Any secondary English Teachers out there? Need help for DS yr 11

[Scooby2015]

DS is a bright boy, he is very self motivated and works hard. He is predicted grades for his GCSE's are all A's, just stating that so you can see he is capable. He got his mock results this week and he got mostly B's, that's great no problem there. But he got D for English and an F for History.

His problem is, and we all acknowledge it including his teachers, is that what is in his head takes him ages to translate to paper. He is slow at writing things down, yet his quality of work is truly amazing and beyond his years. His vocabulary is spectacular for his age, his sentence construction, spelling, grammar, all excellent, but in the exams where he needs to write a lot he never produces enough to get a decent grade.

Hence the bad grades in English and History. When he is at home he can produce a superb piece of work, but it takes 3 hours to produce 2 sides of A4!

What can we do to help him, he does not want the quality of his work to suffer in order to produce more, but if he does not answer all the questions he won't get the B in English he needs to do his chosen A levels.

Any Teachers out there with any suggestions please?

Has he been assessed for extra time? Even super bright kids can have slow processing times.

Lots of short, sharp practice. My Yr11 English groups will get progressively trained - wrote a PEC paragraph in 10 mins, next time 9mins, then 8mins etc. Same with planning - slowly reducing time using a stop watch (well, timer on the interactive whiteboard).

*write, not wrote.

No he hasn't been assessed for extra time, to be honest I wasn't aware that was an option. I will contact his teacher and ask.

Maybe if we get past mock exams and practice them in exam conditions at home? Do you think that would help?

Feels like I am going to torture him though, it's painful to see him spending so long over his homework! His maths, chemistry, physics are all done in no time, but English, history, LM, and Business Studies he spends hours on. It's such a shame, thing is he doesn't moan or complain, he just gets on with it, he wants to produce that quality piece he will be happy with!

It has come to light more this year because of controlled assessments and the mocks. I hope it's not too late to help him!

My DD is a bit similar. Has been doing great in CAs but struggles with the exams.

You do need to check whether he can answer the questions given enough time. The history and English are quite specific in what they are looking for as far as I can tell, but you don't necessarily have to write loads. DD came unstuck in y10 by not answering the asked question in English lang (eg writing about use of language when she should have been summarising, or not comparing when asked).

Over Christmas we found DD improved (a bit) by doing practice questions, and checking against the mark scheme so we could see where she was going wrong, and then trying them again.

I'm hoping that good scores in the CAs mean that a weaker exam may still average out to a B for English Lang.

Would typing help? That has been invaluable for DD.

Do you know what exam board it is? Should be able to get question papers and mark schemes. He should be getting these from school too - I have lists of past paper questions typed up for my students.

I'm secondary English.

How was he at KS3? It's awfully late in the day for this to be being flagged up, tbh.

I teach a lad who sounds very very similar to your son. He's re-attempting CAs with me in registration time, but exam performance remains a real worry - quality of response is good, but he runs out of steam long before he's fully explored the task.

I'd say moving from a D to a C is very do-able at this stage, but up to a B is a big ask.

Is he doing AQA? It's possible to get a B on Foundation Paper (but would require strong CAs). It's sometimes a better option for kids who struggle with the extended tasks on the Higher Paper; admittedly it's a bit of a risk, but so is crashing completely on the H.

I thought it was only possible for foundation papers to be assessed up to C?

Nope - on AQA you can get a B (you're right that the paper only goes up to C, but that's fairly notional as it's only 60% of the total marks).

I had a 'top of lower stream' group last year: all our lower stream do Foundation - three of mine got Bs.

You need high B or A grade CAs, basically, & then it's perfectly possible to rack up 210 UMS points overall, which is the threshold for a B.

Hi, thanks for the responses.

He is doing AQA, we have the revision guide and workbook, bought them yesterday so plan on working through those with him.

His controlled assessments have been good up to now, but he has been allowed extra time, or been able to redo them if they where not up to the level he was expected to get. His teacher at parents evening said his target was an A, he was at a B at the time and she said all we need is for him to ace the exam and he will get an A. I don't understand why she wasn't more concerned or maybe the mock result is a surprise to her too.

I am beginning to think he hasn't revised enough for English. I'll be honest I am at a bit of a loss, I don't get why he can't produce as much work as the other students in the same time.

Many of his teachers have said he is a real thinker. He has never been in trouble at school and because they know him, when they look at him in class and see him starring into space, they know he is not daydreaming, they know he has picked up on something they have said and his train of thought has lead him somewhere, and after a while, he will start writing about that train of thought. What he is thinking about is what he is meant to be thinking about but he thinks about it and then writes it.

When I write, I think as I go, and can write for Britain as you can see! It's so frustrating, his English teacher has said he just needs to practice, do lots of mocks, I hope she is right!

I can see I am going to have to live for English mock exams for the next few months! Not brilliant as I only got a level c in O level!.

Wondering whether I should go down the tutor route? Is it too late?

If it's AQA Higher, ask his teacher for the question/score breakdown from his mock.

It's the same questions each year (based on different texts), so if you can let me know the weakest ones, I can suggest some things he could be doing...I'm guessing Q4 & 6 will be the toughest for him.

I think English is a a weird subject. DS1 was predicted a D/E for both lang and lit and got an A in both.DS2 was predicted A* in both and got A in lit and C in Lang.
There seems to be no rhym,e or reason.
For myself I found I had to make a bit of a plan.A list of points and the PEE for every point otherwise I get in a waffly mess!

RavenAK, waiting for English Teacher to call me, so I can ask for the question/breakdown, will come back when I have it.
Thank you so much for your help!

This might be obvious, but have you had him tested for dyslexia\dyspraxia? What you say about it all being in his head but struggling to get it down on paper are hallmarks of this type of processing issue ( I have had direct experience of this with my dc and am also a secondary English teacher). You would need an assessment to qualify for extra time arrangements. He would also need appropriate help with strategies to help with the processing\transference of ideas from head to paper. Google PATOSS for a list of assessors\tutors\and for general advice.

I've taught (younger) children with auditory processing disorder who are like this. Worth seeing if it fits the description? The 'day dreaming' is a feature I've seen.