What improvement is possible?

[Decideforme]

If a child got less than a grade 1 on their mock maths, what is the most improvement that could be achieved by the time the exams come? With very targeted support, is a 4 possible?

My son went up 3 grades in English and maths between mocks and GCSEs in year 11.
However, his mock results were 2s and he will openly admit he didn't try or prepare for his mocks. We revised together every night for 5 months between the two, I did so much with him I think I could have sat the exams. It was hard work but he came out with 5s on results day.

Is this Y11 mocks?
Is the grade a surprise or expected? What was their predicted grade before the mocks?
My DS was predicted a 5 in his GCSE, got a 2 in the mocks (english literature) and got a 6 in the GCSE.

@Decideforme Are they performing at a grade 1 usually ie in lessons, year 10 exams or is this a surprise? Are they missing fundamental understanding of basic maths?

I would say anything is possible but does it come at the cost of other subjects? How much free time does he have? He comes home at what? 4pm? Earlier? Dedicated focused maths intervention may help, what are school saying? Have you spoken to his maths teacher?

Not maths but Dc went from the bottom of a 4 to an 8 but they were motivated, resilient and determined which was a great combination to be.

It's not a shock, but I think it has brought home the reality of the situation. The child (IMO) has been badly let down for their whole education. I want to help them, and I am willing to do as much as possible, but don't want to give false hope. A professional tutor is out of the question.

I was thinking that if we could get some of the foundations secure, we could build on it and at least get the child scoring some marks.

Sentence based questions are likely to present the most challenge, I think.

Not maths, but DS went up 5 grades in 3 of his GCSEs between first mocks (autumn Y11) and actual GCSEs, and averaged an increase of 1.5 grade increase across them all (so a couple went down from 9s to 7/8). He had to work really hard and we basically tutored him through it (using revision books, including for subjects we previously knew nothing about). But to some extent his final marks were a better reflection of his academic potential, he was just lazy until the last few months, and lacked decent exam technique.

Is this year 10 or 11 mocks? Are there additional needs which shoukd be addressed? Is Functional Skills perhaps a better option than gcse?

@LIZS year 11. Yes, SEN only properly acknowledged last year. EHCP in place but doesn't actually get much support (IMO) given their needs.

I think Functional Skills would be a better option in the long run, but they are very keen not to resit, so if a pass was possible, it would be worth trying.

I'm aware that Government rules are that if a 3 is achieved then GCSE must be resat, so it either needs to be <3 or >4 to benefit the child. I don't want to make things worse.

I think it depends on the reason. Is it DC understands the content but struggles to apply that during exams? Is it a lack of revision? You say sentence based questions are challenging and is there SEN involved, do they have access arrangements in place?

It sounds like the EHCP needs improving.

With my son I did a lot of past papers, looking at 3 or 4 questions a night in detail.

We focused on him understanding what the question was asking then the process

Access arrangements are in place but the child is reluctant to seem different, so often refuses them.

Given that it's not a surprise, that they have SEN and an EHCP (related to learning difficulties?) I would say that it is extremely, extremely unlikely to go from a fail to a 4 in a few months, particularly if you cannot afford a tutor. The only circumstance where this might be possible would be a lazy pupil who underachieved compared to their actual ability, where this seems more like a genuine representation of where they are at?

Any work you can do between now and the exams would be useful in terms of building foundations which will be useful for resits.

From experience, pupils generally stay put or go up a grade from mocks. 2 grades is unusual.

@noblegiraffe thanks for that. I do think there will be an element of disengagement due to the child finding it so very difficult for so very long, and not having had appropriate support. I suppose I hoped that if support and encouragement was given with the foundational stuff, it might be enough to scrape through.

I'm aware that Government rules are that if a 3 is achieved then GCSE must be resat, so it either needs to be <3 or >4 to benefit the child. I don't want to make things worse.

I think you are right to think this. My DD got 3s for Eng lang & maths and was destined to keep resitting in college. In fact with her EHCP she only reseat each one once but that was what she was in lessons for.

Furthermore some/many(?) colleges offer level 1 Functional Skills but then move to GCSE. However note that getting grade 3 my be a requirement for doing a Level 2 course at college.

DD post college is now doing FS L2 English independently with a tutor. We may come back to the maths afterwards.

Have you been able to get hold of the mock paper? I think you need to be really clear on what’s the factors are.

If they struggle with written sentence questions but their maths fundamentals are there, then that’s a different focus for helping.

If they need extra time (I know you haven’t said that’s the adjustment) and are refusing it, then you know to either focus on them accepting it - or working on speeding up work. (I know that sounds easier said than done, but grade 1 could mean they gain valuable extra speed by spending time rote learning timestables again - not because they don’t know them, but to speed up their response time.

If they have fundamentals not understood - then actually going through the paper in fine detail will help to uncover what those are.

Good luck! There are lots of good online resources instead of tutors, but it’s not clear what the issue is.

In my opinion maths is a subject that targeted support can lead to substantial grade improvements, because sometimes a child who will get it has missed some basics along the way.

We home educate (son also has SEN and school failed him totally) and I can highly recommend you tube videos for maths.

You will find teachers who can show step by step how to tackle certain questions.

He can watch the same video a few times - copy down the steps and then try applying the method to other examples of the same question.

Some have better presentation skills than others so worth watching a few until you find one you like.

Others take you though past papers and you will see that there is a pattern to past papers generally. So maybe working on a strategy to focus on say xx amount of questions on the paper (ones he gets more comfortable with that topic ) and doing them well will help edge him closer to a pass.

If he needs to resit - I would wait a full year and carry on working steadily on the questions area by area building the knowledge brick by brick.

Thank you. I am keen to help but am not the child's parent, so can't have those discussions, which I agree would be helpful. I think there is a general low ability (CATs on the 60/70 borderline), not helped by a long-standing perception that the child just wasn't interested, mixed with the child's deep desire to be like everyone else, so resistant to support that would mark them as different. As far as I can tell, all appropriate exam arrangements have been authorised but often rejected.

I still think it has to boost self esteem if they can get at least a grade? Mock result was <1.

I think I'm struggling to understand how it could be neglected for so long. My eldest child went to special school and some of those children were more academically able than this child seems to be, yet the SEN was only really acknowledged last year.