE MFL is not required at DS school. Although DS German teacher was the only one who gushed about him at ParentsEve . So MFL back on the table as a maybe after all.

For some reason DS is still in top set maths for y9 ; and has announced he wants to do statistics at GCSE (extra ), his stats exercise was his worst mark all term. But he loves probabilities. Think maybe he's a gambler in the making. I work a lot with stats so will try to keep an eye out for the next project exercise.

DS wants to do science, yes, and he doesn't really 'shine' at anything else. The word 'keen' doesn't come to mind, he can be a lazy little -um- so and so. But he understands that his best 'bet' lies in science.

Bottom of top group.

Depends on the child but generally I would go for bottom of the top set. What does your DD think?

Bit of an update: she's worked really hard and is going to be in set 1 in September. I'm happy because it's what she wants.

If she feels confident, it is better to be in higher sets, because teachers usually have higher aspirations, and there is more room to develop. However, it depends on how she responds to not being top of the class.
Have a good weekend.

i was bottom of top set and spent the whole time being threatened with moving down.....wished they had.

so in conclusion - as long as behaviour of the lower set is ok and the diff pace is ok keep high, if not move down