Year 8 boy - Maths. I can't figure out whats going wrong.

[MissyB1]

Ds always struggles in maths exams/ tests. He has done since primary school. He doesnt struggle in most other subject tests - only Maths. They have just had their end of year 8 exams, in most subjects (Geography, History English etc) he got 80 - 85%, 70% for Science. Maths was 22%!!! Eeek!
I know for a fact he revised every day for Maths for weeks, we bought a revision guide, I asked his teacher for the topics in plenty of time. We set him work ourselves. This was not a lack of revision. He put in far more preperation for Maths than any other subject.
His Maths teacher says he's perfectly capable and grasps the concepts. However he frequently needs our support with Maths homework. Poor ds doesnt know what is going wrong. Any suggestions? And what do I say to the school? I'm planning an email because this can't carry on, it happens every year. He will fail the GCSE if this doesnt get tackled. I am at a loss as to what we can do.
He's had tutors in the past, they say he can do it but struggles to recall what he's been taught. This is not the case for any other subject.
Please advise.

DS had a similar profile at 11 - very strong in everything except maths and we could not work out why

When he changed schools the maths teachers went right back to Y1 maths with him. There were certain basic concepts he had misunderstood and that explained why all subsequent work was poor. Maths is like building a wall. If the stones at the bottom are wonky everything you build on top becomes skewed.

My DS was diagnosed with dyscalculia in infant school. I would say all of his maths education in primary was a complete waste of time as it went completely over his head. In secondary he was put in the bottom set for maths which was a very small class and they went through the absolute basics and things finally started to make sense to him. Lockdown was also a big help as we focused on maths at home - again taking it at his pace - and now in Y9 he has moved up a set and is predicted to pass his GCSE. Honestly, that seemed impossible a couple of years ago. It may be that because your DS has got high grades elsewhere, he has been put in a set that is too high for his maths and would benefit from the slower pace more individual attention of a lower set.

I would also look at dyscalculia, a friend of mine her daughter is mentally perfectly able with numbers but written down struggles to an extent but is a hard worker so it didn't make sense. She was tested and as out of school due to covid and later other reasons was provided with a specialist tutor - it all helped and she got an 8 in GCSE in the end.

However having said that it is common that children do not have a sound base due to missed lessons, poor teaching, or other reasons effecting attendance in primary.

I would also get a tutor to work one on one (maybe one that has dealt with dyscalculia before) its not cheap but even one lesson a month can set them on the right track, tutor will also test them on basics to see if there are gaps etc and even that would be useful.

I did this for DD (was done over zoom which they are now used to) and it pulled her up 2 grades even with only 3 months to go to exam. For mine it was about how things were explained and plain old practice which they don't really get enough time for in school or it was wasted by class idiots