school hasn't completed the GCSE syllabus

[jacobibatoli]

recently found out that dc has not completed all aspects of the syllabus for GCSE
school is hot on uniform, discipline etc.., and quite right too
and the parents need to do their bit, support the school and supply dc to school in correct uniform, attitude etc...
and if not there is a whole raft of punishments available to them and quite right too!
but in return we expect the school to do their bit like cover the whole syllabus or if not at least tell us so we might be able to do something about it
accountability is just a one way street

Perhaps I'd better read the thread. Back in a mo.

Right. 21 years teaching, not doing it any more.

Even exam boards suggest that teachers don't teach the whole syllabus (I taught a Humanities subject). Focus on the bits that the pupils are most confident with. Exams aren't usually structured in ways that demand the whole syllabus be known.

Of course, if you do know everything, you have the best chance to do well.

OP, there's thousands of kids doing GCSEs at the moment so I don't think you or the school are likely to be identified by saying what she seems to have missed or which board she's doing.

Just one possibility to check - my DD is also doing GCSEs this year, Edexel for maths and was complaining after marking a past paper she'd just done that she couldn't do one or two of the things in the paper because they were no longer in the specification (ie there wasn't actually a problem it just irritated her). You're sure that the topic(s) your DD seems to have been missing are still supposed to have been taught and that she's not been mislead by an old past paper or specification?

Seriously, unless you name the school you have not posted anything remotely identifiable

titch some of this was due to teachers being ill and supply teachers and some in group movement albeit in the previous year
raven I agree about the gap between A & A*, but a good A at mocks without covering all topics even at that stage was a good indication
maybe my glasses are too rose-tinted, but you can't get an A if you aren't taught the A stuff

I had a rubbish maths teacher so bought myself a book called GCSE Maths in a Week, albeit the intermediate paper as I had no confidence so wouldn't take the higher paper. It still exits (many years later) and is fairly light and quick to work through - less than a week if he has the time and has already a good grip on topics covered. But yes the school are rubbish for not covering it themselves.

If the Mock result was a genuinely solid A, then I think YAdefinitelyNBU to collar the Head of Maths & say 'I think my dc had a realistic chance of an A* & has been badly served by those topics not being covered in class'.

BUT be prepared for the response to be that dc has generally been working at B/A borderline & shown no interest in attending widely advertised booster sessions which cover the A* topics.

Not saying that is the case, just that it's a scenario you should be prepared for. A* is intended to be a bit above & beyond - ie. you're either naturally brilliant OR at the very least pretty damn bright & a grafter who attends extra sessions as needful.

Your child should be able to identify the topics not covered and if they got an A in the mocks it cant be too much. Then, an able mathematician should be able to take a look at past papers and mark schemes, along with the text book and get some way to understanding enough to pick up marksmtomhave a fair stable at the A star. If you are worrying about misiinf the last few things in the subject you are not doing so badly really.

The other thing to bear in mind with maths exams is that more marks may be gained by carefully checking through everything for daft mistakes than on spending time on one hard question. A borderline A/A* student might be better off doing that.

thank you all

Dd did GCSE maths last year. IME the biggest difference she can make to her result at this stage is to do past exam papers and then go through the "Mark scheme" to see where she is dropping points. There is a book from Letts called GCSE to A* in a week, but trying to cover it at this late stage may prove more confusing. She could, however, use it as a reference for questions she cannot complete. Khan Academy also has lots of videos with clear explanations on various topics. Learning stock phrases that crop up year after year in exams is also a good way of saving minutes on the "give written explanation" parts.

You can cover a lot in a couple of days if you use mymaths or khan academy or bitesize. Which board is DS sitting? Has he sat paper 1 already?

When was the mock? Scraping an A in a mock in March when not all the A grade topics had been covered would mean the remaining teaching time would be needed to teach A grade topics. A good A in November with most A grade topics taught and they've spent since February revising instead of learning new stuff would be a different situation.

I'm a maths teacher. Only a minority of students will actually be taught the whole maths syllabus

Seriously, NobleGiraffe? I don't know quite why I'm so shocked by that.

Actually, yes, I do. DS2 was very good at doing the A questions and really rather crap at the more basic ones, being a careless sort of a chap. DS1 was similar and targeting a C according to school, until DH took him in hand one Easter and taught him the rest of the syllabus. (He got an A at GCSE and then A* at A-level. Well worth the two weeks of hell.)

