Raising Attainment - Email Received

[AttainmentQuesion]

I was wondering if you could help me, I received this email today, my DS has just completed his first week at secondary school. What does this email actually mean, Is it suggesting he needs educational support? He passed his Year 6 SATS.

I just wanted to drop you a line to introduce myself. My name is (hidden) and I am the Raising Attainment Coordinator.
My role is to guide your child through a programme of personal development, which will include experiences, mentoring and enhanced parental engagement. Over the coming year I will be working closely alongside your son to help them discover and explore their potential and also, I will be challenging their preconceived ideas of what their future will be.

In addition to the (hidden) I will personally be supporting your child throughout their time at school.

I will also be on hand to offer you any support you may need, as I believe working together is the best way to help unlock their potential. With this in mind, I will be holding a coffee morning here at school, on (hidden) and it would be lovely if you could attend.

Look forward to meeting you.

Just an introduction letter, inviting you(new parents) into casual meet up? Coffee morning means it's not private, right? So it doesn't sound personal.

I read that as additional help being offered for specifically your family. Any chance they have the wrong child?

You may have been flagged as having met one or more disadvantage criteria (FSM, PP, postcode for example) and as such statistically your ds's attainment is likely to be lower than his potential (eg not aiming to go to uni when he is bright enough), so they're trying to ensure he meets his potential.

It's a good thing! Dw.

It would have been handy if they’d explained why too.

My older son is studying A-levels and plans to go to uni and we didn’t get anything like this for him, same school, thanks for clarifying what I thought it meant, maybe they’ve noticed some areas where he struggles.

Yes I agree, sending something with no explanation is going to leave parents wondering why they’ve received the email. We also live in a more expensive area with a mortgage, so I don’t think it’s to do with the area we live in. Maybe I’ll email the lady and ask. I found the sentence, ‘challenging their preconceived ideas of their future’ a bit off too, I don’t think my DS even knows what he wants to do in the future.