Year 9.

[tootsey]

Hi, new to this. Just need someone elses opinion on this. My son has just started year 9. In year 8 he was in the 2nd highest class out of 4 classes. He achieved top class places in Maths French, RE, Music to name a few. English he was average getting marks in 60's and 70's. This year, year 9 he has been moved up in Maths to the top class, but has dropped down a class in 6 other subjects to the 3rd class out of 4, in subjects such as French and Music. My problem is this, pupils who got lower marks than him in nearly every subject have stayed in the 2nd highest class, and yet he who got excellent results a lot of which were 80% up to 97% has been put down. I am wrong to be frustrated about this? Can someone give me some advice as to what to do?

Could it be that English underpins everything?

I'm a teacher, the kids in our school are put in 2 bands, based on English and Maths, and then settled within the bands. The top band will have v good English and Maths scores. The lower band will have lower English and Maths scores, OR one lower score in either English and Maths, although the other score maybe quite high

The thing is he was breezing through RE, French, Music, History, Geography etc, and worked very hard, and now he finds himself in a class lower than all his mates, while they all scored lower percentages in everything. There is only one other pupil that this has happened too. I have always told him that if you work hard you'll achieve, and now this has made him think what is the point if you end up getting moved down.

I would go in and talk to the head of year. Act now, while there's still a chance to move him before everyone settles into the new year.

I've learned over the years that no-one else will be your child's advocate - only you.

Email the head of year - it might bea genuine mistake. This happened to ds - kid on the line below him on the spreadsheet in set 1 with no clue what was happening in the classroom and ds in set 4 astonishing the teachers with what he was comin out with Nice email from me and they apologised and swapped them over the next day!

My thought was banding based on English too.

I would email the school asking for clarification of why he has been moved as you thought he had done well in his exams.
They'll either explain, or go Whoops, we've made a mistake.

Thanks for the replies. To say I am cross about this is an understatement. I am furious. Something tells me I am going to get nowhere by talking to them. Surely if a child is average at one subject and excellent in all the rest does not mean you knock them down in everything.

Try and contain your anger because you don't want them to get defensive and unhelpful.

Ask them to try and help you and DS understand why this has happened - and what he needs to achieve to get himself back up a set if it is not, in fact, a terrible mistake.

Just got of the phone with deputy head. School had a stream of complaints yesterday about class placings, so im glad im not the only one not happy. Apparently they are going to review which class the children are in after the 12th. Ive been told that my son's english level is correct but she could not confirm that whether all the rest were right or wrong. She says that if you move down to a lower level of english then that puts you down in geography and science. This is frustrating for me as Ethan was in the top 3 in each of these subjects, so is more than capable, but is being shoved down because of english. She was unable to tell me which subjects are banded with Maths, which is quite worrying as she is the Deputy head, maybe someone could enlighten me on this.

Amazed that Science is banded with English rather than Maths!

Yeah me too. Thing is I was told last year by one of his teachers that if youre in the top maths class that automatically puts you in the top Geo and Science. Now it seems they go with English! I dont know which is right!!

Sorry, didnt know i wasnt allowed to put my sons name in. Apologies, just new to this.

Just to update. After new timetables came out on the 12th sept my son still finds himself in the lower level class for 6 subjects. He tells me that back in the summer, when the english exam was being marked, he teacher stated that the exam was to be marked out of 60. When he received his back, his was marked out of 80, leaving him with a lower percentage mark, therefore putting him in a lower class. I am just now wondering if the class below him in summer had their english marked out of 60, that would put their marks up and therefore shift some of them up a class, and my son down. Can someone give their opinion on whether this is worth persuing, as my son is still not happy with being put down a level. The other pupils who were put down with my son have now been put up again. He is the only one left who hasn't.

Can anyone give their view please? Need someone else's opinion.

I would take it up with the school. My DS was put in the wrong set for maths at the start of Y8 and it turned out to be just an administrative cock up. The teacher has cut and pasted names from a list but failed to select DS's which was at the top.

It took me several phone calls and about 3 days to get it put right. At first the school tried to tell me that the sets were "parallel" (which DS was adamant they weren't) and then that it didn't matter because they all covered the same syllabus. The thing was I only made a fuss because I was really sure they'd got it wrong - DS is very good at maths. If they'd accidentally put him in a lower set for English or French I'd never have said anything.

I don't know if this is relevant to your situation but I had a similar issue when DS1 started Year 10. I couldn't understand why he was "demoted" from top English set despite having higher year 9 results than a couple of friends still in the class. It turned out the school was using CAT and key stage 2 results, to set for GCSEs. I didn't pursue it further and he was moved back up in Year 11.

Maybe it's a mistake. Saying that, if he is in the lower set, it won't matter all that much because if the teacher is good he/she will be able to differentiate the work accordingly and offer extension tasks to your son. If he can't be moved now, check this as a bare minimum. Also check the homework given.

Thing is if the summer english exam was set to the whole year 9, (4 classes) and 3 of the classes got theirs marked out of 60 and the other out of 80, then everyone in that class is going to have the wrong percentage. Is it worth having it looked into, or shall i leave it alone. My son is already finding that because he is in a lower class, he is sitting bored stupid waiting on the others to complete work that he has finished.

Yes. Tell the school that he seems to be finding the work too easy and ask why he was moved down.

Marks out of 60 or out of 80 wouldn't matter surely?

If there were, say, ten questions each worth six marks, (60 total) he would have got 36 marks to get 60%.

But if it had been out of 80, then each question would have been worth 8 marks each, and he would have got 48 marks total to get 60%.

He got 48 out of 80 which left him with a percentage of 60%. The teacher told the class it would be marked out of 60. So 48 out of 60 is 80%. It makes a difference.