So if you don't expose them to the A* stuff, some children will be missing out by more than just a small margin.

No idea what the answer is, but I think I'll wake DD up and cram some maths down her before she's written off by the system.

That wasn't meant as a criticism of you BTW, Noble. I'd just naively assumed that all my children would be taught the whole syllabus and then left to make what they could of the exams.

My DD is a B/A person. She is in set 3/10. I am very happy that the pace of lessons has suited her so she could learn the B stuff well, with some A stuff. If they had tried to go faster to also cover A* stuff then she could well have got completely lost and would now be heading for a C.

tbh I think it is a bit the same in other subjects, you just don't notice it. The depth of analysis in an English class heading for A/A* will be different from that in a class heading for C. But as they 'read the same poems' you can get lulled into thinking they've done the same work.

Is this an exam board issue? Lots of my class have been bringing me questions they can't answer and when I look it is because it is content that isn't on our syllabus but is on others.

Kitties insane my year 20 class are struggling to master the grade B skills, teaching them A and A* will confuse them further and they are extremely unlikely to be able to do it in exam anyway. Better to spend the time going over the stuff they have a better chance at. Spending half of lessons on content they have absolutely no understanding of is actually detrimental to their final grade. If They want to do A content I will happily help them at lunchtime. Maths GCSE tiers are so wide we have to focus on what is realistic or they will do even worse.

I can see that; I suppose it's obvious when you put it that way. I think I'm partly shocked that three children down the line, I'd no idea that (good) teachers limited the syllabus in this way. I thought it was just that DS1's teacher was crap (he was, by the way - has now left) and hadn't organised himself to cover the syllabus in time.

How do you identify children who may struggle with, say, numbers, but can master the concepts of algebra and trigonometry and complex conjugates without breaking a sweat? Or are they rare enough ( DS1 again ) that it's just not worth factoring into the timetable?

If a child gets a level 8 in Y9 which is a B at GCSE that gives them 2 years to do the A and A* topics. For really bright kids this is easy, hence them usually being entered for an extra GCSE on top.

If a child gets a level 6 in Y8 (a D equivalent) then in the next two years they're going to only manage to cover C and B material. They have been progressing at a slower rate than the top set kids already, so they are not going to manage to fit the 4 grades of material needed to cover the whole syllabus into 2 years.

Depending on how they get on, teachers might teach select A or A* topics to lower sets (vectors can have easy questions, or quadratic formula with a calculator) but certainly not the lot.

Students that are entered for foundation won't have been taught anything higher than a C grade topic (unless a last minute switch from higher).

Why is everyone being so gentle to the school here? The OP's child is in the top set, in a class where some students could reach an A/A* level. But for this to become even a possibility then they need to be taught the curriculum!

I would be fuming. There is probably little that you can do RE the school at the moment, so your DC will have to do it on their own, which is a shame. However this definitely shouldn't be left alone. If this is school policy then it's a terrible policy, and if your child's set has got behind other sets then the reason needs to be identified and steps put in place to ensure that it never happens again.

Teachers should have a whole year plan of what is happening and when - deciding that you won't teach one part of the curriculum of a core subject is absolutely ridiculous and is failing students.

Yes, I kind of get that, Noble. Depressing, though. DD, year 8, has not yet made maths click (and neither did her brothers at that age). She's getting level 6. So her school, if we leave them to it, will pop her in a lower set and not teach her the whole syllabus?

She is, in my view, perfectly capable of A or A* (or 9 or 1 or however they score it by then), just like her brothers. But it'll once again be up to us to teach it to her.

Siiiiigh.

I've just re-read your post, Noble, and I wonder if you meant Year 9 in both cases, not year 8?

If she gets a level 6 and maths hasn't clicked so she is a level 6 then what can they do apart from set her with the other level 6s?

Of course she will make more progress if you teach her yourself. 1-1 tutoring is very effective (and expensive). Teachers have to do 1-30. If a student shines, then they should move up a set to access the harder material. There's no benefit to the school in keeping a student below their actual level of ability.

The problem with situations like this is that the parents and pupils seem to be in the dark about what was supposed to be taught and what has n't been covered (for considered or other reasons).
IMO it would be a reasonable request to HODs that they should communicate both to DCs and parents at the beginning of Y11 spring term what won't be covered in the syllabus. If it is for reason of difficulty let that be spelt out before parents try to push their DCs to cover inappropriate material at the last moment.

Sorry, yes, level 6 in Y9.