DS with level 6 maths put into lower set for maths because of a 4a in his writing

[nicoleshitzinger]

DS got a 6C in his maths at the end of year 6 and has just started in secondary in year 7. I've been looking at his maths homework. This week it was to revise the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. He's also told me that he's finishing the work early in class and finding it very easy. I phoned up the school and asked the head of learning for year 7 and asked how they set for maths, and whether ds has ended up in a lower set because of a poor performance in the banding tests that were done for admissions purposes. He said that the higher sets had children in them who had level 5's across the board. DS's SATS were 6 (maths) 5 (reading) and 4a (writing). So he's been put in a lower set for maths.

Maths is far and away his strongest subject. I appreciate that a 6C isn't spectacular, but he did that completely on his own with no maths practice (not more than half an hour a week of homework which he did without help from DH or I) and no tutoring. He would routinely get 120/120 in every single times table test with no practice at all. I feel a bit gutted that his weakest subject (writing) is determining the level of his strongest subject (maths). I'm now worrying that he's also been set in this way for science.

Has anyone come across this way of setting for maths before? What do you think?

Now off to start another thread about his weak writing!

Writing becomes increasingly important in maths - accurate comprehension and expression are vital.

This seems a bit harsh on your DS IMO. How do the school propose to keep him motivated and interested if he is bored with the work he is doing?

I find that absolutely appalling.Level 6 is a excellent level in Maths.A 4a in English is seriously not going to prejudice his understanding of year 7 Maths.I would be making an appointment with the school as early as possible.Plenty of kids have this sort of profile ( my dyslexic ds for one).

My dyslexic DS got a 5A for maths in the days when there was no level 6 at KS2. He got a 3A for writing and consequently started off in a lower maths set than his SATs (and school assessed) maths results indicated. That lasted for all of 3 weeks at which point he was switched into an appropriate maths set, and a challenging English set where he got additional 1-1 help. Hopefully the same will happen with your DS...sometimes these things take a short time to be sorted out. I think in DSs case the school wanted to see both how bad his English really was and how good his maths was. When they did, they made appropriate changes.

Bobochic - you can be a 4a at english and still have excellent comprehensive skills. My DS was a 5b for reading and 4c for writing he ended with a 4a (not level 6s then) He was actually put in top class of top band for maths and 2 class of top band for english because of his CATs .His english teacher said he was in the right set because of comprehension/analytical ability.
It does sound a ridiculous way to set. DCs school set separately for most subjects from day 1.
OP DS has dyslexic problems and ended up with extra time for exams for his gcses and AS then they changed the rules and lost it for his A2s. He went off to a very good uni this weekend to study Mechanical engineering
Have you asked if there is room for movement from now, it does seem ridiculous to hold him back because of his writing, if he has the comprehension abilities.

I wouldn't panic about it yet, as it's probably not long term. My son's just started secondary and they've done similar, so if kids got all L5/6+ then they're automatically banded into top sets. Two things occur to me - first is when they start at secondary the work's easy as they tend to do a ladder approach (easy rising to harder) both to give the kids confidence when they start, but mostly to check what all can and can't do. That means even in the higher ability groups they're probably checking tables, etc. Second is I'd bet the groups/ sets are going to switch. I know DS's school have said they will, so once they've spent this half term working with the kids and getting to know them everyone's timetable/ groups could and probably will change. So maybe go back to the year head and ask if the groups are permanent or not and if not, when will they switch. If they are permanent then I'd worry, but I doubt that's the case.

Are you sure it's not streaming rather than setting?

They have just done this for the first time in our yr7 too. A streaming approach, so all the dc who got all or mostly 5s (or 6s) in SATS are in a "baccelaureat" stream, and others are in a core stream. It's new at our school, rather than the setting, maybe it's a current fashion across the country?
I would go in and discuss properly with the head of maths though if my dc were in your situation. Make sure they have longer term plans for him to be in a group with the good mathematicians.

Your school seems to have streamed.

This is why I wouldn't choose to select a school that streams, it doesn't allow for kids with a skewed profile.

(And his writing isn't weak, it just isn't as strong as other things)

Complain, complain, complain. Level 6 mathematicians shouldn't be put in lower sets, that's ridiculous. He could write the maths SATs paper well enough!

And a 4A in English is not far off a level 5.

I think the issue you should be discussing with the school is how they are going to make sure that your ds is getting appropriate work in his maths lessons. Even if he is in a class where most kids got level 4 in SATs, he should still be given work that stretches and challenges him. I imagine there might be other kids in the class with similar SATs results. It's totally normal for teachers to give kids in the same class different work depending on kids differing levels of attainment, so it's not an unreasonable request at all.

It's totally normal for teachers to give kids in the same class different work depending on kids differing levels of attainment

Yes but in maths it is exceptionally difficult to do, hence why most schools set properly for maths. A level 6 kid should be doing completely different work to a level 4 kid, not the same just a bit harder. Will they be teaching him quadratics while the rest of the class do simple algebra? I doubt it.

Streaming is shite.

I don't know why it's making a bloody come back!

Right, that's one job crossed off today's list.

Head of maths phoned back. They're moving him into a higher set, and looking at how he's been set for other subjects too.

:-)

Now to tackle his writing ishoos. (I've posted about these on another thread - come on down!)

Thanks for your input everyone.

It didn't occur to me to ask about streaming when I was looking around the school, because I didn't think anyone did it any more!

I'm going to have to do something about DS2 - he's going to be at the same school in year 7 next year. He's likely to get a 4c in his writing (if he's lucky) and a 5A or 6C in his maths going on current form......

We have had a combination of English and Maths grades affect setting when they were back to back on the curriculum timetable.

My two both fell foul of this.