DS moved down 3 sets in English

[GnomeyGnome]

At the end of the summer term I got a call from DS's maths teacher to say he hadn't done very well in his maths exam, they were a bit concerned that top set was moving too quickly for him and wanted to discuss moving him down to set 2. I was happy with this (not sure my opinion really matters anyway!) as I just want him to be in a set where the work is comfortable etc.

He's gone in this week and discovered he's been moved down from set 1 to set 4 for English. He's quite upset by this as he loves English and thought he was doing well. I've told him to chat to his English teacher today to find out why he's been moved and what he needs to work on etc and hoping they can reassure him a little. My concern really is that obviously the maths teacher let me know what was happening and that there was a concern but I had no indication at all from English. Parents evening nothing was brought up and his test score and report didn't indicate an issue.

Just wondering if anyone knows if this is typical for the beginning of year 9 and if I should query it or just trust that they have placed him where they feel he's best suited?

Thanks!

Setting for maths is very usual but IME not all schools set for English. A move from set 1 to set 4 would also be unusual in any subject. So what I am saying is, are they definitely ability sets? Or was he in Eng1 last year and this year is in Eng4 and it is simply a timetabling issue?

The first question is did he also have an end of year exam for English and how well did he do? Even if his score looked good he could well have been outperformed by a lot of students.

Did he revise at all? I would wait for Ds to get home but I would also be wanting to speak to the English teacher to find out why he was moved down so many levels and what he can do to improve.

It sounds like a mistake to me from what you've said.

I wonder if you could contact the school or the teacher to find out why.

Also how did they do sets last year? Some schools just taught mainly in tutor groups to avoid too much mixing, so it might be that they are just putting pupils into different groups this term, and some of these groups aren't actually sets based on ability.

Thanks for the responses. So as far as I'm aware they definitely set by ability. I've actually just gone through old emails to double check and they were put in to ability groups after the first half term of year 7. Then they review them at the end of every half term. Obviously then lockdown happened so not sure if that continued but DS has stayed in the same "group" since that first set although he says there has been movement of other children. Last year they did mix for maths, english and science.

He did well in his end of year English exam as far as I'm aware. His report said "Target 8+, meeting minimum expected progress" so I just presumed all was good. Whereas Maths said "Target 8-, below expected progress".

I'm not particularly worried if it's just how they do things and feel he's better suited there. The email I've just come across from year 7 said there's not lower and higher tier for English lang & lit so presumably sets aren't that important for GCSE English?

Yes, definitely worth checking if they are actual ability sets. It would be extremely odd to put a child on target for an 8 in an actual ability set 4 (unless this is a massively high achieving school).

My children generally volunteer which groups their friends are in, so that's an informal route to go down. If everyone who was in "Set 1" in English last year, is still in Set 1, that would be more worrying, than if they turn out to have been dispersed.

That's correct OP, unlike maths, science and MFL, Eng lang and lit GCSEs are not tiered to higher and foundation (I presume that's what you meant). OTOH an actual lower set might approach the texts in a simpler way which would support students to achieve 4/5 grade but not really push a more able student to gain a 7/8.

So if it is an actual set move down on such a dramatic level (also set 4 of how many? 4 of 5 is low but 4 of 12 is neither here nor there), then yes, I would query it and ask how you can support.

That's really helpful, thanks. I think I'll wait for DS to come home and see what his teacher said, I'll also ask him how many sets there are and whether others from his old set are still with him. If it still doesn't make sense I'll email the English department just to query the change and see how we can help DS achieve what he's capable of.

I think I’d be after some feedback direct from the teacher. Either he’s underperforming (in which case I’d want to have the relevant information) or it’s a mistake.

@clary

That's correct OP, unlike maths, science and MFL, Eng lang and lit GCSEs are not tiered to higher and foundation (I presume that's what you meant). OTOH an actual lower set might approach the texts in a simpler way which would support students to achieve 4/5 grade but not really push a more able student to gain a 7/8.

So if it is an actual set move down on such a dramatic level (also set 4 of how many? 4 of 5 is low but 4 of 12 is neither here nor there), then yes, I would query it and ask how you can support.

It depends how big the school is. I teach a set 3 of 7 who are working at L6/7 and some of them got 8s in their mocks at the end of year 10.

DS came home, didn't ask his teacher. Where's the eyeroll emoji?! Anyway, he said that it's almost a completely different group of kids in the new set, couldn't tell me if any of them had moved up or down though. Found out there are 6 sets though, so does seem like quite a big move. I've emailed the school just querying if it's correct and if so asking if they could tell me their reasoning and if there are concerns I should me made aware of along with how we can help him with his learning. As long as they aren't massively concerned and feel he's in the best group then I'm happy, just will feel better once I know how they have worked out what set he should be in.

Also op if you are aware and are a concerned parent (clearly you are both) then you can be all over this during the next three years in terms of any support needed from your end, whether that be exam help from you, a tutor, Internet support or anything else needed.

Just an update, head of English called me a little while ago and it was in fact a clerical error. She was very apologetic and he'll be moved back asap. I'm glad I posted here now and decided to query it. Relieved that he's not falling behind and will go back to worrying about his maths now

That's good news OP.

A similar thing has happened to my dd, and I'm hoping that it's also an error.