Year & Sets

[miccoops]

My DS is starting secondary school in Sept. His SATS were 106 SPAG, 109 Maths and 101 Reading, this was with a extra practise at home and tutor for reading. Teacher gave him age expected for writing but said he was at the low end..

He enjoys maths but struggles with English. I am a little worried about setting in secondary school.. I know he needs to be in a lower set for English or he will be out of his depth, but I worry that these sets can be disruptive and have poor behaviours (my own experience at SS). Anyone had a child in a lower set able to share experiences? We are expecting that he'll need a tutor again for English but are giving him a summer break and encouraging reading as much as possible.. he's not a fan and hasn't progressed much beyond David Walliams/Tom Gates/Wimpy Kid/Treehouse etc for reading for pleasure so its a battle to find something he'll read..

That should have said Year 7 and Sets

Does the school definitelt set for everything? A lot of secondary schools only set for maths.

I think the bottom sets normally have fewer kids in them, so more attention and easier to control.

How big is the school?
He could be a middle set if the school is a comp rather than selective private ?

i Don’t know of any local schools who set in year 7 , after that it’s generally only in maths until year 10 here

I’d be surprised if he was in bottom set when he is age related, unless it’s a selective school or only 2 sets? I’d think more middle sets.

According to my DD..... there were annoying kids in her top set STEM class and annoying kids in her mixed ability English/humanities class, her mixed ability technology class and her mixed ability arts class. The least annoying class appeared to be the all girls PE class. But she confirmed that there are disruptive girls as well as boys... it just seems that PE is the least disrupted class.

Most of the children want to work and behave well though.

My experience teaching lower sets is that the experience students have depends on two things: the quality of the teacher and the way leadership have grouped students.

In year 7 it's most likely that the lower sets have academically weak students in and not as many behaviour issues in my experience (unless linked to SEN). By year 8/9 bottom sets become an issue because there's a mixture of academically weaker students who need smaller classes and other students who are a PITA but are there due to poor academic performance the previous year.

I've always enjoyed teaching bottom sets but I've also picked up bottom sets that have some of the things you're concerned about.

Those scores wouldn't suggest bottom set to me though. In most schools I've worked in anything around 100 would be a middle set.

English may not be set - many schools find mixed ability works well for English.

As others have said, scores above 100 suggest middle sets rather than bottom ones, although that depends a lot on your school's intake.

There do tend to be more behaviour problems at the lower end, but there may well be more in-class support and smaller classes. Work which is targetted appropriately also means children are less likely to behave badly. Schools may also put staff on those sets who are good at managing them - although they will also try and make sure that nobody ends up with all bottom sets for that reason. Although someone mentioned kids whose behaviour is the reason they've scored badly the previous year, some departments would realise this and would keep them in a higher set where they need to work.

I had some lovely bottom sets, where the kids were glad to be working at the right level.

Ds school doesn’t set at all for English. They like the mix of ideas which come with a mixed ability class.

for the subjects that are setted the classes are often a lot smaller than others which means things can be more focused

Are you sure they set in year 7?

Is it a selective school? Probably more likely if your son is going to grammar.

A lot of comps these days are mixed ability until GCSE.

None of the schools around me set for anything other than maths in Y7, and sometimes not until October, as they allow them time to settle.
In my DC school, English not set until Y10 when it's top set, bottom set and mixed ability middle sets. Bottom set would be well below 100 in SATS.

They said they set for maths, English and French. Its a 7 form comp school.

My sons scores ranged from 88 to 94. I expect him to be bottom or almost bottom set for the classes they stream.

I doubt he'd be bottom set of a 7 form comp with those scroes. More likely "middle".

Unless it's a very high achieving school, expected will likely put your child in a middle set (unless they set based on other things, rather than SATs).

In general, as a teacher, I wouldn't expect very poor behaviour in any set- and behaviour doesn't necessarily correlate with sets anyway. Any group can have disruptive students in it, and students with lower abilities can still be keen to learn.

I would try not to worry too much, and just see what happens once he is at the school.

Are you planning to tutor all the way through secondary for English? I'm wondering if it might be an idea to give it a break for a few years, and then get a tutor again in Y10 if needed. Having to do extra English at home all the time might not be helping him develop an interest in the subject?

Thanks for your reply, good to know :-)

Not getting a tutor yet.. will see how he settles, and just keep encouraging reading at home. If it seems he's falling behind then we would re-start.. he really liked his yearr 5/6 tutor and whilst he moaned occasionally, he would see the benefit..

The comprehension is his biggest challenge, he enjoys creative writing a lot more as he's got older.. He loved the younger books like wimpy kids and treehouse, but we're struggling to find a suitable next step reading. We're forever at the library!

Does he have any interest in reading non-fiction at all? Either about a subject he is interested in, or maybe a biography/autobiography of someone he admires? Not to stereotype, but some boys prefer this kind of writing to fiction.

Also, reading and understanding non-fiction will help him across the curriculum, which is important.

I think if there are real concerns, then it's reasonable to get a tutor, but provided he can read well enough to access exam papers in other subjects, I wouldn't push tutoring for English all the way through school- even if he enjoys it, I just think there's a risk of burn out, and it's better to save tutoring for where it'll really make a difference, closer to exam time.

Obviously English is very important, but if his English is "good enough" and maths/science is where he is stronger, I don't think that's a major issue.