School refusing to move DD1 down a maths set.

[EverythingIsSoThrowback]

DD1 has always been good at maths until she had the teacher she has now. Up till year 8 she had teachers that worked well for her. Year 9 she moved up a set, (currently in year 11) that year was fine, but 10/11 shes been really struggling. She got a lower score (by a lot) in her year 10 tests compared to year 9.
Shes asked to move down because a) she says she really doesn't understand anything anymore, and the teacher goes through it to fast, explains it differently from their textbooks, and b) the teacher in the 2nd set is one she likes.
But the school refuse to move her down.. do they have any legal obligation to do so? I just really don't want her to mess up her GCSE.

Sorry for thread hijack by the way!!

Now feeling v v sad.

According to dd1, NO-ONE has ever moved up to one of the two top sets once they've been put in a lower set. Apparently, the only person she knows to have moved set is a girl who found the top set too hard and asked to be moved down.

Presumably, the top sets go v quick and so lower sets can't catch up.

For someone who's only been there half a term she knows an awful lot about how things work ;-) Honestly, don't worry, it's highly unlikely she has entirely accurate information. See what the head of maths says about how they did the setting and then go on from there.

No, it's my older dd whose been there 3 years who told me that! dd2 has no idea how things work, obviously.

Oh, ouch then :( That's not so good. All the more reason to get it sorted out now then. And moan at them about their too rigid setting policies.

Argolis - just wonder if your DD's school had streams rather than sets? If this is the case then she may be in a lower stream due to her English aptitude. This is the case in my DD's new school and she had ended up in the third set out of 3, due to her lower scores in maths (even though she managed to scrape a level 5).

Sorry I meant that she ended up in the third set out of six..based on her maths ability..

No, it's sets not streams - I agree that I could understand if it was streams as maths is clearly her best subject.

Which is what makes it all so gutting - if this was happening in a subject she found harder, I wouldn't mind.

In fact, there is no setting for English so her relative abilities won't matter (not that she's so bad there either - she managed a level 5 albeit with extra time).

And no-one answering phone or email during half term. :(

There won't be, teachers are on holiday. You will have to wait till Monday at least for a response.