My son is currently in year 9 and changed school after the last half term. I hated disrupting his education but he was so unhappy at his old school we felt we had to move him. He is much much happier now but I am worried we have made a mistake due to the sets he has been placed in. In his last assessments at his old school, he achieved 6a in maths, 6b in English and 6c in Science. When he joined the new school, they did an hour long computer based placement test and placed him in the 'middle band'. On his day he walked into his new class to find the boy beside him was predicted a 5b at the end of ks3 and the teacher said this class would be doing foundation papers. The maths department quickly moved him and he achieved a 7c in his last test, proving he is in the right set. In English, he has the same problem, he is top of the class and other pupils are much lower than him but the school refuses to move him up. I am afraid he will be made to do a foundation paper, although I haven't had a direct answer to this question. In his latest assessment, he got a level 6c which is disappointing but not that bad and was still the highest mark in his class. Can someone tell me if a pupil achieving 6b/c in English in year9 expect to do a higher or foundation level paper? Please give me advice as I don't know how hard to push it with the school about moving him up a set.
In addition, in old school he was told he'd probably do the triple science GCSE but in his new class he's been told he will do the double science. He got a 7c in his science test last week. Should I be asking questions about this as well? To be honest, I'm much more worried about English.