Terrible mock GCSE results

[Notagoodtime]

DS goes to a local grammar school.He has just received his mock GCSE results and they are hugely disappointing. He was graded a 1 in English lit. We know it’s his hardest subject but at no point did we think he would score this low. He has recently started going to an English tutor every other week but I fear that it is all too late. We are trying to remain positive for him but has become disengaged and says he no longer cares. All attempt to try and help him gets rebuffed.

No, don't blame the teaching. Blame the lack of effort and engagement on the learner's part. That's the only way to get such a low mark.

I mean that just giving a child a 1 is absolutely no help at all. If the child actually attempted the paper and this was the mark they received, something has gone badly wrong- the school should have been aware of this way before the exam and should be offering proper help now, not just sending him off with a 1.

No idea why you are telling me that your child does practice papers.

Does he know what he wants to do after GCSEs, post-16? If he is disengaged and thinks its not worth it, it might help to focus on his next steps and prioritising the GCSEs that will help him get there. Whether its employment, an apprenticeship, further study of some kind.

I’d think that with a Level 1, DC hasn’t answered most of the paper or written barely anything.

If he’s at Grammar school, he should probably be able to get L3/4 off the top of his head and by simply answering the questions.

Many people say that if a student attends school, and are reasonably intelligent, even if they do t do any work outside of the lessons, they will know enough to scrape a pass.

Thats why this sounds like someone who simply didn’t write much at all.

Op have you seen their script?

I disagree that it’s too late to change the situation. This child is probably capable of significantly more, even if they just answer all the questions. However, perhaps they have some mental health issues or want to sabotage themselves.

The question is whether they can be motivated to try for the real things and actually to answer all the questions? If they’ve given up and decided they don’t care and either won’t turn up for all the papers or just sit there and not write anything, this could be the outcome again. If that’s the case, there are underlying problems that need addressing. It really won’t be this low due to lack of understanding.

I’d suspect this isn’t a surprise to school or parents. Slipping from top grades to grade 1 doesn’t happen over night.

We need more I foabout context Op.

Yes, hence the stopping boarding. I am still hoping that the grades will increase by 2-3 grades - maybe a foolish dream now.

French is now foundation level - she's been doing French since she was was 3! So surely a 4/5 should be easy?

Chemistry is also now foundation level - hoping for a 4-5

Latin - mock was only grammar and she's much better at the literature element so hoping for a grade 6+ after a massive hit on vocab

RE - actually did this last year so not grade 4 not changeable

Maths - being tutored so hoping for 6+

Biology - hoping for 6+

Physics- not really too worried but 5+

Geography - a-level choice and I'm a Geo teacher so pushing for 7+

English lang\lit - 40% coursework wasn't included in mock and is 8/9 so she should get 7+ in these. Eng is an a-level choice.

So, in essence all passes and 7-9 in a-level choices 🤞🏼
I assume she'll lose her scholarship!

I agree that getting a 1 in a GCSE mock shouldn't be something that comes out of the blue, with no prior warning or knowledge. I really hope you and the school can work together on this and figure out how to get your son adequately engaged to get more realistic results in the real thing.

My DS got a U in an A level mock - but we did know he'd been unwell and panicked and basically didn't attempt the paper. Even before the results were released to us, he'd been through the paper 1-1 with his teacher and confirmed orally that he knew the material. This is a subject where his (not unrealistic) prediction is an A* ...

@Wowwellokthen If you've got a child boarding on an academic scholarship who's been allowed to drift and disengage I would be taking this up with the school big time. I really hope for your daughter's sake that she can be re-engaged and turn things around at least part-way.

Good luck to you, and to the OP.

I'm blaming the teaching and marking that gave this clearly very average (sorry) child 90%+ in year 8.

Have you read my post? If the grade's dropped by that much, then it's an issue with the learner, not the marking.

Unless of course you teach GCSE English and are intimately familiar with the assessment, mark schemes and examiners' reports?

Of course it's never poor teaching as obviously that just doesn't exist 🙄

They didn't do badly in English. I'm not talking about the OP

Well what's your son said about it all?? I

Well.
A drop.lile that indicates issues.
Bullying at school?
How's the pastoral care?

We know it’s his hardest subject but at no point did we think he would score this low.

Who is 'we'? If your son isn't included in that, it's entirely possible he opened up the paper, panicked, didn't attempt it, and didn't tell you because he was scared/embarrassed.

I don't mark secondary school, but I have marked professional exams before where the grades have been abysmal because the student has been spooked by the paper and not attempted it properly. (They might not have got a brilliant grade, but they should have had a better grade - but I can't mark what's not on the paper in front of me.)

DDs CAT scores were all over 130 (national average 100)
Anyway I think it is a combo of disengagement from DD and school not really noticing.

Why has this thread been hijacked to be all about your DD?

Ok bye

God! Some people!

Maybe that's all he got in the exam.
Before you blame the teacher, maybe the tracking policy is to be accurate.

What happened at parents evening, what did the English literature teacher say?
Why is he so disengaged, has he talked about plans for next year?

He might do much better next time? What support is he getting?

When my one flunked Spanish they were put in Foundation and told the highest grades they'd get is a five. They are getting "intervention classes" to achieve that 5. I was happy they were getting help, to be honest.

If it's any consolation, I did my GCSEs in 2016 and did rubbish in my mocks.

In my English Language mock it was graded a U (ungraded because it was so shit). I ended up with an A* in the real exam.

There's still time to turn it around.

The fact that he is in a Grammar school show that he has academic potential.

I would ask him whether he knows why he got a 1 and whether the teachers went through the paper with him/the class. If he says yes he knows and it’s a case of working through x, y, z and he knows how to do this don’t stress.

if he says teacher did not go through and he has no idea then have a meeting with the teacher to find out what he needs to do.

It may not seem like it but he still has plenty of time before May to turn things around. Even if he were to give 5 hours of focus to English by then as long as he knows what his focus is he can easily pass it (Grade 4/5).

good luck.

My son got some pretty rubbish grades in his first round of mocks last year but so did the whole cohort. We made an appointment to see his teachers. So much learning has been missed because of the pandemic that my sons history class is still so behind in the content being taught. This has been recognised by the school and they’ve implemented morning and after school additional lessons along with revision classes. They’re also running classes during the Easter holidays that parents can pay for. My son has just completed a second round of mocks and did much better because of the additional lessons and by working really hard in his revision.

Lots of other posters have given you excellent points.

However, assuming his other grades were ok as you've not mentioned them, it's not the end of the world if he does get a poor grade in English Literature (as long as he gets 4 or above in English Language). So if your DC is not receptive to intervention methods, maybe consider focussing attention elsewhere?