Towards the end of Y7, the good, the bad and the ugly grades - independent secondary

[QuintessentiallyQS]

The good news is that ds has settled in well and made friends.

The bad news is that he is lazy, and cant be bothered most of the time, and I have had stress trying to get him to do anything at all this school year.

His grades are not looking good. Mid year exams were mostly bs and cs. He is in top set for maths, and his grades are hovering in the 60s (75% for maths), but as per the schools percentile system, he is in 3,4, and sadly 5 for most.

He has had dententions for not doing history, geography and science home works. He has told me he has no homework as has done in school. He has made an effort with Maths, and that has clearly paid off as he is doing in well and I dont understand his maths at all.

How much importance do I place on Y7? What is the correlation between his grades now and gcse?

I am in two minds. On the one hand, I want him to have a good education. On the other, he needs to work for it. The grades, and his efforts are telling me that either:

1. He has not got the ability to do better
2. He cant be bothered

The end result is poor grades, and I am not willing to pay for him to have poor grades and hover just above the bottom of the year group.

So, do I move him out of the independent to our local secondary now, or do I wait until the end of Y8?

Is there a point paying astronomical fees when you have a bright child who just doesnt care?

How much support does he get from his form tutor?

I ask this because ds1 has really struggled to get to grips with the organisation side of Yr7. He's been lazy about the little he does, coasted in a number of subjects, has clocked up several detentions for not doing homework. It sounds similar to your ds.

We talked to his form tutor who's been brilliant at supporting him to work it out for himself and also to get to the bottom of why he wasn't getting his head round it. The teacher's also given his strategies for managing work - things I could have told ds but he probably wouldn't have listened to...