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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Should I intervene?

25 replies

LemonWeb · 24/06/2021 22:26

DS (Year 9) came home from school today and told me that in his end-of-year maths exam, he wrote all his answers in binary, because the headteacher told him to.

I don’t doubt that the head may have joked with him that he should write his answers in binary, and I don’t doubt that DS failed to see it was a joke. He’s going to get a daft score in his exam as a result. Should I leave him to it, to explain to his maths teacher why he did what he did? My inclination at first was to email the teacher and explain that DS has taken a joke literally, but now I think that DS can probably learn more from the consequences of his actions. Do you think a child who did this might be moved down to a different set as a result of a dire exam? He’d be expecting a mark in the high nineties if he hadn’t done this.

OP posts:

SoupDragon · 24/06/2021 22:33

How on earth did he convert all the answers to binary?

OldWivesTale · 24/06/2021 22:35

I had to look up writing in binary. I think you should definitely email the teacher to tell him. Is your ds autistic/aspergers? It's very common for autistic people to take jokes literally and the fact that he's actually able to write the answers in binary means he's probably a high achiever at school.

Hellocatshome · 24/06/2021 22:35

Leave him to it, they wont move his set based on 1 test especially as they will be able to see what he has done. If he has done it correctly they may even move him up.

Original poster

LemonWeb · 24/06/2021 22:38

He knows all the powers of 2 up to past 2^32 so he can do that sort of thing in his head.

OP posts:

alpacacracker · 24/06/2021 22:39

If it was the head teacher who made the joke, it's probably good idea to warn his maths teacher! I think it's lovely, actually- if anything, his teacher should be impressed! It depends on how confident your son would be in talking to his teacher and explaining what happened; if he'd be happy enough to have that conversation himself, then maybe no email is required, but if he's now a bit anxious about what happened, it might help to get in touch.

alpacacracker · 24/06/2021 22:41

PS it would be madness to move him down a set!

Mathsisquitehard · 24/06/2021 22:41

It depends on the teacher. I’d be quite amused, once I realised what was going on.

I wouldn’t intervene. Set moves shouldn’t be based only on exam results. They should also take account of the standard of class participation, work done in class and homework results, at least they have wherever I have taught.

It might be different in bigger schools, though, or if schools have a lot of parents who complain over set changes resulting in the school needing an objective measure to justify them.

greenlynx · 24/06/2021 22:42

I would write to the teacher.

YawningAngel · 24/06/2021 22:45

He seems to think very literally, and at 13/14 if he didn't recognise that comment as either sarcasm or a joke it may be worth getting him assessed for ASD. Most kids would laugh at that assuming humour, or laugh nervously because they knew a joke was there but didn't get it. If he actually answered his exam in binary (I'm assuming he did it well?), he may be very gifted but might need some support to deal socially.

Original poster

LemonWeb · 24/06/2021 22:45

We wondered a bit about ASC when DS was younger, but apart from being an excellent mathematician, and sometimes being a bit daft like this, there’s nothing wrong, so we saw no point seeking a diagnosis. We know a lot of mathematicians and scientists and plenty of them are a bit quirky.

He is a high achiever in maths, so hopefully his teacher will see what he’s done and just tell him to make sure he doesn’t do it in his GCSE exams.

OP posts:

Kolo · 24/06/2021 22:50

Children shouldn't be moving sets based on the results of one test, when it contradicts all that the teacher knows about that child from lessons/hwk/previous assessments. You'd want a child to be in the appropriate set for their ability, not as a reward/sanction for a performance in one test.

Also, did the paper specify answers must be given in base 10? Your sons answers could still be right if he's any good at binary. 😉

covidcloser · 24/06/2021 22:52

He seems to think very literally, and at 13/14 if he didn't recognise that comment as either sarcasm or a joke it may be worth getting him assessed for ASD.

Nobody at age 13/14 is getting an autism assessment because they didn't get a joke

TeenMinusTests · 25/06/2021 08:28

I'm just wondering:
a) how he wrote decimals in binary
b) whether the decimal answer was also on the paper somewhere - presumably he did the workings out in decimal first

I'd write a 'bemused' email to the maths teacher. Saying apparently DS did this because HT ....

TeenMinusTests · 25/06/2021 08:31

When I say how he wrote decimals, I mean numbers such as 42.7.

TeenMinusTests · 25/06/2021 08:39

I'd laugh if it turned out that @noblegiraffe was the teacher.

Mathsisquitehard · 25/06/2021 12:49

I’d laugh if it turned out that noble giraffe was the teacher.

I think she would laugh, too.

Original poster

LemonWeb · 25/06/2021 13:17

Decimals in binary work the same way as in the normal system except you’re dealing with halves, quarters and eighths rather than tenths, hundredths and thousandths.

OP posts:

ThursdayWeld · 25/06/2021 13:27

Unless they were specifically told to write the answers in the ten based system, then he's done nothing wrong (smile)

noblegiraffe · 25/06/2021 16:46

@TeenMinusTests

I'd laugh if it turned out that *@noblegiraffe* was the teacher.

Sadly not! What a fab kid!

I'd have marked the binary and handed it back without comment. See who blinked first

Original poster

LemonWeb · 25/06/2021 16:48

Noblegiraffe I wish you were his maths teacher. (Although I expect DS might enjoy the blink game and do the next one in ternary or octal)

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lanthanum · 25/06/2021 17:58

I would drop an email to the maths teacher explaining what happened, so that they know it wasn't that he was trying to be clever. It might also save them a bit of time - they may well mark page by page, which means that it might be a while before they realise it's his paper with the ridiculous answers and put 2 and 2 together (or, in this case, 1 and 1 together and make 10).
They're not going to move a bright kid to an inappropriate set; that wouldn't help anyone. Depending on his maths teacher, they'll either mark it in binary, or give it back to him to put the answers back into decimal.

lanthanum · 25/06/2021 18:00

"page by page" - meaning marking everyone's page 1, then everyone's page 2, and so on - which means you don't necessarily know whose script you're looking at each point

PerhapsCarriageGreen · 25/06/2021 18:05

I agree that you should give the teacher a heads up and say it was a genuine misunderstanding not him being cheeky.

I have to say this has made my day. What a star.

Original poster

LemonWeb · 28/06/2021 20:48

Teacher handed the paper back without comment. DS reflected that he’d have got high nineties rather than low nineties if he’d spent his time checking his answers rather than figuring out the binary…

Life lesson taught!

OP posts:

noblegiraffe · 28/06/2021 21:01

Teacher handed the paper back without comment.

Haha!

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